http://www.aisliverpool.org.uk/shows...mmsi=234983000

The S/V "Ben My Chree", a 12,504 gt Ro-Ro/Passenger vessel is, to quote
their AIS beacon "underway by SAIL" headed for Heysham. She's making over
19 knots!

Looking at the picture, I can't tell whether she's a sloop or ketch. She
must have had her masts laying on the deck when the picture was snapped....
(c;

Wind must be blowing like hell in the Irish Sea, tonight, to get that kind
of speed out of any sails!....hee hee.

Somebody call MXLG on VHF and ask 'em how tall the masts are!

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Larry wrote in news:Xns982BAB106CFE0noonehomecom@
208.49.80.253:

Looking at the picture

Name: Young Lady
MMSI: 235079000 [UK]
IMO: 9201592
Callsign: ZQMX2
Speed/Dir: 14.3 kts / 80° E
Status: Underway
Dest: Tranmere
ETA: Aug26 12:00
Type: Tanker Haz A (81)
Details: Crude Oil Tanker
Size: 239m x 42m x 12.5m
Tonnage: 56204 gt
Built: May 2000
Received: 21:50:53 26 Aug 06

http://www.aisliverpool.org.uk/shows...mmsi=235079000

Wonder how long it takes to stop 56,204 gross tons from 14.3
knots...without hitting something solid, of course? Can they see your
sloop? Hell, at 239 meters, can they see their own BOW?!

Keep a sharp lookout...and stay the hell out of her way!

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Are there any similar sites that track shipping
around the USA? I'd love to see a similar web
page for the Texas gulf coast.

Don W.

Larry wrote:
Larry wrote in news:Xns982BAB106CFE0noonehomecom@
208.49.80.253:


Looking at the picture


Name: Young Lady
MMSI: 235079000 [UK]
IMO: 9201592
Callsign: ZQMX2
Speed/Dir: 14.3 kts / 80° E
Status: Underway
Dest: Tranmere
ETA: Aug26 12:00
Type: Tanker Haz A (81)
Details: Crude Oil Tanker
Size: 239m x 42m x 12.5m
Tonnage: 56204 gt
Built: May 2000
Received: 21:50:53 26 Aug 06

http://www.aisliverpool.org.uk/shows...mmsi=235079000

Wonder how long it takes to stop 56,204 gross tons from 14.3
knots...without hitting something solid, of course? Can they see your
sloop? Hell, at 239 meters, can they see their own BOW?!

Keep a sharp lookout...and stay the hell out of her way!

"Larry" wrote in message

Wonder how long it takes to stop 56,204 gross tons from 14.3
knots...without hitting something solid, of course? Can they see your
sloop? Hell, at 239 meters, can they see their own BOW?!

1. Depends.... loaded or MT, type of propulsion,sea/weather
conditions.......
2. Depends.... sea conditions and how close you are.
3. Yes, 239M isn't all that big.....hell, that's just a medium sized tanker

otn


Keep a sharp lookout...and stay the hell out of her way!

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Don W wrote in news:bn3Ig.18484
:

Are there any similar sites that track shipping
around the USA? I'd love to see a similar web
page for the Texas gulf coast.



http://www.aislive.com/

Once you sign up and get the world map, click on the USA. Once you open
the USA, you'll only see a few stars, the few sites on aislive. Click
the star out in the Gulf of Mexico south of Galveston and it will open
the map with all the contacts from the Mississippi to Corpus Christi.

It's a pay-me-money site, but they have a public freebie if you simply
sign up you can see ship traffic that's delayed an hour or more.

I can't imagine anyone paying to see aislive, which sucks in comparison
to the fantastic AIS Liverpool website. They all should have Liverpool's
software....

Man, the Houston Ship Channel looks like I-95 when the Yankees are goin'
South!

I think they're all trying to beat the hurricane before it gets in the
Gulf and tears up the coast, again. The current track takes it right
towards poor New Orleans, again, tonight!

It's gonna tear up a lotta new trailers! Wonder if FEMA provided them
with HURRICANE ANCHORS?!

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

I looked at the site. Not nearly as useful as the
liverpool site. Sure are a lot of ships in the
Houston ship channel!!

Don W.

Larry wrote:
Don W wrote in news:bn3Ig.18484
:


Are there any similar sites that track shipping
around the USA? I'd love to see a similar web
page for the Texas gulf coast.




http://www.aislive.com/

Once you sign up and get the world map, click on the USA. Once you open
the USA, you'll only see a few stars, the few sites on aislive. Click
the star out in the Gulf of Mexico south of Galveston and it will open
the map with all the contacts from the Mississippi to Corpus Christi.

It's a pay-me-money site, but they have a public freebie if you simply
sign up you can see ship traffic that's delayed an hour or more.

I can't imagine anyone paying to see aislive, which sucks in comparison
to the fantastic AIS Liverpool website. They all should have Liverpool's
software....

Man, the Houston Ship Channel looks like I-95 when the Yankees are goin'
South!

I think they're all trying to beat the hurricane before it gets in the
Gulf and tears up the coast, again. The current track takes it right
towards poor New Orleans, again, tonight!

It's gonna tear up a lotta new trailers! Wonder if FEMA provided them
with HURRICANE ANCHORS?!

"Larry" wrote in message
...
http://www.aisliverpool.org.uk/shows...mmsi=234983000

The S/V "Ben My Chree", a 12,504 gt Ro-Ro/Passenger vessel is, to quote
their AIS beacon "underway by SAIL" headed for Heysham. She's making over
19 knots!

Looking at the picture, I can't tell whether she's a sloop or ketch. She
must have had her masts laying on the deck when the picture was
snapped....
(c;

Wind must be blowing like hell in the Irish Sea, tonight, to get that kind
of speed out of any sails!....hee hee.

Somebody call MXLG on VHF and ask 'em how tall the masts are!

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

The original Ben My Cree (pronounced BenMcRee) was owned by the Isle of Man
Steam Packet Company and was a passenger-only ship in the 1930's. I think
the company owned 2 or 3 such vessels. My father was an authority on
Liverpool and it's many ferries and took me on the Ben My Cree at the age of
6 to the Isle of Man.

It was said "she would roll on wet grass", and my distant memeory of the
trip was of puking for virtually all of the 70-mile trip through the Irish
Sea. Her beam/length ratio must have been about 1:10!

The old girl was still sailing when I was in the army in 1949, and a weekend
trip to the Isle of Man with the platoon revealed that she still rolled like
a pig! Army food must have toughened my stomach somewhat as I was only sick
once!

The two old vessels, Ben My Cree and Manxman last sailed regularly around
1980 when they did the Ardrossan (Scotland) to Douglas (IOM) trip about 3
times per week.

Currently The IOMSPC operates the modern Ben My Cree and a faster
SuperSeaCat2 which take 3.5hrs and 2hrs respectively for the 70-mile
crossing to/from Liverpool.

The attraction? Currently the Manx Grand Prix motor-cycle races and The IOM
TT races are far and away the finest motor-cycle races in the world,
attracting huge entries from enthusiasts desperate to try their luck on the
torturous mountain circuit. The 100-miles-an-hour lap was first completed by
Geoff Duke in 1955, but this is now old stuff. These races are notorious for
the fact that hardly a year passes without one or more deaths on the
circuit.

I competed in a more leisurely yacht race around the island several times in
the seventies, and I believe that a powerboat race Round-the Island takes
place in June each year.

The main attraction for Ro-Ro users is that the Isle of Man is the only
place in the UK with no speed limit!

Great AIS site!

Dennis.

Don W wrote in news:t3aIg.2768
:

I looked at the site. Not nearly as useful as the
liverpool site. Sure are a lot of ships in the
Houston ship channel!!


I would suspect there is quite a race to unload Houston and other possible
targets like New Orleans onto the ships and get as much product, especially
oil at $3/gallon out and away from the storm. Look at the tanker traffic.

Here's one of my favorite weather websites, spam free, from the students at
Plymouth State College in NH, who do a wonderful job at bringing us a huge
variety of weather data you'll find useful. This is the tropical weather
page I've used for many years:

http://vortex.plymouth.edu/tropical.html

When you get hot or come in from mowing the lawn, load up the Mt Washington
page and cool off. Yesterday there was a heat wave on the summit! It was
over 36F! Whew!...(c;



--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote in
:

The original Ben My Cree (pronounced BenMcRee) was owned by the Isle
of Man Steam Packet Company and was a passenger-only ship in the
1930's. I think the company owned 2 or 3 such vessels. My father was
an authority on Liverpool and it's many ferries and took me on the Ben
My Cree at the age of 6 to the Isle of Man.



Wow...What a fantastic story, Dennis! Anything else you can add like this
would be most appreciated by all, I'm sure.

I'm a Liverpool AIS addict, I'm afraid. Every port in the world should
have some sort of organisation to implement this fantastic software in
their port. It wouldn't take a lot of money do make it happen.

I feel I'm in good company with you. I've been calling to Davey Jones over
the handrail for 40 years, myself...(c; The first day at sea is always my
most useless, then I seem to settle out with the motion and it can be
really rough before I feel queasy again.

Again, thanks for this history of the Ben My Cree and your connection with
it. There aren't enough sea stories on r.b.c. in between the engine and
head maintenance stories...(c;



--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.

Dennis Pogson wrote:

Currently The IOMSPC operates the modern Ben My Cree and a faster
SuperSeaCat2 which take 3.5hrs and 2hrs respectively for the 70-mile
crossing to/from Liverpool.

The attraction? Currently the Manx Grand Prix motor-cycle races and The IOM
TT races are far and away the finest motor-cycle races in the world,
attracting huge entries from enthusiasts desperate to try their luck on the
torturous mountain circuit.

I've spanner'd at the MGP and ridden on open roads, but never sailed
there, however:

"If Frederico Fellini ever gets a little farther out and wants to film a
truly bizarre spectacle taken from real life, he should bring his camera
crew and sound men into the cargo bay of the Isle of Man ferry on a
night when approximately 500 motorcycles are being cranked over or kick
started all at once, packed together in a steel room about the size of a
small gymnasium and lighted by a dim row of 40 watt light bulbs. The
microphones would pick up an ear splitting confusion of shrieking RDs,
high-revving unmuffled Fours, and the general chest-pounding thunder of
Ducati 900s, Norton 850s and 750s, Harleys, Triumphs, BSAs, BMWs and
piston slapping British 500 singles, all of it bouncing off the walls in
an incredible rising and falling wail. The camera crews would get
footage of several hundred leather-clad people flipping down face
shields and punching starter buttons, with others in the mob of bikes
heaving up and down on kickstarters like erratic pistons in some kind of
insane smoke machine, headlights flaring on to make a blanket of
brilliance and flashing chrome at the bottom layer of the smoke cloud.
They could catch the bikes launching themselves row by row up the ramp
into the dark night, people spinning their tires on the oil slick steel
ramp or catching traction in half-controlled wheelies. What no film
could capture is the mixed smell of Castrol R, several dozen brands of
two-stroke oil and all the other choking thick exhaust fumes, or the
instant, furnace-like heat given off by hundreds of motorcycles lighting
their engines in a confined space. Also, they'd have to film it through
the distorted star-burst pattern of a really scratched yellow face
shield, just to get the last effect of profound unreality... Our turn
came and we slithered up the ramp with a wave of other bikes. We landed
on the docks and the white gloves of a row of nearly invisible policemen
directed us onto Manx main street. We were on the Isle of Man."

Peter Egan [Cycle World Oct'82 v21,n10,p38]
http://www.deathstar.org/~flash/isleofm.html

I'd rather sail than race there, but like the OSTAR or Jester Challenge,
I'm not worthy enough to comment on those that choose to take part...

(Side note: I once sailed on the Ionian with a bike-racer-friend - I put
him on the helm and tweaked the sails for speed - he watched the log and
counted up from 4.9 to 6, to 7.4 knots. When the rail dipped; he
exclaimed "Whoo! We're in the groove now!" - I pointed out that in a
fortnight's time he'd be peaking at 170 mph at the MGP[0], and he
replied "Yeah, but this is *fast*!" ;-)

rgds, Alan
[0] this year he got a race average of 106.91mph.
--
99 Ducati 748BP, 95 Ducati 600SS, 81 Guzzi Monza, 74 MV Agusta 350
"Ride to Work, Work to Ride" SI# 7.067 DoD#1930 PGP Key 0xBDED56C5