Boat Watching

Edmund W. Jupp

Description

The aim of the Watching series is to draw attention to some of the very interesting items around us, things that perhaps we don't notice as much as we might. The first was Bridge Watching, and when this was put ''on the Net'' it produced, to the surprise of the author, such a pleasant flood of e-mail that another was written, called Water Watching. This, too, was kindly received. So it was tempting to continue with the theme. Boat Watching doesn't set out to teach you how to design a boat, build a boat, or even how to use a boat. I hope it will help you to look at boats, though, really look at them, and to enjoy doing so. When I say ''boats'', I mean ''boats and things'', for boats have things on and about them, and they are all interesting. If you are looking at boats, you can't help seeing all the other things, too. Boats are truly lovely things, from the humblest to the noblest. Given a bit of time, you can lounge against a wall, or a post, or stretch out in a chair, and just drink in the happiness of looking. Looking at things is one of the great free benefits of being alive. You don't have to be an expert, but a little knowledge does help to enjoy the details. This treatment doesn't set out to turn you into a mariner or boat designer. It isn't meant intended for that kind of person. It is chiefly for idlers, loafers, those who have time to like stand and stare, or who can make such time, taking life at a reasonable pace, and enjoying it, even if only between bouts of frenzied exertions.

Sujets

• Railroads
• Transportation
• General officer
• Rail transport
• General
• Cultural Studies

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781841508368
• Langue: English

Extrait

Boat Watching

Edmund W. Jupp

intellect

Boat Watching

Edmund W. Jupp

TM intellect Bristol, UK Portland OR, USA

First Published in Paperback in UK in 2002 by Intellect Books, PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK

First Published in USA in 2000 by Intellect Books, ISBS, 5804 N.E. Hassalo St, Portland, Oregon 972133644, USA

Copyright © 2000 Intellect Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.

Consulting Editor: Production and Cover Design: Production Assistant

Masoud Yazdani Vishal Panjwani Peter Singh

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 1841508098

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cromwell Press, Wiltshire

Contents Preface iv Basics 1 The Boat Water 25 Types of Boat Propulsion Miscellaneous 56 Glossary 67

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37 46

Preface

Like the other books in the "Watching" series, "Boat Watching" is written for people who like to look at things, perhaps for those who haven't looked at things before. It doesn't set out to teach you how to design a boat, build a boat, or even how to use a boat. I hope it will help you to look at boats, though, really look at them, and to enjoy doing so. When I say "boats", I mean "boats and things", for boats have things on and about them, and they are all interesting. If you are looking at boats, you can't help seeing all the other things, too.

Boats are truly lovely things, from the humblest to the noblest. Given a bit of time, you can lounge against a wall, or a post, or stretch out in a chair, and just drink in the happiness of looking. Looking at things is one of the great free benefits of being alive. You don't have to be an expert, but a little knowledge does help to enjoy the details.

Here, then, are some points to add to your pleasure. Boat watching doesn't cost anything; it is environmentally friendly; it doesn't call for expensive equipment. (You can even do it when there are no boats about, if you have a good imagination). You don't need anyone else with you, though you can, if that somebody is of like mind, content to pause, and not rush about in that dreadful way that some bodies have.

An extensive glossary, in which further information is given on some aspects, can be found at the end, so that the general flow of the text is not interrupted in interest formation . I do hope you will make good use of this. You will find additional comment on many of the aspects points raised in the text, sometimes covering points I have overlooked.

This treatment doesn't set out to turn you into a mariner or boat designer. It isn't meant intended for that kind of person. It is chiefly for idlers, loafers, those who have time to like stand and stare, or who can make such time, taking life at a reasonable pace, and enjoying it, even if only between bouts of frenzied exertions.

In case you would like to find out how well you are absorbing the content of paragraphs, I have appended a few questions at the end of each chapter, just for encouragement. You don't have to read these if you don't want to, of course. The answers may be found in the relevant text, or in the glossary, or perhaps somewhere else.† I don't reckon to have covered everything. If it sends you to the library, so much the better. There are lots of enthralling books on boats.

I hope you will award yourself suitable and appropriate prizes each time you score well. If your answers are wrong you can always thump your head on the table, of course. It helps the memory enormously. Or you can just shrug, and self-commiserate, and pour yourself another glass.

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Boat Watching

Go to it, then, and may you find much happiness watching these lovely attractive creations, as many others have done before you, are still doing so now, and will do so in the future.

Finally, if you want to make suggestions or comments, send then to <[e-mail]>. I don't undertake to answer them, for I may be too busy, looking at boats; but I will shall read them, honest.

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Boat Watching

vi

Basics

We shall have to make clear from the beginning that the words boats and ships are not quite the same thing. Boats are little things and ships are big things, generally speaking. You may find it helpful to tell yourself that boats are carried on ships, but ships cannot be carried on boats.

This is not strictly true. For example, a submarine vessel is usually called a boat. A German submarine is called a "U-Boot", an abbreviation for "untersee boot" or undersea boat. Usually, though, you are unlikely to hear a submariner refer to his vessel as a ship. For our purposes, however such craft are not included in our treatment of boats. Well, most of the time submarines slink about below the surface, anyway, where we can't watch them.

We shall not look at ships, then, in what follows. This is not to say that ships are not in themselves, worthy of our attention. Far from it; but the subject of boats alone is quite enough to fill many volumes. Here we shall restrict ourselves accordingly, and skim lightly over the whole subject.

Looking at the basics, we are interested in those floating objects that operate at the dividing surface between air and water, carrying goods and people in (generally) dry conditions. They may be for commercial or leisure purposes, and are of many types. There are so many types, in fact, that we shall have to limit our choice in what follows.

With some of them, there is some difficulty in deciding whether or not they are in fact boats. Where do you put a surf-board, a canoe, a fun inflatable, a water-bike, and so on? It does become a little hard to decide, as it is so hard to define a boat.

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Boat Watching

Then there are all those model boats, some of them truly magnificent, with fine details, lovingly and precisely reproduced, and in which fanatical adherence to scale is evident.

It is tempting to go back to the beginning of things, and look at the early primitive efforts of man to move about on the water surface. This is not really necessary, for small boys do things on water in much the same way as our early ancestors. They get very wet in the process too; though fortunately, it is usually in shallow water, and somewhere there is a long-suffering mum to dry them out.

Small boys, like early man, soon discover that there are certain physical laws governing the successful movement on water. There are two aspects of vital importance; these are buoyancy, and stability. Deficiency in either of these leads to dampness of those on board, who get dunked in the welcoming water. We shall look closely at these in a later chapter, to see how they control the design of our boats.

When we look carefully at boats, of any kind, we can often see how these two desirable qualities of being both stable and buoyant are achieved. We may sometimes notice, too, the effects of the lack of one or other, from whatever causes.

Watching Looking a boat is a very satisfactory occupation, made the more fascinating if we understand some of the reasons for the things we see in them, and on them, under, and even around them. Looking too closely at the details of a flower, we can lose sense of its the beauty; but with a boat, the more we see and understand the more fascinating does it become. Looked at from a distance, or close up, peering at the details, we can find pleasure.

It is soon immediately obvious that most boats have a sharp end and a blunt end, the front and the back, or the bow and the stern. This is not invariable, for some boats have neither. Small boys have been known to make daring great voyages of vast imaginary distances across a puddle or small stream, squeezed into a bathtub, which is rounded at both ends, or a box, blunt at both ends. So Coracles, too, are noticeably lacking in wave- piercing bows, though not all are circular. Some are long and "boat-shaped".

One old guide about boat design is that it should have a cod's head and a mackerel tail. This makes a lot of sense when you think about it; but the principle is not always invariably followed. Different boats have different needs. Not only do various people have all kinds of requirements when they go afloat in their boats, but all over the world conditions call for a special approach to shaping the craft. Shallow water, fast currents,strea breakers, rocks? All these and many other factors shape the boat-builder's thoughts.

Boats that are sharp at both ends are referred to as "double-enders". Oddly, the term is not used about boats that are blunt at both ends, like river punts and lighters.

Just think of the difference between a river punt and a small dinghy. One is designed for smooth water, and the other for rougher conditions. This is reflected in the overall shape. We shall look into the reasons for these differences in a later chapter. It will help 2

Boat Watching

us to find pleasure in our watching, to know something of the thinking behind the shapes.

Buoyancy is a pretty obvious requirement for a boat. If it isn't buoyant, then it won't stay on the surface, but will sink below the surface, to the dismay of those on board. The principal of buoyancy is simple, and we need to understand two terms only, displacement and density, in order to grasp the principles of buoyancy.

Buoyant aircraft, like balloons and airships, are completely immersed in the fluid that supports them, air; but boats are only partly immersed, unless they sink altogether, when they are justifiably considered as being not buoyant.

When a boat is lowered into the water, it starts to sink as it penetrates the surface, and pushes to one side the water surrounding the hull, the bit under the surface. This water has to go somewhere, so it rises and flows outward and this raises the level elsewhere. The amount of water thus displaced moved is, quite reasonably, called the "displacement." It can be measured by volume, or by weight.

The weight of water displaced by a floating boat is the same as the weight of the boat itself; so the push of the water, trying to get back to fill the hole made by the boat, exactly balances the boat's efforts to go under, i.e. its weight.

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