Saw an interesting boat in Juneau, Alaska last week: the Skookum Yarder, which would fit in a port scene.
Since five cruise ships were arriving that day, our ship had to anchor out. To receive a shipment (fresh-frozen fish?), this boat was used. The telescoping crane lifted the goods up to the ship’s hull-side door and its retractable platform. The yarder’s crane is controlled from a panel forward of the door on the port (left) side. I had seen the boat earlier and wondered what such a strange-looking, low-freeboard craft was doing there. (The cable hanging in front of the yarder is part of the lowering mechanism for the ship’s tender used to ferry passengers to and from shore.)
A couple more views:
Mark
Pretty obviously not intended to operate in open water - even New York Harbor or San Francisco Bay can generate chop that thing’s freeboard couldn’t handle.
I wonder exactly what it’s intended to push. Surely not cruise liners…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where kayaks are major watercraft)
In the application viewed, the vertical beams with tires were abutting the client ship’s hull. Even though the yarder was tied to the ship, the yarder’s engine was in slow-forward to keep its bow tight against the ship’s hull.
Southern Alaska’s inland passage and its many fjords are much like a lake: none of that steep chop frequently seen in San Francisco Bay or even worse in the shallower bays leading to California’s delta, compounded with winds opposite a fast ebb current. (I have experienced wet pants after jibing a 20-foot sailboat while “enjoying” a knock-down in Suisun Bay. Luckily, the cockpit was self-bailing.)
Mark