Secret craft sails sea of speculation[Washington-Mystery Ship]

The Oregonian ^ | 07 Nov 2006 | PETER SLEETH

[mcshot]

Aye Digger you posted the deluxe addition with kitchen, lodging and fishing options. Am wondering if it comes in camo.
mc :-)

[snowrip]

Uhhhhhh... yeah, they'll be lining up around the block to buy that butt-ugly spider boat.

[Toby06]

Yep.

[Red Badger]

If that's bare aluminum, with no paint or corrosion treatment, it won't last long in salt water.........

[Recon Dad]

Where do you sit?

[digger48]

Looks like that pod up in the center

[FReepaholic]

...Looks like it's designed to pick up and carry something between the pontoons. Containers? It's certainly not stealthy, so it's not military....

Perhaps it's for retrieving SpecOps pods from the decks of submarines while at sea. Thus the high profile.

[Tallguy]

I've always thought Aircraft Carriers should be catamarans --- although given how they pitch, maybe tough to land.

Carriers are not good candidates for multi-hull design. As I understand it, the usable VOLUME of a single hull is always greater than multiple hulls. Hangar space, bunkerage for fuel (Av fuels, too), machinery spaces, the list goes on & on.

[MineralMan]

Now ain't that sumthin'! I don't see no trollin' moters, tho. I also cain't see how a guy's gonna lip no bucketmouth from up in that danged trailer hangin' from the top of that thing. Don't see no rodholders, neither.

Heck fire, that dang think ain't gonna work as a bass boat. Never mind.

[Tallguy]

Perhaps it's for retrieving SpecOps pods from the decks of submarines while at sea. Thus the high profile.

Yeah, but why optimise it for speed? I'm thinking ASW platform for shallow areas. Can you imagine this thing riding silently in rough coastal waters using a dipping sonar, then zipping off to investigate a sonar contact? It does look stealthy, too.

It could also be a "proof-of-concept" craft. The Coast Guard is spending a lot of money developing platforms to replace their current fleet of cutters & aircraft. They are apparently open to some unconventional designs.

[Recon Dad]

Not much room for passengers or a cooler of beer.

[Aquinasfan]

It looks like a motorized catamaran to me, unless the pontoons bend.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

It's what they use for recovering the bodies of drowned aliens.

[tanuki]

In Ben Rich's book, 'Skunk Works', a 'Ugo Coty' is described as being in charge of building Lockheed Martin's stealth catamaran. I don't know if it's the same person.

[dangerdoc]

not enough electronic gear to be military.

[FReepaholic]

...Yeah, but why optimise it for speed?...

Gotta get those SEALS and whatever/whoever they stole from the Commies back to land pronto.

[FastCoyote]

"Advantages??"

A normal vessel drives it's mass into waves, which must be frictional. Since this is a sprung mass, and the inflatable pontoon is flexible, you'd expect the average draft to be constant. Whether this is worth all the effort, who knows?

What would be interesting is a hydrofoil with independent suspension.

[Mister Baredog]

Don't tell the DUmmies, but it looks like these are pictures of Karl Rove's weather machine!

Priceless!!

ROTFLMAO!!

[EQAndyBuzz]

It's the Lochness Monster.

[Tallguy]

Not buying it. If the SEALS were in some sort of re-compression lockout, that's one thing. But why not bring the sub carrying the divers to the tender? The submerged submarine is as fast as this thing. Besides, will an upsized craft be as fast carrying an underslung payload? Nah, too risky.