Die Lotsenbrüderschaft Elbe ist ein geschlossener Kreis, der sich nicht gern in die Karten schauen lässt. Wer dort Mitglied werden und bis zu 400 Meter lange Containerpötte in den Hamburger Hafen steuern möchte, muss hohe Anforderungen erfüllen. Bewerber müssen mehrere Jahre lang zur See gefahren sein, um ausreichend Fahrpraxis zu haben. Aber es gibt immer weniger deutsche Seeleute, weil die Reeder billigere Kräfte aus dem Ausland bevorzugen. Dadurch wird es zunehmend schwierig,...
Manoeuvring large ships at close quarters and on shallow water is one of the most difficult aspects of shiphandling because of the complex hydraulic interactions depending on the ships' speeds, on the water depth and on lateral restrictions like in canals. Training is conducted both on meeting and on overtaking ships in shallow waters. This video shows how overtaking in a canal should be conducted: come in close to the stern and then move away from the bow that will be sucked towards your...
We’re doing another day of testing with the self-propelled scale model of T-2000. Obviously the conditions here do comprehensively exceed the designs operational envelope, as in scale proportion to the model, the waves must be I guess around 10-20 metres in size. However it’s interesting to understand the designs ultimate limits. The model is built to a scale of fourteen to one, and this equals 20 metres in real life size. Later, by slowing down the video, so that it matches the speed of...