cool Hatteras story

[jim rosenthal]

SOUNDINGS, November issue: 63 Hatteras GT which is the fishing boat and tender to a 150 foot expedition yacht. Crossed the Atlantic on its own bottom, in convoy with the bigger boat, and refueled by it as well- Refueled while underway, which is pretty cool. Some nice photos, too.

 

[oscarvan]

"Refueled while underway"..... as in while in motion? That's ambitious.....

 

[jim rosenthal]

Yes. at eight knots, acc to the story.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Not sure why they didn't just stop and refuel- the big boat would hold steady, I would think, and the 63 is probably stabilized.... but I don't know.

 

[Boatsb]

Ship to ship refueling is usually done while moving. The vessels run parallel and the refueling hose is run between on a suppor line.

 

[Freeebird]

"Refueled while underway"..... as in while in motion? That's ambitious.....

Boats are more stable underway than when they're bobbing around out in the ocean.

 

[Pascal]

I read the story a few weeks ago. Even with gyros or zero speed stabs under way in swells is a lot more stable than stopped

 

[jim rosenthal]

Evidently, since they could have done it either way. Pretty cool setup, really. I don't know how many mods were done to the 63 GT, it didn't go into a lot of detail. One of the things I noticed is that it doesn't have a bow rail (none do, at this point) So even though he describes having to run up to the transom of the big boat, to refuel, I can't visualize how they did it- they sent a messenger over and then pulled the refueling hose over, I think. I don't think I'd want to be out on the foredeck of the 63 with nothing to catch me if I started to slide off. Any thoughts?

 

[Walter P]

While the trend on most new fishing boats is the clean (kool) look of no railings, I agree with Jim that I
would not under most circumstances venture out there without them. Safety should always trump looks.

Walt

 

[Finalee]

Can't imagine a boat w/out rails. Even if I could afford a crew and Captain, its got to have them.

 

[Pascal]

Where are the tanks and fillers on these boats? I m guessing amidship or just aft of amidship. I would think they had rigged a filler in the cockpit to ensure clean fuel transfer on a windy day with spray anyway.

In any case, it must have been an exciting trip

 

[rustybucket]

I followed the voyage on Instagram, pretty awesome deal. They hit some heavy weather along the way and had to refuel at first sign of calmness, still looked pretty rough during one of their refuels. They even passed food from the mothership by attaching floating bags to it and dropping it off the side for the 'tender' to pickup to eat.