Earlier we talked about the decision to specifically exclude use of a stern ramp in the specifications for the Offshore Patrol Cutter, “No Stern Ramp for Boats on the OPC-Mistake?”

I recently found a study that addressed this question. It’s conclusions seem particularly applicable to the Coast Guard:

The inclusion of a stern ramp has advantages in terms of  deployment and recovery speeds, but ultimately a stern ramp lacks availability in the higher sea states in which a davit is still capable of operation. The stern ramp availability is driven by sill depth and pitch motions, whilst a davit needs to consider a range of constraints associated with the environment, including pendulum effects, hoisting speed and the safety of deck crew.

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Hence, a vessel designed to operate in benign to moderate sea conditions and requiring rapid boat response times may be appropriate for a stern ramp, as illustrated by their use mainly in coast guard and smaller patrol vessels. A vessel operating in higher sea states such as offshore environments, including conducting MCM and environmental assessment may select davit arrangements, accepting the increase in handling procedures to gain a greater environmental envelope. A flexible, multi-role naval vessel is therefore likely to err towards the later, because of  its greater flexibility and sea state envelope. A mixed solution may offer a compromise between these but suffers from the need to find space for both systems and requires training to cover several deployment methods, although the rapid response would be beneficial when operating in constabulary missions and may be an advantage to consider. In this case, the stern ramp is the secondary method of deployment and the mission space would be located midships with the davit system(s).

They also found that the relative success of stern ramps varied with the size of the “host” vessel, with it becoming more problematic as the size of the host vessel increased relative to the boat to be launched and recovered.

Late addition–Not sure why I did not link the original source when I posted, but here it is: Boat Launch and Recovery – BMT Group

Frequent contributor Bill Wells has written a post concerning generalists verse specialists within the Coast Guard, particularly in regard to BMs. You can read the post here.

Does the Coast Guard still have nothing comparable to MOS to differentiate skill sets?

The following was found here: http://www.timawa.net/forum/index.php?topic=32702.0

From “Modern Ships” (chinese mag) July 2012 ed. Literal translation:
“056 – Protectors of the South Sea”

The type 056 is a new Chinese Navy corvette being produced in large numbers by at least four different ship yards.

The 378 in the background is the former USCGC Hamilton, now Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15), still in CG white paint rather than Philippine Navy Gray.

A bit over 100 years ago Captain Robert F. Scott, and Norwegian Roald Amundsen raced to reach the South Pole. Scott’s ill fated party lost the race and died attempting to return, after finding Amundsen’s group had arrived 33 days earlier. The remains of the ship that carried the Scott’s party, SS Terra Nova, has been located off Greenland. More here.

SS Terra Nova, was much like the cutter Bear, both were built as sealers in Dundee Scotland. After the expedition, Terra Nova played various roles until it was damaged by ice during WWII on a supply run to Greenland in 1943. The Coast Guard icebreaker Southwind rescued the survivors.

There seems to be proliferation of non-state entity “navies” lately. We have been expecting protests from “Green Peace” against drilling in the Arctic.

Informationdissemination.net/20has some information about the “Sea Shepherds” efforts to expand their fleet, and it looks like the next vessel may be either an icebreaker or at least an ice strengthened vessel. They also note how these groups seem to splinter and create additional new organizations.

gCaptain is reporting that an American Burke class destroyer, USS Porter (DDG-78), was damaged in a collision with a Panamanian flagged, Japanese owned oil tanker, in the Straits of Hormuz. gCaptain has more photos. There were no reports of injury.