Enough with the Norwegian S***

can I ask if there is anything ELSE that you are here to accomplish?

No, you still don’t get it, way off base, not even close. Try again please. And talking about egos…

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Damn, there is a lot of thin skinned people here. Americans are such sensitive beings, Ombuggu has single handedly made a forum full of mariners sound like little girls.

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I’m writing this with some care, since I am trying to avoid upsetting anybody, but I realise that I have quite a bit of experience of American design and construction, Norwegian design and construction and Far East design and construction and handguns. I used to be what in UK is a “Class 1 Master Mariner” equivolent to what in the USA is an Unlimited Licence I think, but since the British don’t make any distinction between one sort of ship and another once it is more than 500 grt it was a necessary qualification to command an offshore vessel. I have also commanded a 1982 built Halter 180 footer advertised by the people who had it built as “North Sea ready”. This was out in the Arabian Gulf where it was ideal for the job of shifting little jack-ups, and I developed a lot of affection and respect for what was a simple craft ideal for the job it was doing, but “North Sea ready!” I would not have liked to take it to sea out of Aberdeen in winter. A ship I did take out of that port for a couple of years was a UT 734, built in Kristiansund.N in 1985. It was powered by two 9 cyinder Warsila diesels collectively developing 9000 bhp and it could deal with anything we had to face. I brought it out brand new, and we went on a rig shift after one day. Nothing went wrong. I have been involved in safety and warranty surveys of large number of semi-submersibles and jack-ups some of them built in the Far East and some in USA. The Earl & Wright designs were big but of minimal specification and were, in my view, less safe than the Norwegian designs. However no matter where the rigs were built they were all equipped with American sourced drilling systems. And as far as wonderful construction goes, liftboats are not generally used in UK waters, but one was sent over from the Gulf to be used by an American company’s UK subsidiary years ago. It took so long to get it up to a standard that the UK safety authorities would find acceptable that the company was bankrupted. Here I have to say that the British did not turn out to be any good at building rigs. The few they built were pretty difficult to work on. And more generally, Norwegian ship captains were great to work with, but the guys working on Norwegian rigs tended to subvert their own safety procedures to make life easier, British ship captains whinged a lot and it would be unfair of me even to make a judgement about Americans since it is many years since I worked with any and all we hear about now are their misfortunes. Oh – and the handguns. It used to be possible to get a licence for one in Britain and back in the 1970s when the Cold War was at its height I owned one, and practiced with it in case of the beakdown of civilisation after the bomb. But I realised that there would be more chance of the lady I was living with shooting me with it, so it was disposed of. And finally guys, has the Jones Act really been any good for American mariners? The Canadians and the Australians seem to have cabotage laws which are more effective.

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Brings back old memories of the Dutch Smit Lloyd supply vessels also with a length of 180 feet. I attended the sea trials of the Smit Lloyd 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14. The Smit Lloyd number 13 was in good seaman’s fashion skipped. During bad weather the ship was a mess as the yard personnel vomited literally all over the place. Only the bridge was free of that stench… The Smit Lloyd 9 can be seen in full action here and it was not even very bad weather. The North Sea can play up terribly and can become a real hell hole.

Still another one for the aficionados.

That might come as a surprise to the UK MCA … the folks who issued whatever license you claim to have held.

thanks for the video…brings back memories of misery in the Gulf of Alaska during not just the winter but even late spring and early fall!

anyway, my favorite GoM wankers here have no clue at all

the Jones Act is the biggest single reason there is employment for American mariners and I wouldn’t mention Australia as some example of that is better when they give licenses to foreign ships to trade and then whole crews who are Australian go begging for work.

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Of course, I am hopelessly out of date. My certificate of competency was issued by the Department of Transport not the MCA, and even then it was possible for those with Class 2 certificate to command ships in home trade waters. I had also failed to mention the fact that if I wanted to serve on a tanker I would have required a dangerous goods endorsement. And I’m sure it is all different now. And as for “claiming” to have held a certificate as Master, I held one for 33 years, allowing it to lapse in 2002.

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You ain’t never rode one of those old shitty 180’ Mar Sea hulls built at Halter through a bunch of hurricanes. We called that design the vomit comets.

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Spent the ‘80s working tugs in the Gulf of Alaska, when Peggy would broadcast the weather conditions, we got real excited when she said the seas would come down to 25’, Winter in the Gulf of Alaska is brutal

Apart from the sometimes extreme bad weather In the North Sea also quite a number of freak waves of over 25 meter have been observed by oil rigs. One of the first was on the Draupner platform 160 km off the Norwegian coast, the so called ‘Draupner wave’.

That is a cruel insult. I HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH DONALD TRUMP!!!
Personal insult like that has NOTHING to do on this forum. I ask you to take it down IMMEDIATELY.
You voted for him, don’t try to blame ME now that you realize what you have done.

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Striking similarities; always right, nationalist pride, early morning postings about how you’re right and everyone else has it all wrong.

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I say leave it Fraq…it appears you have finally found a weapon which penetrates the Bugge’s thick exoskeleton and now that you have exercised the nuclear option and shown your teeth, he might be just a bit more mindful of the feelings of all the rest of us unwashed American masses here…

and if he isn’t more circumspect in the future, let fire another Trump tipped AP salvo at him!

Are you going soft on your old days? Do you need a safe space? I hear it’s very popular on American campuses.

Nothing wrong with being right, but glad you acknowledge that. The difference between me and Trump is that I AM RIGHT, at least most of the time, while HE IS NOT at any time.

Nationalistic pride and patriotism is GOOD, as long as it is based on FACTS and not “alternative facts” and downright LIES!!

As for “early morning postings”, you may be aware that there is a certain time difference between where you are and where I am, whether that be in Norway or Singapore.

As to your ability to intimidate me, or make me go away to leave y’ll to marvel over the development (or lack there off) in American maritime industry, I’m sorry to disappoint.

Positive development will not happen as long as you stick to your protectionistic mindset and “this is how we have always done it” and don’t no STOOPID foriner try to tell us that it isn’t the best way.

" #sunnmørian "

Definition of a “Sunnmøring”;
A person who can buy something from a Jew and sell it to a Scot… with profit.