You probably wouldn’t address a weeping main engine oil circulation pump salt-water-side bearing by sticking a plug in the weep hole, either. Especially if the pressure on the water side was higher than the pressure on the oil side. 
OTOH when you gave HSV-X1 Joint Venture back to my brother he was a little bit miffed about trash on the decks, and breaking the foil by running over a whale (he didn’t say how he thought you would have avoided running over the whale). 
Impressive performance with 50 knots. I suppose that the noise and vibration levels are pretty high. One would also expect choppy wave movements with that speed, but perhaps a cat handles that more easily. I would like to hitch a ride with that baby and check it out…
It’s a wave-piercing design, rated for up to 5m seas. Four ~10,000 hp CAT diesels on two water pumps. Incat hull 050, presently Isle of Man Steamship Packet Company’s Manannan.
Very stiff vessel – nickname Vomit Comet was come by honestly.
I’ve ridden her in calm water. Don’t recall any unusual noise or vibration. The bridge decking is a bit flexible, apparently a bit hard on the knees – but the three main actors are sitting down anyway.
Minimum speed without deploying the deflectors ~15 kt. Minimum sustained speed without clogging up the diesels, ~27 kt.
Navy and Army each had her for two periods of around three months IIRC. Non-hotel crew in normal operation with pierside maintenance every night is skipper, navigator, chief engineer, and a roving fire watch. Turns out it takes about 35 to keep her at sea.
There’s a joystick panel at the after end of the bridge, behind the stairwell visible at left. You can command the jets to point in through the vessel CLR and then translate freely in any direction using the joystick. Takes fifteen seconds to change to or from that configuration.
^^Steering wheel is about three inches across, ~4/5 turn lock to lock, in the skipper’s right armrest. No obvious king spoke, so they had a turk’s head on it.
I sailed on 2 of those Incat ones, Hulls 41 and 42, over several years.
They were an absolute nightmare in crap weather (restricted to 3.5 metre seas).
Crossing the English Channel in a gale was like being in a 3 hour train crash.
We used to regularly break passengers as well as bits of the ship.
Vomit Comets indeed.
The Navy (or Army) managed to bend her a little bit. You could see the wrinkles in the skin amidships.
050 was ten metres longer IIRC, 96 vs 86 metres.
I don’t know whether you crossed the Strait of Dover but the distance to France there is only 33.3 km (20.7 mi). If so, the fact that this would take 3 hours in bad weather tells it all then.
Certainly does; especially considering that (the 96 metre class) can’t go slower than fifteen knots in calm water without engaging the thrust deflector buckets.
It looks like a fair weather troop transporter. If she hits a spot of bad weather at the end those poor soldiers, reeking of each others and their own vomit, will probably be unfit for combat duties.
How about the recent rocket attack that set the aluminum on fire?
Different boat, but yes, they’re not very missile-resistant.
The passenger and car ferry ‚Bentago Express’ (hull 55 – 96 meters) works between Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Puerto de las Neves on Gran Canaria (Canary Islands). The channel between the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria may be very rough; I do not know about her service limits.
They do move around a bit.
The 3 hours was between Weymouth and Guernsey which was usually a straight 2 hour run dash.
