Tuesday, July 22, 2008

DDG-1000 gets underway!!!

Kind of sort of.

We are all by now quite familiar with this painting of what the USS ZUMWALT (DDG-1000 (sic) ) is supposed to look like,



Over at gCaptain you can get the scoop of what a little Russian Oligarch money and solid German shipbuilding can buy you.

BEHOLD!



The first thing that went through my mind was, "Where is the video of it during sea trials in heavy weather at high speed?" Can't find that, but there is this video of the yacht known as "A" and "Project Sigma;" sorry about the cheezy music.




The WSJ calls her ugly. Well, I don't think that is fair. You can call her a lot of things, but ugly isn't in the top 20. Not even close.

The designer, Philippe Starke isn't even a maritime designer - more a furniture dude. You can see his angle on the yacht at his website under "vehicles." A difficult site to navigate through, but you'll figure it out. In this interview I found it funny that nowhere does he mention "DDG-1000" anywhere. To deny that this yacht is derivative is just plain dishonest.

120m chick magnet...but I would love to be the fly on the wall when Blohm & Voss engineers talk about the tumblehome hull some, though most concerns have to do with damage control which in a yacht isn't a big deal....and yes I know the hull form below the waterline is very different between DDG-1000 and "A," but come'on and have some fun with me.


Hey, maybe we can use some anti-terrorism funds to buy a few for "4-Star and Senior Civilian Executive" transport....

Hat tip Tom commenting over at Galrahn's place.

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