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» Cruise Talk   » Ocean Liners and Classic Cruise Ships   » Why do they sag? (Page 1)

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Author Topic: Why do they sag?
6263866
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Member # 5115

posted 02-15-2007 12:24 AM      Profile for 6263866   Email 6263866   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Ive noticed this with many older ships, from wooden sailing ships, to even ocean liners, they tend to sag in the middle, like the steel isnt strong enough to keep the whole ship level, was this because the steel wasn't strong enough?

Look Here


Posts: 580 | From: San Francisco | Registered: Oct 2004  |  IP: Logged
Frank X. Prudent
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posted 02-15-2007 01:08 AM      Profile for Frank X. Prudent   Email Frank X. Prudent   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
To give a short quick answer to your question, what you are looking at in the photo of the QUEEN MARY is called sheer. Isn't it beautiful? She, and many other fine ships and boats were built with it. Unfortunately today it is too expensive to build a vessel with any sheer.

The gentle thwartship rise of a ship's deck towards the mid line is called camber. Like sheer it's very expensive to incorporate into newbuilds, so it's not seen much anymore. What a pity that is too.

[ 02-16-2007: Message edited by: Frank X. Prudent ]


Posts: 577 | From: Covington, Kentucky, U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 2000  |  IP: Logged
lasuvidaboy
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posted 02-15-2007 01:22 AM      Profile for lasuvidaboy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Even ships w/out sheer bend w/the sea. As an example when QE2 is in rough seas you can clearly see the hull bending best when you look down one of the corridors on deck 4 or 5. Like an airplanes wings, a ship has a certain amount of give.
Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged
lasuvidaboy
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posted 02-15-2007 01:25 AM      Profile for lasuvidaboy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I forgot to mention that QE2 does have sheer forward and aft but all decks amidship are flat as a board. Vistafjord of 1973 was one of the last (if not the last) large cruise ships built w/a very noticible sheer.
Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged
Deck 9 001
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posted 02-15-2007 03:23 AM      Profile for Deck 9 001     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Here is another example of lovely sheer.
Photo taken from inside suite at the bow looking aft.
They sure don't build them like this anymore

Mike


Posts: 939 | From: Taipei, Taiwan (originally New York) | Registered: Dec 2000  |  IP: Logged
Maasdam
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posted 02-15-2007 04:54 AM      Profile for Maasdam   Author's Homepage   Email Maasdam   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Nieuw Amsterdam i think have one of the best looking and balanced shear. It helped making the ship look beautiful.

Greetings Ben.


Posts: 4695 | From: Rotterdam home of the tss. Rotterdam. | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
Ernst
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posted 02-15-2007 06:12 AM      Profile for Ernst   Author's Homepage   Email Ernst   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by 6263866:
Ive noticed this with many older ships, from wooden sailing ships, to even ocean liners, they tend to sag in the middle, like the steel isnt strong enough to keep the whole ship level, was this because the steel wasn't strong enough?

Look Here


With sheer you make the freeboard 'locally' higher at the ends of the ship - this way you can safe some material. (you can incline the ship more towards the bow or stern without flooding the decks this way - regulations play here a role too)
Also, you can avoid adding bulkheads on another -higher - deck this way. (if a compartement near the bow or stern is flooded the ship is tilting towards the bow or stern - you have to make the bulkhead high enough to avoid the next compartement to be flooded - bending the decks upwards towards the ends helps a bit)


Posts: 9746 | From: Eindhoven | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged
Frosty 4
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Member # 5826

posted 02-15-2007 10:46 AM      Profile for Frosty 4   Email Frosty 4   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
As a side ,note have you ever noticed a flat bed semi trailer(unloaded) It has an upward bend and turns flat when loaded down.
Frosty 4

Posts: 2531 | From: Illinois | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged
6263866
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Member # 5115

posted 02-15-2007 10:53 AM      Profile for 6263866   Email 6263866   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Thank you al for the info. So they did it on purpose..now thinking about it, it must have been very expensive to perposely give a ship a sheer.
Posts: 580 | From: San Francisco | Registered: Oct 2004  |  IP: Logged
Globaliser
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posted 02-15-2007 12:25 PM      Profile for Globaliser     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by 6263866:
Why do they sag?
I'm reliably informed that "factors such as pregnancy, nursing, and the force of gravity take their toll".

Posts: 1869 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2003  |  IP: Logged
Cunard Fan
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posted 02-15-2007 12:36 PM      Profile for Cunard Fan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I always loved that about ships. I used to love to run down the Queen Marys hallways and feel how the angle of the deck was changing as I ran. I always loved the sheer of the old Queens.

[ 02-15-2007: Message edited by: Cunard Fan ]


Posts: 2327 | From: Pasadena just north of Queen Mary | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
lasuvidaboy
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posted 02-15-2007 12:39 PM      Profile for lasuvidaboy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by 6263866:
it must have been very expensive to perposely give a ship a sheer.

Sheer and camber along w/elegant curved sterns, sleek long forecastles have all been eliminated in passenger ship construction because of the extremely high cost-the result of course is that most cruise ships today look like boxy car carriers or container ships. Add to that the cost of building hundreds of custom made passenger cabins to line up w/the sheer and camber and you can see why those features were the 1st to go beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s. QE2s designers designed her as a slab sided box amidships but w/elegant sheer forward and aft and QM2 has a small section of sheer decking far forward.


Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged
GregSFBayArea
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posted 02-15-2007 03:26 PM      Profile for GregSFBayArea   Email GregSFBayArea   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by 6263866:
Thank you al for the info. So they did it on purpose..now thinking about it, it must have been very expensive to perposely give a ship a sheer.

The shear is one of the big problems NCL would have rebuilding the SS United States. When it was built the staterooms were constructed with what is called joiner panels. They were fit piece by piece. This gets very costly. Unlike sliding a fully fabricated stateroom module into place and connecting the electrical, and piping.


Posts: 40 | From: San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged
linerguy
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posted 02-15-2007 03:48 PM      Profile for linerguy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Globaliser,....

Damn, you beat me to it! The BEST answer yet!

-Russ


Posts: 1486 | From: Bright, Indiana | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
VDK
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Member # 3460

posted 02-15-2007 03:53 PM      Profile for VDK   Email VDK   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
While ships may have shear its not entirely incorrect that some have "sag" and "hog". Some say that QM is actually beginning to "Hog"
Posts: 325 | From: Victoria, BC, Canada | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
timb
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Member # 5901

posted 02-15-2007 04:02 PM      Profile for timb     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by VDK:
While ships may have shear its not entirely incorrect that some have "sag" and "hog". Some say that QM is actually beginning to "Hog"

Correct. On some wooden hulled sloops I have crewed on we used to untension the fore and aft stays of the mast to help prevent hogging


Posts: 437 | From: S FL | Registered: Sep 2005  |  IP: Logged
Cunard Fan
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posted 02-15-2007 05:36 PM      Profile for Cunard Fan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Whats hog?
Posts: 2327 | From: Pasadena just north of Queen Mary | Registered: Sep 2006  |  IP: Logged
viking109
First Class Passenger
Member # 6280

posted 02-15-2007 07:23 PM      Profile for viking109        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Is not the sheer on the front section of QM2 merely an illusion done with the paint?
Posts: 499 | From: southampton | Registered: Feb 2006  |  IP: Logged
Pascal
First Class Passenger
Member # 5510

posted 02-15-2007 07:39 PM      Profile for Pascal     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I can think of two relatively (I said relatively !) recent passenger ships which were build with a sheer. They are not cruise ships, but ferries... Anyway :


Corse (1983), just like her sister Estérel. Not quite obvious at the first look, but when you look carefully between between the SNCM website and the SNCM logo featured on the hull, you'll see a curve on all decks.


Monte d'Oro (1991) Look at the front section portholes : closer you are from the bow higher are the portholes. Not spectacular from the outside, but quite noticeable from the inside as the corridor really "climbs" (believe me, I stayed in one of those cabins).


Posts: 1371 | From: Aix en Provence | Registered: Mar 2005  |  IP: Logged
lasuvidaboy
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Member # 4527

posted 02-15-2007 09:46 PM      Profile for lasuvidaboy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by viking109:
Is not the sheer on the front section of QM2 merely an illusion done with the paint?

A little of both.


Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged
GregSFBayArea
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posted 02-15-2007 11:42 PM      Profile for GregSFBayArea   Email GregSFBayArea   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Cunard Fan:
Whats hog?

In refrence to your question of hogging. Hogging is when the bow and stern is bending down from the center of the vessel, this causes the center of the keel to bend upward. This can take place from improper ballasting, or fueling, Wasted steel, or coming on top of a wave in the center of vessel. And wooden vessels with rotted timbers in the hulll can cause hogging.


Posts: 40 | From: San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: Jan 2007  |  IP: Logged
KenC
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posted 02-16-2007 05:14 AM      Profile for KenC   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by lasuvidaboy:
I forgot to mention that QE2 does have sheer forward and aft but all decks amidship are flat as a board. Vistafjord of 1973 was one of the last (if not the last) large cruise ships built w/a very noticible sheer.


QE2 infact has no real sheer just the look created by straight upward sloping decks from below the mast forward and the pool aft .... and of course clever paintwork.


Posts: 353 | From: Brighton, UK | Registered: Mar 2006  |  IP: Logged
Maasdam
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posted 02-16-2007 05:30 AM      Profile for Maasdam   Author's Homepage   Email Maasdam   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by KenC:


QE2 infact has no real sheer just the look created by straight upward sloping decks from below the mast forward and the pool aft .... and of course clever paintwork.


The HAL ships Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Volendam, Zaandam have all fake shear. The hull is painted that it looks like the have shear.

Greetings Ben.


Posts: 4695 | From: Rotterdam home of the tss. Rotterdam. | Registered: May 2003  |  IP: Logged
lasuvidaboy
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posted 02-16-2007 02:51 PM      Profile for lasuvidaboy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by KenC:


QE2 infact has no real sheer just the look created by straight upward sloping decks from below the mast forward and the pool aft .... and of course clever paintwork.


Is that not some sort of sheer? Granted her decks are not curved amidships as were most ships built before the mid 1960s but her decks are far from level once you are forward. Her mid section is built much like a newbuild-slab sided w/ level decks but her designers gave her sheer forward and aft as well as the already mentioned clever paintwork. QM2 has a small section of sheer far forward towards the bow.


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eroller
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posted 02-16-2007 03:07 PM      Profile for eroller     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Deck 9 001:
Here is another example of lovely sheer.
Photo taken from inside suite at the bow looking aft.
They sure don't build them like this anymore

Mike


Just curious as to what ship this is. If I had to guess I would say FAIRSEA or FAIRWIND. Looks familiar.

Ernie


Posts: 7046 | From: Miami, Florida USA | Registered: Oct 2000  |  IP: Logged

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