French aircraft carrier to end its days in the UK

[John]

That might be quite a sight coming into harbour...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7877204.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1QHfWov ... re=related

Kind regards

John

[DaveB]

Hmm.. I find it hard to believe that India turned it down as being too toxic. When in gods name have they ever worried about that before :roll: 200 new jobs on a £3m contract.. sounds good to me ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[TSR2]

Couldn't agree more... how do these people think Asbestos is disposed of? Do they think its stripped out and thrown into the see. Great news, and much needed jobs for the North East

[SkippyBing]

I'd guess India didn't turn it down, more likely Greenpeace threatened legal action or some such. Wonder if they could take the catapults for CVF.....

[DaveB]

That thought had crossed my mind too Skip.. the legal bit not the cats It said at the begining that India and Egypt had turned it down and further down said that it had been recalled. You certainly don't go to the expense of towing something halfway around the world on the offchance that someone on t'other end is gonna take it off your hands Journalism at it's finest once more :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[SkippyBing]

Of course you could take the Russian approach, tow it somewhere and then opps sorry lost the tow and it sank, oh well!

[Harry Basset]

I saw it off Whitby on Saturday evening about 1700, the light was going fast and visibility was poor but at last I have seen a CTOL carrier. I wondered about the maritime law for ships under tow as there were no lights visible at all on Clemenceau, are the lights on the tug sufficient warning?

[SkippyBing]

There should be lights on the tow as well, number determined by length. Ship's lights are only required to be lit between sunset and sunrise or poor visibility, but the captain has the option to put them on any other time he feels like it. There are also requirement with regards to the intensity and the hue and colour of the various lights.

Some rules on lights here: http://www.sailtrain.co.uk/Irpcs/annexi.htm

Just looked it up, for vessels more than 100m in length, an all round white light at least every 100m visible for three miles.

[tinkicker]

I think the MOD should have bought it and gave it a refit and used it as a stop gap until they get the QEII class carriers, also maybe a couple of USN Forestal class carriers would do nicely