Would you take a brand new $ 1.2 billion ship and be told it was uncertain it would clear a bridge and yet rush full steam ahead at 20 knots towards the bridge? And would you do it on Halloween night?
Real life scenario played out as the new Oasis of the Seas left the shipyard where it was made in Finland and went under the Great Belt bridge in Denmark with its telescoping funnels retracted and still barely cleared by 2 feet.
It would have been a catastrophe without the “squat effect” -
“the phenomenon by which a vessel moving quickly through shallow water creates an area of lowered pressure under its keel that reduces the ship's buoyancy, particularly at the bow. The reduced buoyancy causes the ship to "squat" lower in the water than would ordinarily be expected.”
PS: In December we docked right next to it at Port Everglades as the family came back from our cruise. We could have with a long runway jumped and landed on its helipad!
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