Holiday Entertainment...

**bennyk** · 11th September 2007, 08:31

...went to France last week and travelled by the Fast Cat from Poole to St Malo - the Condor Vitesse.

Anyway, about 30 mins into the trip, the captain came on the tannoy and announced that the Coastguard wanted to do some "practice" as it was their training day and I managed to catch on video the practice session. It was great and really entertaining

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwWfqLCk3ik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmYS6tfCVWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujx1KfanMG4

**Big-Pete** · 11th September 2007, 10:29

Thats well cool how the helicoptor blades look like they are only doing about 20 rpm..!!!

Good videos

**Drinky** · 11th September 2007, 10:35

Very cool the skill of these pilots is second to none !!!!!

**Duncan** · 11th September 2007, 12:34

Love the third video - amazing how the pilot keeps the position in the sky in relation to the ship in exactly the same place - looks like they are just hovering until you see that they are also zipping along at the same speed as the ship!

**Ste** · 11th September 2007, 13:02

HOW does that helicopter stay in the air? The rotors are rotating very slowly and in the wrong direction !

**ion** · 11th September 2007, 13:27

I went on the Condor ferry to Guernsey.

The ferry is very powerful indeed!

We liked standing on the back as it accelerated!

The engines shot great plumes of water out.

Awesome!

**Ste** · 11th September 2007, 14:36

We went to Guernsey on hols this year, last year and year before too.

**bennyk** · 11th September 2007, 15:15

Originally Posted by Duncan

until you see that they are also zipping along at the same speed as the ship!

Yes, and it was a steady 40 knots.

Managed to blag a trip to the wheelhouse whilst on the ferry and when talking to the captain about how fast etc, he detailed that most of the time they ran the engines at about 95% capacity which equated to about 40 knots depending upon the sea state. Om that day the sea was very flat so he had the throttles fully open at their stops....!

**G.O'Rilla** · 11th September 2007, 20:03

I used to go on the Stena fast ferry from Harwich to the Hook - the only ship that gave a push in the back when accelerating, which was not surprising since it developed 100,000 HP - that is actually more than the VXRD with new intercooler. More than most things really......

**BigMan** · 11th September 2007, 20:06

Originally Posted by G.O'Rilla

I used to go on the Stena fast ferry from Harwich to the Hook - the only ship that gave a push in the back when accelerating, which was not surprising since it developed 100,000 HP - that is actually more than the VXRD with new intercooler. More than most things really......

Once used the Stena Fast Cat thingy on the Belfast Stranraer route, scared the f*cking life out of me!!