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10-12-2009, 18:01
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#46
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Oromocto, New Brunswick
Boat: 1976 Alberg 37 Yawl hull 172
Posts: 395
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bewitched
and finally nobody has mentioned BTU's (British Thermal Units) - only used in US
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Not true, we use it as well- for heating and cooling!
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10-12-2009, 19:13
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#47
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2009
Boat: Charter
Posts: 176
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2 feet = 10 toes?
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10-12-2009, 19:14
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#48
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Boat: Westsail 32
Posts: 317
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hampus
All measurements in a drawing are, or should be, presented in mm. When speaking in general terms it's usually in metres.
/Hampus
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This thread shows many sailors with a quick sense of humour. But this quote reminds me of the feet and inches house plans I drew up while in the US, then converted to mm when we moved to Oz (the 40 ft wide house became a 12 192 mm wide house), and then on return to the US, the builder took one look at the plans, all in mm, and threw up (his hands that is). So we did a re-re-conversion.
The killer in Oz was the conversion to metric that took 4' x 8' plywood and wall board and made it 1200 x 2400 mm, which doesn't cover studs on 16" centres (in all but new buildings), without a heck of a lot of waste (but it sure sells more sheets). At least the (painful) conversion was done in one fell swoop, and even the 8.5 x 11 paper went to A4. Canada has a bastardized system of mix and match.
But the quip about the USA, Liberia and Burma as the only holdouts was priceless --- we are known by the company we keep!
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10-12-2009, 19:32
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#49
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: 29° 49.16’ N 82° 25.82’ W
Boat: Pearson 422
Posts: 16,306
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dockhead
Don't be a prig. A sailor needs to be fluent in every possible unit of measurement, without making a fuss about it. There is no EU nanny-state program at sea, to guaranty your human right to logical units of measurements. If you can't even handle feet and meters, go back to land. You also need to understand fathoms and cables, inches of mercury, millibars, psi, bar, quarts, gallons (U.S. and Imperial), liters, grams, kilos, pounds, and so forth, and translate between them fluently. How for bloody sake do you read a chart, if you're already so puzzled? Some of them still show depth in fathoms.
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You forgot furlongs.
__________________
The water is always bluer on the other side of the ocean.
Sometimes it's necessary to state the obvious for the benefit of the oblivious.
Rust is the poor man's Loctite.
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10-12-2009, 20:08
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#50
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Boat: Westsail 32
Posts: 317
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And firkins per fortnight for the real drinklers !!! (1 firkin = 40.9 L)
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10-12-2009, 20:14
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#51
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oceanside, Ca.
Boat: Islander Freeport 36
Posts: 576
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Quote:
Originally Posted by skipmac
You forgot furlongs.
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Good thing we're not still using leagues.
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10-12-2009, 20:19
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#52
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: SE Asia
Boat: Swan 56
Posts: 891
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Cattys and Taels are used in the markets here.
After 12 years I still haven't figured out if ithey are weights or a volumes.
If I'm buying something light it seems to be restricted by volume, buying something heavy and its a weight.
I have my suspicions...
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10-12-2009, 21:41
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#53
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: U.S., Northeast
Boat: Currently boatless
Posts: 1,643
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sec906
The foot can easily be divided into equal parts of halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, or twelfths. The meter can only be divided easily into equal halves, fifths, or tenths.
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The meter can also be easily divided (at least by some people) into equal quarters, twentieths, or fiftieths.
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11-12-2009, 00:03
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#54
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Marine Service Provider
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Brisbane Australia
Boat: Multihulls - cats and Tris
Posts: 4,859
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SvenG
Well, at least the US isn't alone. There are two other countries in the world which are not on the metric system: Burma, Liberia.
-Sven
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Excellent company to be in
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11-12-2009, 07:00
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#55
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Fort Pierce, FL. Texas Roots
Boat: 82 Present, 13 ft dinghy
Posts: 495
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Stocking
Gold is measured in Troy ounces, or avoirdupios!!! What the H*LL is that?
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So are nautical or marine parts and supplies. Stick "Marine" in front of it it goes to troy ounces from the each, dozen or package. have you noticed the guys at West wearing a jewelers loupe carrying a scale?
__________________
'Da Mule
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11-12-2009, 07:06
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#56
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Home is in the Sth West of the UK
Boat: Wright 40 - 1977 build, ketch, 12 mts
Posts: 76
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because men always tell women the 12 inches lie? ;-)
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11-12-2009, 08:10
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#57
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Moderator and Certifiable Refitter
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: South of 43 S, Australia
Boat: C.L.O.D.
Posts: 20,305
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Stocking
Gold is measured in Troy ounces, or avoirdupios!!! What the H*LL is that?
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Thus proving that while a pound of lead is the same weight as a pound of feathers, neither is the same as a pound of gold.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bewitched
I had a little think about it last night and came to the conclusion that it's because I have charts in fathoms, feet and metres in my cruising area. I can easily convert m/ft and fathoms/ft, but fathoms to metres seems to tax the old grey matter too much. So working in feet seems to be the easiest to work in........
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So multiplying fathoms by 2 to get meters (almost) is difficult
Quote:
Originally Posted by skipmac
You forgot furlongs.
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And rods, roods, perches, chains and links.....
__________________
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangereous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. T.E. Lawrence
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11-12-2009, 08:20
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#58
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Sweden
Boat: Between boats
Posts: 474
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Quote:
Originally Posted by S Y Tuppenny
because men always tell women the 12 inches lie? ;-)
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Usually goes like this:
-OMG, it's so huge!
-Don't worry baby, it's only 12 inches.
/Hampus
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17-12-2009, 20:59
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#59
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oceanside, Ca.
Boat: Islander Freeport 36
Posts: 576
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bloodhound
This thread shows many sailors with a quick sense of humour. But this quote reminds me of the feet and inches house plans I drew up while in the US, then converted to mm when we moved to Oz (the 40 ft wide house became a 12 192 mm wide house), and then on return to the US, the builder took one look at the plans, all in mm, and threw up (his hands that is). So we did a re-re-conversion.
The killer in Oz was the conversion to metric that took 4' x 8' plywood and wall board and made it 1200 x 2400 mm, which doesn't cover studs on 16" centres (in all but new buildings), without a heck of a lot of waste (but it sure sells more sheets). At least the (painful) conversion was done in one fell swoop, and even the 8.5 x 11 paper went to A4. Canada has a bastardized system of mix and match.
But the quip about the USA, Liberia and Burma as the only holdouts was priceless --- we are known by the company we keep!
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We keep company with Cananda so what's that saying?
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17-12-2009, 21:11
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#60
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Boat: Westsail 32
Posts: 317
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JiffyLube
We keep company with Cananda so what's that saying?
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Being Canadian, I think it says you keep bloody good company. Now, if you said you kept company with Oz, I'd have to say you keep even better company (wife's watching every letter I type --- she's an Aussie).
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