Cruisers Forum
 


Reply
  This discussion is proudly sponsored by:
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on Cruisers Forums. Advertise Here
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 10-12-2009, 18:01   #46
Registered User
 
Zednotzee's Avatar

Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Oromocto, New Brunswick
Boat: 1976 Alberg 37 Yawl hull 172
Posts: 395
Quote:
Originally Posted by bewitched View Post
and finally nobody has mentioned BTU's (British Thermal Units) - only used in US
Not true, we use it as well- for heating and cooling!
Zednotzee is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 19:13   #47
Registered User

Join Date: Jan 2009
Boat: Charter
Posts: 176
2 feet = 10 toes?
sec906 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 19:14   #48
Registered User
 
Bloodhound's Avatar

Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Boat: Westsail 32
Posts: 317
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hampus View Post
All measurements in a drawing are, or should be, presented in mm. When speaking in general terms it's usually in metres.

/Hampus
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!
Bloodhound is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 19:32   #49
Senior Cruiser
 
skipmac's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: 29° 49.16’ N 82° 25.82’ W
Boat: Pearson 422
Posts: 16,306
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dockhead View Post
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.
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.
skipmac is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 20:08   #50
Registered User
 
Bloodhound's Avatar

Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Boat: Westsail 32
Posts: 317
And firkins per fortnight for the real drinklers !!! (1 firkin = 40.9 L)
Bloodhound is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 20:14   #51
Registered User
 
JiffyLube's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oceanside, Ca.
Boat: Islander Freeport 36
Posts: 576
Images: 8
Quote:
Originally Posted by skipmac View Post
You forgot furlongs.
Good thing we're not still using leagues.
JiffyLube is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 20:19   #52
Registered User
 
bewitched's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: SE Asia
Boat: Swan 56
Posts: 891
Images: 3
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...
bewitched is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 21:41   #53
Registered User
 
Ziggy's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: U.S., Northeast
Boat: Currently boatless
Posts: 1,643
Images: 2
Quote:
Originally Posted by sec906 View Post
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.
The meter can also be easily divided (at least by some people) into equal quarters, twentieths, or fiftieths.
Ziggy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-12-2009, 00:03   #54
Marine Service Provider
 
Factor's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Brisbane Australia
Boat: Multihulls - cats and Tris
Posts: 4,859
Quote:
Originally Posted by SvenG View Post
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
Excellent company to be in
Factor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-12-2009, 07:00   #55
Registered User

Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Fort Pierce, FL. Texas Roots
Boat: 82 Present, 13 ft dinghy
Posts: 495
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Stocking View Post
Gold is measured in Troy ounces, or avoirdupios!!! What the H*LL is that?

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
Mule is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-12-2009, 07:06   #56
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
because men always tell women the 12 inches lie? ;-)
S Y Tuppenny is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-12-2009, 08:10   #57
Moderator and Certifiable Refitter
 
Wotname's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: South of 43 S, Australia
Boat: C.L.O.D.
Posts: 20,305
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Stocking View Post
Gold is measured in Troy ounces, or avoirdupios!!! What the H*LL is that?
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 View Post
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........
So multiplying fathoms by 2 to get meters (almost) is difficult

Quote:
Originally Posted by skipmac View Post
You forgot furlongs.
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
Wotname is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-12-2009, 08:20   #58
Registered User
 
Hampus's Avatar

Join Date: May 2008
Location: Sweden
Boat: Between boats
Posts: 474
Images: 6
Send a message via MSN to Hampus
Quote:
Originally Posted by S Y Tuppenny View Post
because men always tell women the 12 inches lie? ;-)
Usually goes like this:
-OMG, it's so huge!
-Don't worry baby, it's only 12 inches.

/Hampus
__________________
https://adventureswithsyingeborg.blogspot.com/
On the way back to Sweden.
Hampus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-12-2009, 20:59   #59
Registered User
 
JiffyLube's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oceanside, Ca.
Boat: Islander Freeport 36
Posts: 576
Images: 8
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bloodhound View Post
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!
We keep company with Cananda so what's that saying?
JiffyLube is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-12-2009, 21:11   #60
Registered User
 
Bloodhound's Avatar

Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Boat: Westsail 32
Posts: 317
Quote:
Originally Posted by JiffyLube View Post
We keep company with Cananda so what's that saying?
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).
Bloodhound is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
A day sail at 9,200 feet. bmiller General Sailing Forum 6 29-10-2008 22:19
'Oh Joy' Restoration - Well, She's Finally Feet Dry CharlieCobra Construction, Maintenance & Refit 3 27-08-2008 16:20
ssb and 100 sq feet of copper dpollitt Marine Electronics 9 14-08-2008 20:51
Can I have it all in 28 feet ? outislandmike Construction, Maintenance & Refit 25 30-03-2008 18:28
since I was three feet tall sail_the_stars Meets & Greets 5 25-07-2003 01:49

Advertise Here


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 21:46.


Google+
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Social Knowledge Networks
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.

ShowCase vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.