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, 14:39   #31
Registered User
 
JiffyLube's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oceanside, Ca.
Boat: Islander Freeport 36
Posts: 576
Images: 8
Quote:
Originally Posted by David M View Post
Its a good thing that you have a feel for both types of units. Some people never get accustomed, especially here in the US where we are still on the imperial system, except for our scientists. If I were king, the entire world would be on the metric system.
Good thing your not King, because all of us simple minded construction workers would never be able to build your house.
JiffyLube is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 14:51   #32
Registered User
 
JiffyLube's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Oceanside, Ca.
Boat: Islander Freeport 36
Posts: 576
Images: 8
Quote:
Originally Posted by MaizieDerrick View Post
aloha i suffer with the same affliction having been raised in england on the standard system.. now as i hpe soon to be retired diesel mechanic i have not been able to change to metric.. always looking for that metric whrench size.. unable to find the right size bolt.. only to find two or three types of metric..and who sells them anyway.. my mind automatically tries to convert anything metric to standard.. when someone tells me its 20 degrees celsius i have no idea what that is.. so i'm afraid theres no hope when you have a mind set..thank goodness most marine stuff is at least standard still, like charts hopefully..derrick
I don't have much trouble using either method of tool sizing, as I don't look at the size printed on the tool (in the case of sockets or wrenches), I compair the physical size of the tool I want against physical size of the thing I'm going to use the tool on. All I care about is if it fits.
JiffyLube is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 14:55   #33
Registered User
 
Sailmonkey's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Houston
Boat: ‘01 Catana 401
Posts: 9,626
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wotname View Post
Don't any of you landlubbers use fathoms any more. It is the only true method method to measure depth and oh so easy to remember, a decent boat needs only 1 fathom to float in. I have had to chuck out out all my new charts and just use the older ones that are still marked in fathoms.

And for the engine room engineers, if those imperial AND metric spanners won't fit, perhaps you would like to borrow my Whitworth series of spanners or perhaps I could flog them on ebay

And try working on an english built northsea supply boat in Houston with halfbreed whitworth/metric engines!!! "don't you dare drop that bolt in the bilge, but that one's OK"
Sailmonkey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 14:57   #34
Registered User
 
SkiprJohn's Avatar

Join Date: May 2006
Location: Nicholasville, Kentucky
Boat: 15 foot Canoe
Posts: 14,191
Feet make more since because one foot equals the length of my foot.
__________________
John
SkiprJohn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 15:03   #35
Moderator and Certifiable Refitter
 
Wotname's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: South of 43 S, Australia
Boat: C.L.O.D.
Posts: 20,300
And does two feet equal the length of your feet
__________________
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 online now   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 15:06   #36
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
Over here we use a depth scale with two values: "Aground" and "Afloat". Well, that's not entirely true, there is also a third value that you are likely to encounter after having been at a depth of "Aground" and that's "At the bottom". As "At the bottom" is, in fact, an unsigned value, it's easier to comprehend than any other known way of measuring depth since the other ways in this case would give you a negative reading.

/Hampus
__________________
https://adventureswithsyingeborg.blogspot.com/
On the way back to Sweden.
Hampus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 15:07   #37
Moderator Emeritus
 
FrankZ's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Chesapeake Bay
Boat: Bristol 35 Bellesa
Posts: 13,564
Images: 1
What I don't understand, and I hope someone can explain it, is when you use different prefixes. I have seen people, for instance, quote a bridge deck clearance as 1500mm. Why not say 1.5M? I would understand if it was a very precise measurement, but I can't see it is exactly 1500mm so why the percision?
__________________
Sing to a sailor's courage, Sing while the elbows bend,
A ruby port your harbor, Raise three sheets to the wind.
......................-=Krynnish drinking song=-
FrankZ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 15:11   #38
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
All measurements in a drawing are, or should be, presented in mm. When speaking in general terms it's usually in metres.

/Hampus
__________________
https://adventureswithsyingeborg.blogspot.com/
On the way back to Sweden.
Hampus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 15:12   #39
Moderator
 
Dockhead's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Denmark (Winter), Helsinki (Summer); Cruising the Baltic Sea this year!
Boat: Cutter-Rigged Moody 54
Posts: 33,764
Quote:
Originally Posted by bewitched View Post
I have a small and irratating problem:

I was born in in the UK in 1966
I started school in 1971, three months after decimalisation was introduced
I was taught weights and measures using the decimal system
I have never used feet & inches to measure anything in my entire life.
If I'm anchoring a boat that has the depth reading in metres, the first thing I do is switch it over to feet.

Why do I do this?
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.
Dockhead is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 15:45   #40
Registered User

Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: At the intersection of here & there
Boat: 47' Olympic Adventure
Posts: 4,852
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankZ View Post
What I don't understand, and I hope someone can explain it, is when you use different prefixes. I have seen people, for instance, quote a bridge deck clearance as 1500mm. Why not say 1.5M? I would understand if it was a very precise measurement, but I can't see it is exactly 1500mm so why the percision?
The beauty of SI is there is no need for superfluous zeroes, nor for decimal places. So instead of 1500mm or 1.5m, it should be 15dm. The system is brilliant - unfortunately the users are not.
Lodesman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 15:48   #41
Moderator and Certifiable Refitter
 
Wotname's Avatar

Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: South of 43 S, Australia
Boat: C.L.O.D.
Posts: 20,300
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lodesman View Post
........ The system is brilliant - unfortunately the users are not.
Oh so true (and I am a user )
__________________
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 online now   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 16:12   #42
Registered User
 
SkiprJohn's Avatar

Join Date: May 2006
Location: Nicholasville, Kentucky
Boat: 15 foot Canoe
Posts: 14,191
Wotname,

And if there are three feet then one is not mine.
__________________
John
SkiprJohn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 16:46   #43
Registered User
 
Blue Stocking's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: St. Georges, Bda
Boat: Rhodes Reliant 41ft
Posts: 4,131
Gold is measured in Troy ounces, or avoirdupios!!! What the H*LL is that?
__________________
so many projects--so little time !!
Blue Stocking is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 16:51   #44
Registered User
 
bewitched's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: SE Asia
Boat: Swan 56
Posts: 891
Images: 3
Quote:
Originally Posted by SvenG View Post
Feet make you feel safer because it seems deeper.


-Sven
I think you might have it there.

Anchoring in 10 ft of water sounds fine (not much tide here)

but anchoring in 3m does feel a bit shallow - only '3' to go and I'm on the bottom!!
bewitched is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-12-2009, 17:10   #45
Registered User
 
bewitched's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: SE Asia
Boat: Swan 56
Posts: 891
Images: 3
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

oh and small correction - I'm Scottish.

and finally nobody has mentioned BTU's (British Thermal Units) - only used in US.....and possibly Liberia....but not Burma, because they don't need heating there...
bewitched 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 02:50.


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.