快猫短视频

IT LOOKS like a cross between a submarine and a chisel鈥攂ut French naval
architects say their bizarre new design for a lifeboat will halve the time it
takes to reach a ship in trouble. Using wave-piercing technology more common to
high-speed catamaran ferries, the 22-metre-long craft will have a top
speed of 55 knots (100 kilometres per hour). Currently, the fastest lifeboats
plying Britain鈥檚 coastal waters have a top speed of 25 knots.

鈥淭he bow will cut through the waves like a blade,鈥� says Gildas Plessis, one
of the boat鈥檚 designers at Plessis Marin, based in Machecoul, near Nantes. Just
like a fast ferry, the lifeboat will be propelled by two powerful water jets.
Plessis anticipates that in rough seas the vessel could be submerged by up to 5
metres as it travels under the crest of a wave before re-emerging in the trough.
The lifeboat would have a crew of four and be able to rescue up to a dozen
people at a time. In calmer seas, rescuers could leave the craft鈥檚 rear on jet
skis towing floating stretchers, say the designers.

The vessel鈥檚 lightweight hull will be built from a sandwich of glass fibre
and PVC bonded with epoxy resin. Plessis aims to test a model in a tank within
the next year. 鈥淚f the tests are OK, we hope to see our first wave-piercer built
in 2002 or 2003,鈥� he told 快猫短视频.

The company is also working on a military version which could be used as a
landing craft. In this case, Plessis says, the hull would be reinforced with
Kevlar鈥攚hich is used in bulletproof vests鈥攁nd carbon fibre to help
protect the craft against gunfire.