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[Tug Fanatic]

I am gathering that there is not much interest in my South America topics so this will be the last one.


Chile has a similar problem to the Scottish Western Isles that led to the development of the Clyde Puffer. Remote communities on islands, poor or non existent roads, lots of islands etc. The difference is scale. The Chilean fjords & islands stretch from Cape Horn in the South to Puerto Montt in the north - a distance of around 1000mls. The scale of the waterways is also very large with very high mountains. The communities island based and widely spaced. There is now a lot of fish farming although the landscape scale is so large it is difficult to see. These often have no overland access at all.


Scotland developed the Clyde Puffer and Chile seems to have these - pictures below. They come in all sorts of sizes, carry just about anything, don't need docks, etc etc etc.


Some of the pictures below were at extreme range & heavily cropped, some were taken in rain & some both. Please excuse the quality issues.
 

[Netleyned]

A lot of us are interested.
Just not many comments.
Intriguing little vessels.
Would make a nice different
model.
Based on a landing craft type hull with
working bow ramp, it would be interesting.
Please keep posting the interesting oddities.
Ned

[imsinking]

   They look fairly modern , at the time of the Clyde Puffers I'd imagine the ships would've been Sail driven ?
Be an uncomfortable ride in rough sea's I'll bet . . . .
Bill

[Tug Fanatic]

  They look fairly modern , at the time of the Clyde Puffers I'd imagine the ships would've been Sail driven ?
Be an uncomfortable ride in rough sea's I'll bet . . . .
Bill

Yes they are modern but then again South America is a Argentina & Chile are countries of great contrasts. The major cities are having lots of money spent in the but the rural areas are relatively poor, isolated & undeveloped.  The transport problems that they face now are similar to those faced here 150 years ago. The distances are large, the whole area is a collection of non connected islands, the communities far apart etc. I am not sure what they did 100 years ago but these are their answer now. I attach a couple of photos of Puerto Chacabuco - the biggest place for a very long way to give you the picture. The first one is typical housing & the second the approach to the harbour (I posted a picture above with the "ferries" next to the wreck which are in the bottom right corner of this picture .


I have seen these boats in 50+ knot winds & they looked OK. What it was like to be on one I don't know! Certainly a lot better than our tenders - photo 3 (photo taken at Stanley, Falkland Islands).

[Liverbudgie2]

I am gathering that there is not much interest in my South America topics so this will be the last one.

Keep them coming - take pictures of anything and everything.

Just because people don't comment does not mean they are not interested or looking and wishing that they were down there as well.

I'd wager that many still look at what some, perhaps most, people regard as my barmy posts even though they don't comment.

LB

[Jerry C]

With the exception of Punta Arenas, Chile is somewhere I haven’t been. Keep these posts coming cos I’m interested.
Jerry.

[Arrow5]

Agree with two previous posts , keep the pictures and text coming.   The heavy weather picture  was very good and a bit frightening.  The craft are very similar to, but smaller, Cromarty Queen,  2 car ferry on the Black Isle , east coast Scotland.

[Tug Fanatic]

Agree with two previous posts , keep the pictures and text coming.   The heavy weather picture  was very good and a bit frightening.  The craft are very similar to, but smaller, Cromarty Queen,  2 car ferry on the Black Isle , east coast Scotland.

Yes that would look perfectly at home in the Chilean Fjords. I think the underwater shape might be different however as the Chilean boats seemed to have a normal bow shape underwater whilst your ferry seems more blunt like a Springer.


The tenders were a thrill ride in windy conditions although surprisingly  the ship didn't advertise them as such. The real difficulty was getting the people on/off the tender at the ship end of the journey. The method used was to keep the ship thrusters going all day to keep a slight leeward shore where the tenders berthed. You still needed a second to get your timing right before making the leap. The tenders are some of the ships lifeboats so I am sure that they would ride out pretty well anything although not necessarily comfortably. The reason for the dramatic spray was, I think, that the tenders are catamarans but with slight flats at the bow tip. These hammered the water but the real spray came when the central raised part of the hull hit the water. It wasn't a smooth ride!


The shore end was easy as the people who designed the harbour had taken the weather into account.

[RST]

No offense but Cromarty Queen is really no comparison whatsoever.  My own efforts trying to model MV Rassay or Eigg don't compare at all.  They're teeny-tiny.

Googling any form of these craft -there is such a multitude, and very large ones also.  I can totally see why these craft prevail in the environment.  Why not as you say.  And they're quite sophisticated, hardy hullforms for their application these days .

I'M STRUGGLING WITH YOUR FANTASTIC TRIP PICS THOUGH.  THEY'RE ALL SO GOOD BUT SPLIT UP IN  DIFFERENT POSTS!!!! MUCH BETTER TO COMBINE IN ONE POST IMO

[Tug Fanatic]

They actually did vary in size a lot. Yes there were some very big ones but there were also some much smaller. Cromarty Queen was certainly at the smallest end of what I saw but the general look above the water line is the same. There are so many, the waters are so open and the distances so great I am sure that they are a well developed set of designs.


I thought that splitting the pictures up made it easier!