"Giant steel straps that looked like Band-Aids were affixed to the side
of the boats, and the vessels were barred from venturing out in rough
water. But cracks and bulges continued to scar the Matagorda and other
converted ships, followed by a series of mechanical problems.

Bollinger, it turned out, had overestimated how much stress the modified
boats could handle, a miscalculation it cannot fully explain. “The
computer broke for some reason,” said T. R. Hamlin, a senior Bollinger
manager. “Whether it was a power surge or something, who knows?”

Priceless...
JR


Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
It's worth the read even if you have to sign up for it just to read
the story.

From today's New York Times.

----------------

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 Four years after the Coast Guard began an effort to
replace nearly its entire fleet of ships, planes and helicopters, the
modernization program heralded as a model of government innovation is
foundering.

http://tinyurl.com/yzoddj


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Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth