"Steve Firth" wrote in message
. ..
otnmbrd wrote:

Except of course those with Voight-Schneider drives, like most ferrys
seem to have.

Wrong. SOME ferries have Voight Schneider, not most, and it's by NO
means a high speed drive, although it will increase maneuverability.

Most of the monohull Channel Ferries have V-S,and IIRC all of the Solent
ferries.

BG I forgot that this was crossposted in "uk.rec.sailing". Ok, "most",
over there, some over here.

[snip]
They float on water, they move around, some of them go fast.

Wrong again. It's all VERY relevant, because what you can or cannot
expect from any of the varying types is significantly different

Significantly different my left foot. Observation will tel you what
another vessel is doing.

All well and good, but "observations" will not tell you what a particular
vessel may or may not be capable of, unless you know what they have and are
aware of it's plusses and minuses, and many are significantly different.
For instance, at sea, underway, could you tell the difference between a
"V-S" and standard drive ferry, assuming you didn't know ahead of time that
the particular boat had one or the other drives?

and what you don't know can get you run down.

Well, if you don't know that a rapid flashing amber light indicates a
hovercraft it could.

Not too many hovercraft over here, so we tend to forget about them, as our
major "high speed" ferries are waterjet.

otn