FLIP marks 50 years as oddest ship in science
Share PhotoAs ideas go, it seemed, well, a bit crazy.The Scripps Institution of Oceanography turned to the Navy in the 1960s and asked it to build a ship that could flip vertically in the ocean as though it were sinking in about the time it takes to steam a pot of rice.The goal: Give Scripps and the Navy a sturdy platform from which to study everything from the weather to the way sound bends in the sea.There was nothing like it at the time. But the Navy said yes, ordering up the Floating Instrument Platform, or FLIP, a 355 foot long vessel that's still in operation.FLIP is now turning 50, a milestone that Scripps will mark on Friday with a birthday party at the institution's dock in Point Loma.At sea maneuver"There's still nothing like this anywhere in the UGG Boots Black Friday world," says Bill Gaines, the retired Navy submarine and surface ship commander who UGGS Black Friday Deals has long managed FLIP. "The fact that it has operated continuously, without being laid up for long periods, says a lot about the foresight of its designers . although people look at it and Women UGG Boots Black Friday still say, 'What is that?' "Share PhotoHis colleague, Scripps oceanographer Rob Pinkel, describes FLIP as "the nautical equivalent of a sky hook; you can put instruments on it anywhere to study the lower atmosphere and upper ocean and remain fairly immune from the waves."Even heavy seas have little effect of the ship, UGG Bailey Button Triplet Boots Black Friday which is shaped like a spoon. The crew partially floods FLIP's ballast tanks, causing the vessel to turn stern first into the ocean. It sort of looks like the death throes of the Titanic. Only 55 feet of FLIP remains above the water line. The ballast keeps the ship from wildly swinging back and forth."It only moves six degrees in any direction," says David Brenha, a FLIP crew member. "If you're been on any other ship, you know that is great. . This is the best place to be on any ship out at sea in bad weather."