Tuesday - September 13, 2011

Left Fantasy May Become Reality

"What if schools were fully funded and the military had to have a bake sale to buy bombs?” Gak, you’ve heard that one before. Now in the disarmed, fully neutered, completely dickless land of warm beer and soggy fried fish, it may just become a reality. Having rid the Royal Navy of it’s last remaining aircraft carrier, the Green Plan is neither to sell it to the wonderful Chinese nor to break it up for scrap. No, the plan is to sink it off the coast and turn it into a reef, in the belief that this will somehow earn millions. Idiots.

HMS Ark Royal could be turned into artificial diving reef

Councillors back scheme to scuttle Royal Navy’s decommissioned flagship six miles off Devon to create reef

An ambitious scheme to scuttle the decommissioned aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal off Devon to create an artificial diving reef has won the backing of councillors.

Members of Torbay council’s harbour committee voted unanimously to support the proposal to sink the Royal Navy’s former flagship six miles off the English Riviera.

There are still many hurdles for the charity behind the scheme to overcome, not least buying the vessel, which was taken out of service as part of defence cuts.

But the harbour committee’s unanimous backing of a proposal to lease part of the seabed from the Crown Estate to create a final resting place for the Ark is seen as a major step forward by the many champions of the plan in Devon.

In Torbay the idea of buying the vessel and turning it into an artificial reef was hatched over drinks at a sailing club and quickly turned into a solid plan. A charity called Wreck the World has been formed and it has put in a bid of £3.5m for the Ark.

One of the charity’s founders, Michael Byfield, said: “It’s been a steep learning curve and there are still lots of obstacles but we feel we are getting somewhere.”

Wreck the World believes that divers would be attracted to Torbay from around the world if the scheme came to fruition, bringing in an estimated £10m a year to the local economy.

Byfield said he believed it would be best to scuttle the ship so that the top of it came to rest five to 10 metres below the surface, making it accessible to many more divers than if it was sunk deeper.

He would prefer to see the Ark settle upright on the seabed, allowing less confident divers to explore areas such as the bridge while more experienced ones could venture down to the deck and hull.

Naturally, measures will have to be taken to ensure it would not pose a risk to any other shipping. Detailed environmental surveys would be carried out to check that the wreck would enhance rather than harm marine life.

Dude, 5 to 10 meters down is going to make the thing a major navigation hazard. And if you make it easily accessible to novice divers, it’s going to become a lobster pot for people. A drowning magnet. This is not a fitting end for a great ship, but a tragic and ignomious one, and what makes it worse is that Ark Royal still could have had years of active duty in her. But why on earth would an island culture, once upon a time the greatest naval power in the world, want a navy for? Sink them all, and let the greenies come dive on the hulks for self-righteous fun. Geex, what happens when you get a swelled head when you’re 20 meters down? Does that cause instant oxygen narcosis? Gosh, I hope so.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/13/2011 at 12:33 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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