Armored Harbor

I've been thinking building some sort of armored harbor for Huntington to park in when she's not needed and I think I may finally have a viable design.  This involves modifying a styrofoam cooler by cutting off one end and cutting a hole in the bottom.  Then I can toss this in the water upside down.  Hopefully it will float and might require some balasting to make it float level since one end was cut off.  Either way it would hopefully provide some protection from stray rounds damaging the club's rescue boat.  I hope to go shopping for foam ice chests in the next week to see what I can find and make some measurements on Huntington in an attempt to determine if this will even work.  Will suggested lightly attaching waterproof canvas to the exterior to enhance the level of protection.  I think designing an anchor system that allows the harbor to move will be a good idea as well.  This would allow some of the energy in the rounds to be converted to kinetic energy in the harbor.  I get the feeling that if I can come up with a good solution for this that this "Harbor" could have other uses including as a mobile practice target. 

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Brian's picture

Re: Armored Harbor

Sounds interesting...  However, wouldn't it be easier to just leave the tug out of the water until it is needed?

Drew's picture

Re: Armored Harbor

While visiting a friend I managed to snag a foam cooler that just happens to be about the exact size needed to contain Huntington    The sides on it are about 1-1/2" thick too!

Brian's picture

Re: Armored Harbor

That should work very nicely as my cannons are allowed to punch through two inches of foam... I definately don't recommend you using anything thicker than 1-1/2" to protect Huntington.

Seriously though, once wrapped in duct tape that should provide decent cover in a light weight form.

Drew's picture

Re: Armored Harbor

Armored Harbor 1

 

Welp here's a picture of the ice chest I spoke of...

Brian's picture

Re: Armored Harbor

That should be fun to blast holes in (I will let you wonder if I mean the tug or the ice box)

Drew's picture

Re: Armored Harbor

Well, I plan to add some more "armor" to it but I haven't decided how exactly just yet.  I have a few ideas but I need to experiment with a few things and go shopping for materials.

 

If I build it correctly this could turn into both an excellent moving target for practice and a possible test bed for blast shield tech.  Thinking about adding some foam to the interior for a tigher fit and a sort of triangle to the "bow" to make it a smidge more hydrodynamic.