An excellent and useful exposition. Thank you!

Phil
>Tonnage has nothing to do with the weight of your boat. It is a measure
>of how much wine a vessel can carry.
>
>The word "tun" was originally a size of a cask used to ship wine from
>Spain & Portugal to England. In 1347 a tax of 3 shillings per tun was
>imposed and this was called "tonnage." A ship's size became known by the
>number of casks it could carry, and the word tonnage started being used
>to describe a ship's size.
>
>It was found that if you took the length x the breadth x the depth of
>the hold under the deck and divided by 100 it was close to the number of
>casks. That is where we get the "Measurement ton" of 100 cubic feet per
>ton.
>
>There are several kinds of tonnage: The first two are used by the tax
>collector. The next two are used by designers. The fifth and sixth are
>used by freight salesmen and canal operators and the last one is used by
>the USCG for documenting boats.
>
>Gross Tonnage - is the internal volume in cubic feet of the vessel
>minus certain spaces above the main or "tonnage" deck, like stacks and
>ventilators, which are called "exemptions" .
>
>Net Registered Tonnage - is obtained by deducting from the gross tonnage
>the volume of space that can't be used for paying cargo or passengers,
>that is to say the space occupied by the engines, the crew's quarter,
>the stores, etc.
>
>Displacement Tonnage - is the actual weight of the water "displaced" by
>the ship and is usually quoted in long tons of 2240 lbs.
>
>Light Displacement Tonnage - is the weight with nothing in it.
>
>Loaded Displacement Tonnage - is the fully loaded weight to the maximum
>and is on her summer draft in salt water.
>
>Deadweight Tonnage - is the difference between Light and Loaded
>Displacement Tonnage....the actual carrying capacity of the vessel.
>
>Panama & Suez Canal Tonnages - these are different from the internationally
>accepted definitions. There used to be a lot of variations between
>countries and the
>canal owners thought they were being conned, so they came up with
>their own definitions.
>
>Simplified Measurement System - The USCG decided that all this was way too
>much for bureaucrats to deal with for yachts so they came up with
>their own formula:
>
>Take the horizontal distance between the outboard ends of the boat not
>including rudders and bow sprits. Multiply that by the maximum beam
>outside to outside. Multiply that by the distance from the sheer
>line not including bulwarks or cap rails to the outside bottom of
>the hull not including the keel. Add the volume of the deck
>house/cabin top. Multiply by .5 for sailboats and .67 for power
>boats. Divide by 100.
>
>This will give you the "Gross Tonnage". Net tonnage is 90% of gross for
>sailboats and 80% for power boats.
>
>It should be obvious to anyone who's managed to get this far that
>your boat's "tonnage" no longer has anything to do with anything
>real; it only exists in the mind of some government bureaucrat.
>
>Rummage was the manner in which the wine casks were stored in the
>hold of the ship and came to refer to the whole ship's cargo. After
>a voyage any unclaimed and damaged cargo was stacked on the dock
>beside the boat and offered for sale - a rummage sale.
>
>
>--
>Peggie
>----------
>Peggie Hall
>Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
>Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems
>and Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
>http://shop.sailboatowners.com/books/detail-books.htm?fno=0&sku=90&cat=1304
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>Baba Panda and Tashiba Owners Mailing List --
>For more info, please check out the FAQ...
>http://www.ballreich.net/hypermail/baba-l/faq.html




-----------------------------------------------------------
Baba Panda and Tashiba Owners Mailing List --
For more info, please check out the FAQ...
http://www.ballreich.net/hypermail/baba-l/faq.html

Received on Mon Mar 13 16:28:34 2006