Offshore platform in heavy seas - GIF

[Jon]

The Borgholm Dolphin accommodation platform in the rough North Sea.



Previously:

Floating Instrument Platform - GIF
Towing an oil platform to sea - video
Uncapsizable boat - GIF
Boat snaps cable during loading - GIF
Harbor pilot boarding ship in heavy seas - video

[Frank S]

Looks like 50 to 80 ft swells if that wont make you sea sick nothing will

[Fluffle-Valve]

The Cross Channel Ferry, across the English Channel makes me sick.
Bugger being on that wobbly platform.

[tonyfoale]

In 1972/3 I was working in a certifying organisation for offshore oil platforms etc. I spent most of my time developing computational methods for simulating the forces that waves created on structures and the response of semi-submersible platforms (like the one in the video) to those waves. This was before the days of the multi-physics computer packages common today.

I remember the day when I did the first simulation of the platform motion. I just used some generic platform design and plucked some sea conditions out of the air just to test that my software produced some sensible looking results. I picked 60' high waves but I forget the wave-length that I specified. The results showed that the platform would have a 40' vertical movement.

Shortly afterwards I was showing the results to my boss and by sheer coincidence during our conversation he received a phone call from a platform out in the North Sea which told him that there were 60' high seas and the platform was moving 40'. Despite my insistence that it was pure coincidence that my results were identical he preferred to believe that I had developed something wonderful. He would not listen to my warnings that my software was still at a very early stage of development and needed a lot of validation before any confidence could be placed in it.

Anyway, I instantly became the golden boy and got a large salary bonus that year.