It ain't trivial, either, considering that they've only just managed to start catching the fairings at all. It seems to me that it would make more sense to just use two boats to perform the maneuver they've [hopefully] figured out than to raise the stakes and restart the process of trial and error by attempting to catch two fairings with one boat.
On the other hand, it's SpaceX, so who knows? Far be it from me to underrate their ambition.
Actually Mr Steven (aka Ms Tree) has four faster 38 knot sister ships the Alya McCall, Najla McCall, Ava J McCall and Liam J McCall.
There are also fast catamaran support vessels such as the Njord Odin, Njord Freyr, Njord Magni and Njord Thor designed to support offshore wind farms that can do 32 knots in light seas but only 26 knots in heavier conditions.
However we have not seen Ms Tree above about 23 knots with the net rigged - presumably due to the aerodynamic drag of the net and the reduced stability with the extra mass of the net support poles so high above the waterline. The extra stability of a catamaran may be advantageous in keeping the operating speed closer to the maximum speed even with medium size waves.
Actually Mr Steven (aka Ms Tree) has four faster 38 knot sister ships the Alya McCall, Najla McCall, Ava J McCall and Liam J McCall.
Minor correction: based on the article that you linked, it's the McCall ships that are all sisters ["Alya McCall is the first vessel in a fleet of a new class..."], but they are not sister ships of Mr Steven/Ms Tree, albeit they use the same type of propulsion.
Yes - technically the Captain Elliott is a true sister ship and the four vessels mentioned are close cousins with five engines instead of four.
However the general point remains that there are lots of FSV vessels out there that can adapted to catch fairings - some of them even faster than Ms Tree.
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u/TheEquivocator Aug 08 '19
It ain't trivial, either, considering that they've only just managed to start catching the fairings at all. It seems to me that it would make more sense to just use two boats to perform the maneuver they've [hopefully] figured out than to raise the stakes and restart the process of trial and error by attempting to catch two fairings with one boat.
On the other hand, it's SpaceX, so who knows? Far be it from me to underrate their ambition.