Saturday, 12/09/06

The NYT is running a long current story about disastrous contracting in overhauling the Coast Guard fleet.

In September 2004, more serious flaws in the boat conversion program became obvious after the first one, the Matagorda, was launched. As it traveled in relatively heavy seas from Key West to Miami, large cracks appeared in the hull and deck.

Giant steel straps that looked like Band-Aids were affixed to the side of the boats, and the vessels were barred from venturing out in rough water. But cracks and bulges continued to scar the Matagorda and other converted ships, followed by a series of mechanical problems.

[Bollinger Shipyards], it turned out, had overestimated how much stress the modified boats could handle, a miscalculation it cannot fully explain. "The computer broke for some reason," said T. R. Hamlin, a senior Bollinger manager. "Whether it was a power surge or something, who knows?" The cursory oversight by the Coast Guard meant the mistake was not caught in time.

Yes, I hate it when those power surges come along and subtly alter the variables in my spreadsheets. Fortunately, it's no one's fault, and no one ever has to get fired. 12:18PM «

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