Bringing the USS John F. Kennedy to The Shipyards: Can We Do It?

MusicMan · June 19, 2011, 11:54:46 AM

I've long thought we could most easily convert The Shipyards into a Maritime Walk Aboard Museum that would draw people downtown year round. Place a few vintage ships in two of the slots and rotate the third space for a seasonal or special demonstration ship (anything from a tall masted sailing ship to a modern hovercraft). Then I read that the USS John F Kennedy is available from the Navy for donation to an organization to be used as a Museum. WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR!!!!!!!!!!!?

?

If we could move it into position parallel to the shore over at The Shipyards you would have the beginnings of something important: a catalyst for that area that would draw people from all over the country. We would have something special that The House of Mouse could never have, and foks would actualy have a reason to visit downtown independant of football or the occaisional festival.... I think it would be a perfect stop for some family traveling south on I 95 to spend an afternoon in Jax before continuing southbound.

Is it possible to move that monster that far up the river??

Charles Hunter · June 19, 2011, 01:17:43 PM

Didn't someone do a rendering of what that would look like? Anyway, the folks trying to bring the USS Charles Adams - a destroyer much smaller than the JFK, and thus less costly to maintain - are (as I understand it) having trouble raising the funds to establish their floating museum on the Southbank Riverwalk (it should be at the Shipyards site).
A comparison in sizes:
Length - Adams 437' JFK 1,050'
Beam (width) - Adams 47' JFK 128'
Draft - Adams 15' JFK 36'
The online sources I checked did not give height above the water line, but I think it is safe to say the JFK is much taller.

wsansewjs · June 19, 2011, 01:42:31 PM

Uncle Ockie will tell you the biggest issue of all is the maximum distance between the bottom of the Dames Point Bridge and the conning tower of JFK. This idea has been approached and discussed before somewhere in this website.

Basically, if you really want to cut the conning tower off, good luck trying to bring the whole deck under the Dames Points Bridge. Even at the lowest tides of the day.

-Josh

Charles Hunter · June 19, 2011, 01:49:45 PM

Even more than the DP are the Mathews and Hart bridges - they are about 20 feet shorter than DP, and the channel is shallower there, too.

tufsu1 · June 19, 2011, 06:51:01 PM

and then there's the length issue...if I understand MusicMan correctly, the idea is to use the piers for the ships...at 1000' in length, the Kennedy would stick out into the middle of the river!

Non-RedNeck Westsider · June 19, 2011, 07:44:58 PM

Something like the Uss Yorktown at Patriots Point in Charleston?

Charles Hunter · June 19, 2011, 08:06:48 PM

How wide is the river at the Shipyards? How far is it to the marked river channel - either pulling all the way into the piers, or parallel to the shoreline?

MusicMan · June 19, 2011, 08:39:31 PM

Yes, like the Yorktown in Charelston. Less than 2 miles off I-95, you could seriously pitch that to every person
or family driving north or south on the Interstate.

Seraphs · June 19, 2011, 11:21:50 PM

Two words come to mind, 'Super Sara'. We've been down this ugly bumpy road before. They scuffed at the USS Saratoga before. I, personally, would be all for the USS Kennedy. However, I'll believe it when I see it go under the Matthews Bridge.

tufsu1 · June 20, 2011, 08:08:41 AM

Quote from: Charles Hunter on June 19, 2011, 08:06:48 PM
How wide is the river at the Shipyards? How far is it to the marked river channel - either pulling all the way into the piers, or parallel to the shoreline?

At its widest point near the shipyards, the river is a tad more than 2000' wide (and that includes the length of the piers).

Ocklawaha · June 20, 2011, 08:24:54 AM

Won't work even if we had unlimited funding...

JFK - 192' waterline to mast, HEIGHT
Dames Point Bridge - 175'
Matthews Bridge - 149'
Hart Bridge - 141'

Sorry bout that but JTA/FDOT took care of that long ago.

OCKLAWAHA

PhanLord · June 20, 2011, 08:34:59 AM

Why not put it in mayport (in addition to a cruise terminal

) and smaller ship in downtown

Non-RedNeck Westsider · June 20, 2011, 08:37:12 AM

Unlimited......

Just build a few of these badboys at 4x scale.

MusicMan · June 20, 2011, 02:01:51 PM

How about we remove the top 50-60 feet and bring that in on a barge, re-fitted on site?

Honestly, would this be the single best thing we could do to immediately jumpstart a downtown renaissance.

Or maybe a WW II era battleship , destroyer or other large ship of that era. It would look awesome and probably be visible from the Acosta and other downtown bridges.

wsansewjs · June 20, 2011, 02:09:13 PM

Quote from: MusicMan on June 20, 2011, 02:01:51 PM
How about we remove the top 50-60 feet and bring that in on a barge, re-fitted on site?

Honestly, would this be the single best thing we could do to immediately jumpstart a downtown renaissance.

Or maybe a WW II era battleship , destroyer or other large ship of that era. It would look awesome and probably be visible from the Acosta and other downtown bridges.

Big John is still structurally intact and may need to be called again in the time of war (I hope we don't go there). I don't think the Navy would allow you to slice the actual hull or the main integrity of the entire hull. The deck can be stripped, the conning tower removed, or else, but not the main hull.

Need to look at Navy's requirements in order to acquire the donation of the Big John.

-Josh