If anyone is interested I have a great chart program tha a mate made for me, I have to email it as it is so big, but make sure you can use .xls files! PM me if you want it!

Australia lead Group F
Come on Aussie Come on, Come on, Come on Aussie Come on, Come on!
(Sure it was a cricket song from the late 70’s but it still has meaning 😀 )

I know there were further problems when they were handed over to Canada but much of that was down to mothballing them for so long

Actually it was the Canadian’s wanting to change the main weapons fit, the Upholders were fantastic boats and they fired the Spearfish. The Canadians had the Mk-48 left over from their old O-boats and they wanted to use these on the Upholders and this is where it all fell apart.

that would be nice.. when can you start…. while you are at it teach us some tennis as well..

Send me a ticket and I’ll be over there like a shot! I’, sick of having no real competition here in Australia, we now export Basketballers and Gritiron players to America, Ice Hockey players to Canada and Footballers to Europe. Someone has to teach you guys how to play!

So who is going to be a shocker this year?

That’s easy Can,
AUSTRALIA

Hi Fed, thanks for thinking of me mate I am honoured and am sorry it took me so long to reply, as pointed out above the Japanese vessels are longer though with the interoduction of the Sterling AIP system our Collins are to gain extra length, the only question is when is this going to happen? Also the much awaited TLAM capability will add further length to these boats but I think this dream has slipped back into the realms of fantasy. At the times of Construction our subs were thwe biggest but the Japanese have upped the stakes again but then again they are very capable builders of these vessels, we are not, they have been building these boats for a very long time, the Collins are our first.

I know the doco you are talking about I saw it being made and remember its release here in Australia. Rankin hadn’t gone back to receive the upgrades critical to the project, this was also before Rankin had the seal around the shaft break flooding the engine room, this caused the whole fleet to be placed on stand-by in order to assertain what measures needed to be taken to correct the fault.

These days our fleet of subs enjoy a realativly good life, most are operational in the fleet with HMAS Collins back at ASC undergoing refit to correct problems and fittout of a new battle management system and fire control computer (actually the BQY-1 as fitted to the USS Seawolf class). These systems will make these vessels the most capable Diesel electric subs in the world.

The fact that the Japanese have a crew of 70 in their subs and we have a crew of just under 60 speaks volumes of the amount of automation we have packed into these subs.IIRC the Japanese subs are only one deck with a sub deck, our Collins are two decks with a sub deck (a sub deck is a half deck below the floor usually containing a storage area for food and supplies, it has the cold storage and freezer rooms as well. Our Subs also have a mixed crew, the Japanese do not this has also nessitated the sleeping arangements on the collins to reflect a mixed gender, the female crew sleep forward on 01 deck (above the forward torpedo tubes), while the males sleep aft on 02 deck, just forward of the engine room. As always the4 officers get their quaters amid ship on 01 deck.

If it came down to a war, I’d be backing the Japanese navy since not only do they know more about sub warfare but they know their ships very well.

Well I hope I haven’t disappointed anyone.

i watched the game… Australia played very well.. well done the Aussies… we’ll make a football nation out of you yet…

Hahahahaha perhaps we can teach you both Rugby and Cricket 😉

Australia beats the odds

Unbeliveable, we have been out of the cup for 32 years and all of a sudden we have our first ever world cup finals victory. 3-1 against Japan, Japan’s goal was contravesial and has now been ruled by FIFA and wrong and the Egyptian Ref has appologised for allowing it, but as has been noted, he didn’t see it from the angle the rest of the world did.

Tim Cahill has gone down as the First Australian (and the second aussie) to ever score a goal at the world cup finals. John Aloisi who scored the third goal for Australia also scored the goal against Uraguay, has been called an aussie hero.

Our next match is against Brazil in Munich, we are not taking this lightly as we are all to aware that these football gods are the world favourites to win the match, even still, we have proven that we earned our place to be there in Germany!

No other team in World cup history has ever scored three goals in the last 8 minutes- so this is a first not only for us but the records, just shows how determined we are.