England 1986

Chapter 185 Professional counterpart
"Your Excellency, your request, IMHO, the super yachts that are popular in the world are not small anymore, if this size can't meet your needs, then we can only redesign a new structure."

The person in charge of the shipyard was a little confused: "You also know that redesigning a yacht with a length of more than [-] meters is too much work, and there will be various tests in the later stage. Whether it is cost or construction time, it is very difficult trouble."

Allen looked at the workers on the semi-finished frigate shuttling on the dock, and looked at the frigate with some envy.

"With such a large hull, can I just use the blueprint of their hull and modify it?"

Allen's idea is very simple, there is no need to redesign, and he doesn't want to be taken advantage of, but right now there are ready-made ones, let's make them accordingly.

"This"

The person in charge of the shipyard looked at the frigate and then at Allen.

According to this line of thinking, it's not impossible, it just feels weird.

And with this kind of ready-made hull drawings for transformation, you can also take a little shortcut. The layout of the superstructure and the interior of the hull needs to be redesigned, and the cost.

Thinking of this, the person in charge of the shipyard expressed his concerns.

"How much does this ship cost?"

"Basically including the weapon system, it's about £4000 million."

"."

"Also, if you remove the weapon system and then redesign and plan the interior of the ship, you won't be able to save much money. If you insist on using this plan, then... your yacht will cost at least [-] million pounds to start. And it will take three to four years to build."

"."

Hearing this price, Allen felt for the first time that he was really poor, and he couldn't afford this or that.

One hundred million pounds for a ship?

Is there any king law?
Are there any laws?
"Forget it, is there a compromise? I think the construction time is too long."

Allen couldn't hold back
I wanted to be proud at first, but now it seems that I can't be proud.

He can accept a new castle built in three or four years, but he can't bear it if a yacht needs to be built in three or four years.

Cooperating with Guang spent money outside, and I won’t see anything in a few years.

The person in charge of the shipyard looked at Alan's face and rubbed his hands in embarrassment.

The meaning of this gentleman is obvious. If you want to be taller, then the construction period must be short, and the price must be controlled within a certain range.

Just look at how intently he stared at the frigate in the dock.
Today, this warship will definitely not be able to get around it.

But the new ones can't be used, why not use the old ones?

"Your Excellency, if you think the construction period is too long, why not try to use an old ship? For example, buy a decommissioned warship, and then use it to remove the weapon system and superstructure, so that the construction period can be greatly shortened."

Military boats?
They are all big toys, which are slow to build, but much faster to tear down.

And if you use old ships to modify them, you can achieve similar results, after all.
The most important hull does not need to be built slowly, and the construction time can be cut in half at least.

"Oh? Let me think about it."

After being reminded by the person in charge of the shipyard, Allen's mind was instantly opened.

New warships are too expensive to build, but old warships don't matter.

He has a relationship and just happens to be a professional counterpart.

Looking at the person in charge of the shipyard with a disturbed face next to him, Allen had a smile on his face. The opinion he gave was good.

"Well, what kind of warship is fine? Destroyer is also fine?"

"Yes! If you have connections, as long as the hull has not suffered too much damage, you can change it. The specifications of a warship are much higher than that of a civilian ship. If you use the hull of an old warship to transform it into a yacht, the protection will definitely be no problem!"

"Okay! Let's do this for today. I'll go back and think of a way."

Since there is a shortcut, Allen doesn't want to stay here any longer, and he can't wait to get old warships.

Originally, he planned to stay in Plymouth for one night before returning, but the negotiation ended quickly, and Alan didn't bother to waste time here, so he asked the driver to drive a little faster and drive to the manor.

It was dark in the evening, and I returned to the manor after seven o'clock.

The first time he saw Huth, Huth cast a concerned look at Allen and said, "Master, did the negotiation at the shipyard go well today?"

"Smooth, very smooth, but there are some changes in the plan. It ended early, so I rushed back. You go and tell the kitchen to cook me something to eat. I have a bad appetite these two days, and I don't want to eat too greasy food."

"Ok!"

After taking two steps, Allen paused, stopped Huth again and said, "By the way, call Thomas and ask him to come over tomorrow. I have something to tell him."

"Understood! I'll call him after I notify the kitchen."

"Well, let's go."

He took a hot bath first, and walked to the study in a bathrobe. William and Harry should be playing games in the room at this time. They didn't come out, and Alan didn't bother to ask.

Take out a pen and paper, and write down a few key words about today's thoughts, because I am afraid that I will forget them tomorrow after one night.

The opinion given by the person in charge of the shipyard today was very good, and Allen also had some ideas of his own.

Things like the hull of an old warship are really beyond the reach of ordinary people.

But if you have a relationship, it's relatively easy.

However, any big country, and it is still a big naval country, has many ways to deal with old warships.

The most common is decommissioning and then scrapping.

These are from the factory to the service, and then they have been in service for decades and come to an end. The warship is also old, and it is time to retire.

For the navy, about half of the old and decommissioned warships will be directly towed back to the shipyard, and then dismantled and disposed of as scrap iron.

In this process, great benefits will be generated.

For example, under normal circumstances, there is a specific date for the decommissioning time of warships.

Before retiring, whether it is to take a better photo or to look decent, under normal circumstances, a small maintenance will be done on the warship that is about to be retired.

The oil and water come from this maintenance.

For example, changing the gun, the machine gun hidden in the basement of Allen's house was obtained through this method.

The old earl asked someone to find a relationship. When the decommissioned warship was about to be maintained, he asked someone to replace the warship with a new cannon. Anyway, it was broken here and there, and a new one could be assembled with a bunch of parts.

Then renovate the appearance of the old machine guns on the ship a little, and it will be fine to deal with it.

The newly assembled cannons were taken home as scrapped.

As long as you are brave enough, it matters, not to mention machine guns, torpedoes are also fine.
The old earl tried it, but it was not cost-effective to make a torpedo, and it was not easy to use on land. In addition to taking up space, it was also risky to store, so I only made one and kept it at home for play.

In addition to being directly towed back to the shipyard for dismantling, there are other options for decommissioned warships, such as refurbishment, and then selling them to some backward countries. This is the most cost-effective and the most lucrative.

Outsiders can't get involved in this job at all, and it is generally within the traditional scope of interests of the bigwigs inside the navy.

If you want to buy it in any foreign region, you have to give gifts and stuff money, and whoever you sell it to, including the kickback after the final sale, is very lucrative.

In addition to these two processing methods, old warships can also extend their service life.

This involves upgrading.

Tow the old warship back, disassemble the old equipment, and re-upgrade.

Anyway, the price/performance ratio is too low. With this time and money, it is better to build a new one.

Unless it is a critical period, under normal circumstances, do not do this.

The above three methods are the common methods of dealing with old warships that Allen knows. There is oil and water in them, and the value of a broken warship is determined by the Ministry of the Navy. Warships will be distributed up and down, and of course the boss eats the most.

If Allen wants to build an old warship, he has to choose one of these three methods.

The first is to drag it back to the shipyard directly to disassemble the scrap iron. This is the most cost-effective, as long as you find a way to buy the old warship, the price will be a little higher than the scrap iron.

And exclude these normal ways of decommissioning warships.

If you want an old warship that is not particularly old but in good condition, there is also a very concealed and unconventional way to deal with it. This way is more suitable for special situations and requires a little manipulation.

After writing down a few key words, Huth came in pushing the dining car.

Today's dinner is a very simple sandwich with a bowl of white fungus soup.

While eating, Allen watched Huth take out a small black bag and put it on the desk. He stuffed the sandwich into his mouth a few mouthfuls, wiped his hands, grabbed the bag and shook it, and there were small crashing sounds inside.

"This is?"

"Master, this is a sample of broken diamonds. Take a look. If you can, I will buy it according to this quality."

"Oh?"

Allen pulled the drawstring on the small bag and dumped it on the desk.

The smashed diamonds are spread out directly, a bit like the rice bag has been turned over, and the rice has been scattered.

Except for the dots and bright spots than rice grains, the others are not bad.

Looking at these broken diamonds, Allen suddenly remembered that in the Hong Kong movies he used to watch, those who trade illegally like to make such small bags of diamonds, and then use them as hard currency.

Xiao Huang, who was dozing off at the side, heard the voice here, stretched out his head, looked curiously at the shiny thing on the desk, and then
"Den."

With a light peck on the mouth, a small diamond was gone.

"Go aside, this is not for food."

Seeing it eat one, Allen didn't take it seriously, anyway, this thing is not too valuable.

Don't look at a few hundred catties down to more than one billion, but that's a few hundred catties!

The raw materials of these broken diamonds are not valuable in themselves, and they are still broken diamonds from dirty sources, so the price is even worse. The reason why they are more expensive is because of the cutting and manual costs!

As we all know, one carat diamond is almost equal to 0.2 grams, and one carat is equal to one hundred points. These broken diamonds are basically about 20 points or 10 points, so they are called broken diamonds.

This is not to break a rough diamond and call it a broken diamond when it is taken out.

Except that broken diamonds are not as big as regular diamonds, other processing techniques are the same as ordinary diamonds.

There are also 57 facets. Only diamonds processed in this way can sparkle with so many facets.

The diamonds sold in jewelry stores in the market are expensive because of their weight, procedures and publicity, and there are many sub-categories. In fact, ordinary rough diamonds are not expensive as long as they find channels.

That is to say, the manual cost of cutting noodles is the most expensive.

Even if these broken diamonds are replaced with artificial diamonds of the same size, the price is actually about the same.

But now limited by technology, those are not called man-made diamonds, but man-made diamonds. This kind of man-made diamonds are several grades worse than these broken diamonds in terms of color and clarity.

For the same money, the processing fee is the same, why buy artificial diamonds with poor results instead of broken diamonds?
Grabbing a handful of broken diamonds, clattering, watching these broken diamonds slowly sprinkled on the table, let alone, it feels good.

"Okay, as long as it is of this quality, you can keep an eye on it."

Allen didn't bother to worry about these things anymore, and Huth needed to keep an eye on them. He didn't have the time to see if there was something tricky about it.

"Okay, the young master designer said that he left a little surprise for you on the outer wall of the castle. You can take a look at it after the castle is built."

"Haha, okay, go ahead and make an appointment with Thomas, right?"

"It's an appointment, I called him just now."

It's still by the creek not far from the manor.

Since the start of the new castle construction plan, the more Alan looked at the current manor, the more he disliked it.

The weather is hot now, and because the old-fashioned buildings in the manor are poorly ventilated, the room is rather stuffy and humid.

After breakfast early in the morning, I asked the servant to build a shed by the stream.

Allen was wearing big underpants, sitting by the stream, stretching his feet into the water, and the fishing rod next to him was just placed on the shelf, regardless of whether he caught fish or not.

"a ha ha ha."

The two brats next to them were running and playing with water guns, and the water splashed everywhere. As far as the noise they made, let alone fish, they couldn't catch anything.

Allen swiped twice with his foot, picked up a fist-sized stone, aimed it next to William, swung his arm, and threw the stone far away.

"Pfft!"

William, who was hiding from the Harry water gun, was taken aback by the sudden splash of water in front of him.

Before he had time to get angry, Allen's scolding came over.

"Both of you! Didn't you see me fishing? Get out and play!"

Harry held the water gun and stared blankly at Allen, and William also frowned at him.

All three stopped.

After waiting for a long time, William suddenly picked up a pineapple-sized stone from the side of the stream and threw it into the stream in front of Allen.

"Boom!"

This time the splash was bigger!

"Hahaha!"

Seeing the splash of water on Allen's face, William laughed, and pulled Harry to run away.

"damn it!"

Allen picked up a rock and got up and was about to chase it. When he turned his head, he happened to meet the stunned Thomas.

"Uh sir, I just arrived and I didn't see anything."

Thomas is the bald member of parliament, and he is quite capable in Wales.

At this moment, he panicked a little.

(End of this chapter)