Car park collapse

[Andy Burns]

He'd shored it up with a couple of Acrows!

[fred]

No speed involved. The impact would push the boat away from the quay and it wouldn't take a lot of force to do it

[T i m]

I suggest the impact (eg. sudden / short pressure) would need *huge* amounts of force to do it but pressure applied slowly wouldn't need much (depending on the size of the boat etc), as anyone who has ever played around in boats will attest.

Even a flat bottomed boat with little in the way of keels but with slab sides will often 'dig in' when you try to push it sideways (like a barge or narrow boat).

After all, that's why you need massive engines in tugs to move even small ships sideways (and do so slowly) and why they often launch ships sideways when they don't want it to go too far. ;-)

Cheers, T i m