If a lifeboat is stowed 40 feet above the light water draft and 200 feet from the bow, how long must the sea painter be?

To determine the correct length for the sea painter when a lifeboat is stowed 40 feet above the light water draft and 200 feet from the bow, it's important to consider how the sea painter functions. The sea painter of a lifeboat is a line that connects the lifeboat to the mother ship and allows the lifeboat to be launched safely while maintaining control.

In this scenario, the lifeboat is positioned 40 feet above the water (the light water draft) and 200 feet from the ship's bow. When calculating the length of the sea painter, you need to account for both the vertical distance from the lifeboat to the water and the horizontal distance from the lifeboat to the ship.

Using the Pythagorean theorem, you can visualize the setup as a right triangle, where one leg is the vertical distance (40 feet) and the other leg is the horizontal distance (200 feet). The formula to find the hypotenuse (which gives the total length of the sea painter) is:

[ \text{Length of sea painter} = \sqrt{(200 \text{ feet})^2 + (40 \text{ feet})^2} ]

Calculating