Capo
Happy Camper
Thank you so much for your vote!!
A Viking ship doesn't point high but high enough to sail into the wind. This and the Vikings' navigation skills are what made them such successful intercontinental mariners. The square sail must be fully angled and trimmed flat on the wind cutting edge of the sail. The enclosed picture shows the special sheet which creates the sharp edge for pointing high. This is partly why the stem is high on a Viking ship.
The oar is always to starboard. In fact, this as many mariner terms comes from Norse. "Styrbord" : styr = to steer, bord = side of a ship (or an individual plank of the hull) ie the steering side of the ship. As on all boats, the better the breeze the better the speed and the higher you can sustainably steer. If you can find protected flatter water behind low islands and land points you can point even higher.
The oak is prime German oak, luckily of exceptional quality. It is the remaining timber from the building of the world's largest Viking Dragon, the Harald Fairhair. The trees were bought on root, ie the ship builders personally went to Germany, selected their trees, cleared the roots and felled the trees with a major part of the roots intact. This is very hard work but it's the only way if the timber is for a ship. The root is the strongest part of the tree and it is naturally curved which makes it perfect to use for the frames.
Hokkaido is Japan's largest Northern island, the capitol city is Sapporo. It is a cool place with mountains, ski resorts, hot springs with geishas and it isn't as heavily populated as the main island.
The G400 is to me a great diesel G. It was conceived during the time when MB had problems with their electronics and the 400 got a fair share of those problems. It took me a couple of years of replacing electronic modules to make it function fine. Although I must say, with all the problems it caused me, never did it leave me stranded. It always made it to the workshop on its own steam. Most of the problems had nothing to do with the drive line. Mechanically it is solid. The engine is a torque beast and it sounds great yet inside it is very silent. In delicate terrain you need to drive it in manual mode to make sure it doesn't downshift and throw too much torque on the wheels. I have installed a chip with three driving programs for the gear box. This helps and makes it possible to use auto-mode more often in slippery terrain and it is great when pulling heavy trailers on hilly motorways. I also have a high quality engine chip which reduces fuel consumption and boosts torque throughout the whole rev range, peaking at 620Nm. There is way over 500Nm already from 1400rpm. Hp is 300. The only mechanical issue you must be aware of is the torque converter. The engine is so powerful people don't bother to use the low gears. This causes of course tremendous stress on the converter and the rest of the gear box and the 400 has gained a bad reputation from such abuse. If you always use the low gears off road, put high quality oil in the gearbox and keep the transmission oil cooler clean from mud, then you will be ok. I've done 120.000 km without a problem.
Like all luxury Gs it is on the heavy side.
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