This ship was conceived and developed by the Marine Physical Laboratory (MPL) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. “FLIP stands for Floating Instrument Platform: it is actually a huge specialized buoy. One of its creators described it as looking like a 355-foot long ( 108 m) baseball bat. If that isn’t unusual enough, it really flips!. “When the ship is in the horizontal traveling mode, the long, hollow ballast area trails behind. When it reaches the desired location, the “tail” is flooded until the nose sticks straight up into the air, taking about twenty-eight minutes to reach vertical position.”
During the flip, everyone stands on the outside decks. As FLIP flips, these decks slowly become bulkheads. (This is the name sailors use for walls.) The crew step onto decks that were, only moments before, bulkheads. Inside, decks have become bulkheads; bulkheads have become decks or overheads (ceilings).
Some of FLIP's furnishings are built so they can rotate to a new position as FLIP flips. Other equipment must be unbolted and moved. Some things, like tables in the galley (kitchen) and sinks in the washroom, are built twice so one is always in the correct position
(fogonazos.blogspot)
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