> a fraction of the size of the fabled ark, yet proved the maximum size for a timber boat was smaller than it, when it broke it's back.

Yes, indeed. Nye had a chart ready comparing the sizes of the "Wyoming" and the much larger Ark. He emphasized the the "Wyoming" had been built by some of the world's greatest shipwrights while the Ark was supposedly built by eight inexperienced amateurs.

Ham brushed off the fate of the "Wyoming" with a simple claim that (in paraphrase), "Yes, we know all about that, and our engineers have shown how the Ark could have been seaworthy. [He didn't go into detail.] I recommend that after the debate guests in our audience go upstairs to the exhibit we have of the Ark in 1/100 scale and judge for themselves."

The thread would only be "consummately stupid," Jeri, if it were not so entertaining. Or if so many people in the U.S.A. weren't always lobbying their state legislatures to get "creation science" and "intelligent design" taught in schools. In a couple of states they succeeded for a while, and it took extended court cases to knock the laws down.