How to intercept?

[banryu79]

Originally Posted by Zosimus

The only easy solution to that is to intercept the ship/convoy as quickly as possible. Full/flank speed with battery recharge off and prefer contacts that are closing.

When I receive a distant radio contact from BdU I do the following, just to tackle with the issue highlithed above:
1) mark down the contact reported position.
2) with the ruler plot 3 possible course: the 'exact' one and the two '+10°/-10°' courses.
3) On each course I mark down the theoretical position of the contact for each hour passed since contact position reported hour (I choose the highest among the possible theoretical contact speeds).

Then I plot I circle of 22 Km radius (max hydroph. range) and move it as farthest along the three plotted routes as possible till it still can intercept all three course-lines.

That is the maximun "area" along contact path I want to be able to intercept in time, so given my position and the total estimated time needed for the contat to get to that "area" I plot my intercept run and I'm able to compute the minimum speed I need to run.

With that "minimum speed to intercept" on my hands I can evaluate if, where, when and at which speed to actually intercept that contact. I usually do well with this method, and I rarely need to run at "ahead full" (Type VIIB) let alone "ahead flank".
My tipical intercept run speed is in the range 9-12 knoten.