Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Launching at the boat ramp (was: Langkawi Islands)

["Captain Nemo" <vulcania@interpac.net>]

Mike,

(I guess I should indicate who I'm replying to, huh?  Duh-huhhh!)

About launching the sub: NAUTILUS MINISUB / NEUPORT 16,  problem same-same:
she won't float free from the trailer until she's at waterline depth.  That
usually means we need a ramp depth equal to the distance from the ground to
the waterline, when the sub is trailered.

My NAUTILUS sits backwards on the trailer, and pitched up at an angle when
on flat ground.   On launch, when she's heading downhill on the ramp, she
hits the water damn near dead level, and you almost can't tell when she
floats free of the trailer. (When I get my STUDIO 400 working, I'll send you
an AVI clip).  I learned to judge the position on the ramp, and trust that
when the water was at the waterline, she was floating free.  Worked every
time.  Launches and recovers really nicely; just needs a lot of water, is
all.

About the sub sitting lower on the trailer: that's about the only way I can
see to reduce required launching depth.  I can't see my launch and recover
crew (Lynn) man-handling a 1.25 ton submarine very much.  But lowering the
height implies making a cradle trailer; then I'm wondering about ground
clearance when transporting, and such.

I'm trying to visualize your catamaran idea.  I'm seeing an setup where the
cat hulls are down low, and the sub is sitting up on them.  If the sub was
suspended in a strong frame from, say, a couple winches, you could maybe
float it off the trailer in water shallow enough to support the cat hulls,
and then crank the sub down into the water after she's afloat.  The first
thing I start wondering about is stability: wouldn't want it to go
"huli-over" on launch.  Keep in mind it's not always calm at the ramp.  But
if the cat was wide enough, maybe....

I had thought of making a catamaran with a winch and platform to use as a
support vessel for my sub; would give us better safety when boat-towing the
sub to distant divesites; and enable safer operations in open water (since
the NAUTILUS' freeboard is only about a foot).  But that would be mated to
the sub after being launched from the trailer, and wouldn't do anything to
reduce my ramp-depth requirements.

About those bassboaters: we always had locals snooping around.  One time, I
had to warn one of them about my submerged trailer on the ramp; he replied
"I don't care if I hit it"; to which I replied "Yeah, well I do!"  I don't
think he was at all intimidated by my Hulk Hogan routine; and it was only
the fact that I had the area marked out with floats bearing the Diver Down
Flag (we had a diver in the water), that enabled me to convince him to take
his boat elsewhere.  Not all surface boaters appreciate submariners, but
most of them were pretty cool.  Particularly the guys in the rubber ZODIAC
boats, who for some strange reason always kept a respectful distance from my
NAUTILUS.

VBR,

Pat Regan
vulcania@interpac.net