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

[Michael B Holt <michaelbholt@juno.com>]

On Tue, 1 Feb 2000 10:56:41 -1000 "Captain Nemo" <vulcania@interpac.net>
writes:
>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.

Well, the real problem is that there's a hell of a lot more of the
Newport
out of the water than there is of any submarine.

>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.

What I'd like to do in my part of the world is to survey the landings to
see which ones could handle a boat that needs about five feet of
water while on the trailer.    I don't know that the folks who build
those landings have that sort of data.

>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....

Well, mabye catamaran was the wrong idea.   Think of two pontoons
connected by broad straps under the sub.   

I can't see that it would flip, since all the weight would be low.  What
I can
see is the sub slipping off one end when the bow isn't quite floating
and the stern is still out of the water.

>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.

I've given thought to that, too.   The problem is that the catamaran
support
boat becomes a major project in itself.   Not that such a difficulty
decreases
its value.

>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.  

What he said sounded simply stupid.   If incivility and stupidity were
physcially painful, we'd have less of it.   Alas.

>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.

That's interesting about the rubber boats.    Is it your boat that does
that,
or are they just mroe careful about their hulls?




Mike
-- 

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