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[PSUBS-MAILIST] Sub Safety (was: Underwater Anchor System)

This is a thought i've had before...  it's 100% possiable to build yourself a little submarine parachute.  Just keep a spare scuba tank on hand and some form of envelope.  Put this in a little blister outside the hull, you open the valve, the elvelope inflates, and viola, you're positively bouyant.  this "IS" a system I would put in place, and test on any boat i plan on building.  

The other thing I plan on having is enough air, to blow the compartment dry at any reasonable depth.  given the interior of the boat is at ambiant pressure, plugging any hole, and trying to surface won't be too difficult.  you may be in pain from the bends.. but it may just save your life.  (the save your life is depenant on depth, too deep and you just may get killed by rushing water, or it may take you enough time to surface that you will get really signifigant amounts of nitrogen disolved in your blood... the hope is you'd surface before the bends could happen)

Speaking of which...  Liveabord #2 is about to come off my drawing board and onto my scanner if anyone is interested :-)

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On 10/21/2001 at 6:05 PM Ed Greany wrote:

>I guess this is where we part opinions. Personal subs should be limited
>to lakes, harbors, and waterways or ocean shores that do not exceed test
>depth. It is because we are, after all, amateurs at this submarine
>stuff. Even I, a former bubblehead, consider myself an amateur since I
>neither have the engineering background, education, or expertice to
>build a craft worthy of ocean-going trips. Unlike airplanes which come
>down naturally where they started and have parachutes as a backup,
>submarines only go deeper if something goes wrong and there are no
>parachutes. Perhaps you want to use your escape system but I don't want
>to bail out in a situation and lose an expensive craft.
>
>Ed