RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] wet sub design

["Alec Smyth" <Asmyth@changepoint.com>]

Mike,

I think high speed might not be a good idea in a wet sub -- the faster
you go, the more likely you are to get into trouble with ascent rates.
That said, a streamlined job is always a good idea simply because it
will be more efficient in terms of battery use.

Frankly the idea of a bag of air also sounds a bit iffy to me. When I
was about 12, I built a shallow-depth camera housing that consisted of
an acrylic box with a rubber glove that allowed you to manipulate the
camera. Nifty idea, I thought... no need to mess with mechanical
penetrations. It didn't work beyond 1 ft. That's how much ambient
pressure will mess with flexible, air-filled spaces.

The real trick in using a surface vessel for a sub would be to do it in
such a way it still performed satisfactorily on the surface. I'm not
sure a cat is the way to go there, as with the weight of batteries you
will probably never get a cat to plane. Check out Herve's subs on
www.caribsub.com. He has a new model, not shown on the website yet, that
goes 30 mph on the surface, 8 mph submerged.

Rgds,

Alec

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Knab [mailto:mike@bornclassified.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 8:33 PM
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] wet sub design

Hey all, I have a question.  I'm thinking about making a wet sub, out of
none other than a fiberglass boat. what do you think?  it's 13 feet
long, 5
feet wide, and is kind of a twin hull design, with each hull 12" wide on
the
inside.  I'm thinking of putting a total of 6 batteries, 3 on each side,
in
lexan boxes in each of the hulls, that will run 4 trolling motors, 2 in
the
front, 2 in the rear, the two front ones being used for stearing <ie,
up-down, and left-right movement>   I want this sub to look not only
cool,
but also have a low profile so that it will go faster. (i'm thinking +10
knots).  I plan on rigging up lights and sonar as well.  I'm still
working
on a ballast for it, but I'm thinking foot pedals to push a bag of air
from
the left to the right hand side, and vice versa - well, that would be
for
banking the craft when i want to turn.  I want to definately take
advantage
of all three dimensions, and make this thing hydrobatic rated (do they
even
have that, such as an airplane rated for aerobatics? ie, being able to
do
barrel rolls and the such).  Anyway, I welcome all comments, as I'm
about
ready to kick down 450 bucks for the hull, which by the way is totally
virgin, fresh from the mold.  Oh, I have a pic of the boat on my
website:
www.bornclassified.com/boat.htm  (without the L)

anyway, tell me what you think, cuz I just went and checked out this
boat
this weekend, and actually seeing it, and touching it, well, its a lot
different than looking at in on the computer, ya know?

thanks!

Mike

__________

Some things are best left unknown, but for everything else, there's
www.bornclassified.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Cox" <ojaibees@ojai.net>
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] re-designed Esmae


> Ya, I have a really cool mpeg movie of FLIP that I'm trying to figure
out
how to make availible on my web site, the movie is 9 MB.
>
> Brian
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <DJACKSON99@aol.com>
> To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 10:28 AM
> Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] re-designed Esmae
>
>
> > It's called FLIP and is operated by Scripps.
http://aquarium.ucsd.edu/learning/learning_res/voyager/flip/
> > ...and ditto on the good work Brian. --Doug Jackson
> >
> >
> > In a message dated 10/20/2003 1:06:04 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
coalbunny@vcn.com writes:
> >
> > > EXCELLENT!  Great job Brian!  Ya know there was a research
facility
> > > quite like that, except it was more like a boat that would flood
certain
> > > sections and tip itself verticle and was used in some kind of
oceanic
> > > reasearch.  I don't recall, but I don't think Woods Hole had any
> > > involvement with it.  I think *maybe* MIT, but it has been years.
> > > Carl
> > >
> > >
> > > > Brian Cox wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I have some pictures of my new working model of Esmae.  This
model
at
> > > > the present time does not have any moving alirons or dive planes
I
was
> > > > more concerned with the general balance in it's various
positions.
> > > > Since the model was made out of fiberglass (instead of
ferro-cement)
> > > > I had to do some adjustments as far as weight distribution.  All
seems
> > > > to be working out very well !      I've started a collection of
> > > > pictures on a personal web page, I have specifications and
> > > > calculations that I plan to transfer from paper in the near
future
but
> > > > for now here is what I've got
> > > > !       http://www.ojai.net/ojaibees/index.htm
> > > >
> > > > Brian Cox
> > >
> > > --
> > > "Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible"
> > > - F. Zappa
> >
>