Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] How much drop weight?

[David Buchner <buchner@wcta.net>]

DJACKSON99@aol.com wrote:
> It actually is an idea borrowed from  Simon Lake's Argonaut.  Here is 
> the design on a book cover. The items labeled "B" are the ballast. 
> http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/1999/bigpoluw.htm

Cool picture. That looks like a fun place to hang out in.

> In a 1 ATM I think you'd would want to be able to cut free of the 
> line. The line could add to fowling problems, and it adds to the 
> complexity.

Of course, you could have a *second* pin to pull, that would ditch the 
whole winch assembly.

>> Even if you weren't near the bottom. If the drop weight were attached 
>> by a winch cable, you could pull the safety pins and just start 
>> reeling it out. When it hit bottom, you'd start going up, nice and 
>> slow. You could stop as often as  you wanted.
>
> Didn't think of that.  Would be nice to drop it on a sandy bottom and 
> hover 20 feet up beside a reef, sit back and have lunch.

And hey, I didn't think of *that* -- you could use it for everyday, not 
just special occasions (emergencies). Anchor-/slash/-drop weight. And 
for a submarine, an anchor to be really handy ought to work in 3 
dimensions, as opposed to the 2 we expect for surface boats. ("He is 
intelligent, but his pattern suggests... 2-dimensional thinking.")