In a message dated Sunday 07/04 Alex Foreman WritesGood morning gentlemen, I have recently joined your mailing list as I am very interested in
submarine design. I live in Port Lincoln, South Australia, famous for aquaculture, tunarama festival and lots of Great White Sharks. Shawn wrote ?While ambients have been referred to as "wet/dry suits with thrusters" -- an arguably accurate comparison -- they still
have their valuable niche within the range of personal submersibles?
I just had to jump in here and say thank you Shawn. Although I?ve always been eager to be remembered for a quote with more substance than ? A dry suit with thrusters ? I guess some thing is always better than nothing. Thanks DJB
However; regarding the engineering problem that our friend is working on. I?m just wondering if the Great White Sharks he?s referred to are most of the problem. They certainly would be for me. I spend a lot of time building Tuna Towers for sport fishing boats and use aluminum tubing for every thing. Alex, you might consider a beautiful cage built specifically for your self from 1.5 inch aluminum tubing and equip it with battery pods and thrusters, and a simple ballast system for trim and natural buoyancy. A cool acrylic shape for a wind/ water shield. And the shark problem may be history. The tubing at 1.5 and 2 inch sced 40 with closed ends is almost natural in the water.
DJB