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Dear Vance.
In theory your idea can work Vance, but practically
it is very difficult. I have already considered exactly what you
propose.
First I would have to build a battery compartment
into each hull and find a way to waterproof each hull's battery compartment. Now
I have two battery compartments
that might leak instead of one that are neither as
strong nor as easy to seal as a pvc pipe with a screw on end cap with an o
ring like my pvc pipe has.
I would still have to have my air bladders in the
nose and tail of the sub so they are above the center of gravity or else I could
turn over if I inflated the pontoons underwater.
Basically with what you propose I would be trading
my pvc battery pod slung under the sub for two pontoons under the hull that
would be much more difficult to construct a strong water pressure proof and leak
proof
battery compartment into. One option to your idea
would be to buy oversize pontoons and actually put the pvc battery pods inside
the able to be sealed middle of the pontoons and then only inflate the pontoons
once I was awash on
the surface to preclude turning upside down. Now
that might work, but they would have to be pontoons that would accept a 12 inch
pvc pod into their interior. The advantage of doing this would of course be that
I do not
have as much drag in the water with an exposed
battery pod and a set of pontoons. In that case I would only have the pontoons
exposed to drag. But what big pontoons they would be and then constructing all
that AND
trying to pressure compensate the battery pod from
within the pontoons would be more complicated than my current design idea.
The more I think about it the more I feel having a
set of pontoons that the sub is slung under and disengages from for launching
and then reengages and gets cranked up out of the water between them is the best
way to go.
No drag from the pontoons underwater decreasing
both speed and battery power. And when I surface I can just float the awash sub
between the pontoons sling the straps under the sub, crank it up out of the
water and take off.
I have thought about all kinds of options many of
which I have posted already. But the more I think about underwater drag of
pontoons permanently attached to the sub, and trying to find a way to constuct a
battery compartment
inside the pontoons that would be as strong and
easy to seal as my pvc pipe, the more I become convinced that a detachable
pontoon carrier for the sub is the way to go. It would be nice to have
everything all in one, to have the pontoons
carry the batteries, even have an internal
combustion engine located within the sub or the pontoons that could submerge and
be sealed that I could use on the surface. But I am working with a 12 ft
existing 1966 movie wetsub and trying to modify it
with a battery pod, stronger electric
motor and some way to get it to and from the dive site without speeding
thousands of dollars on it. Someday I might build another wetsub from scratch
out of kevlar wing tanks and incorporate all the things into it that I would
want from the beginning, but for now I gravitate to
what is easy and simple. You can't beat the pvc with a screw on end cap and o
ring for easy and simple and a pontoon carrier that the sub detaches from so
there is no pontoon drag underwater.
I will include a tow point on the pontoons at an
advantageous position to preclude torque and wave slap as much as possible for
the pontoon wetsub carrier but the tow boat will still have to take it easy
towing my rig.
But thanks for your idea I always appreciate any
input. Keep those ideas coming!
Kindest Regards,
Bill Akins.
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