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Brian,
Not nearly as controversial as spearfishing,
but how about search and rescue? In the Gulf, if a ship within a certain
distance from the coastline drops anything overboard, by law they MUST recover
it. It happens more than you would think, and it can get real expensive
real fast. If the ship was moving when it happened, it could literally
take days for commercial divers to run a search grid and locate whatever
fell overboard. A person in a sub could search the area and "mark" his
tracks by launching weighted fishing markers as he went. They are buoyant,
compact, and unwind an anchor (a small weight) when released. I think it
would be useful for Law Enforcement as well, a friend is a diver for the
Sherriff's Dept. his main function is locating and recovering the bodies
of drowning victims. Diving in our man-made lakes can be very dangerous
since most are dammed up rivers and still have large trees and complex structure
below the surface. A small sub could search a whole lot longer than a
diver, mark ground covered, and launch a marker for the divers to follow once
the victim is located. I've read where this could be done by ROV's, but
eliminating human intuition in that kind of task seems pretty
limiting. What do you plan to farm in the ocean?
Best Regards,
Cliff
Anyway, that is very interesting that you have thought out some type of
speargun device from a sub.
Since my first realization
that I could actually build a working sub I started thinking about what I
would like to use it for. Research is always an option, but ocean
farming as alway peaked my interest. It's something that is starting to
happen in different parts of the world now on a limited basis.
With sport spearfishing there are limits on how many fish
you can take and what species are in season and so forth. I personally
have only spearfished out at our local islands with a Hawwaian sling with only
mask and snorkle. But what I'm wondering is., Bill you said
that underwater "firearms" are illegal, what it you shot a air powered
spear at a fish that you are going to eat ( not a protected fish) and the
spear is not connected by a cable. ( It seems like if you had a cable you
might be asking for entaglement problems.) Would it be
possible once the spear penetrated the fish that a small air pladder could be
activated which would send the fish to the surface?
Brian
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 4:01
PM
Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST]
Discharging Batteries
The guns will be "fired" from inside the
sub (charging a pressure reservoir, locking it out, and then redirecting the
air to the "chamber" of the gun), all done with normal steel pipe and ball
valves. A piston located forward of the chamber will push the
spear out of the barrel and between two rods spaced far enough apart to
allow the spear to pass but not the piston. The key to keeping
the spear straight is using one or more sabots inside the barrel, since the
piston will be much bigger than the spear. The sabots will keep the
spear aligned until it exits the barrel and the piston will push them out to
clear the barrel after a shot (for possible reloading?). A short
length of steel cable is wound around the piston and anchored to
it. Once speared, at least in my experience, most fish dive. The
two bars mentioned above will capture the piston and cause the fish to
"ratchet" down to somewhere below the sub where they will dangle until the
sub surfaces and they are manually captured. Worst case, they flail
around above until expired, eventually sinking through the ratcheting
mechanism to dangle below the sub. I plan to surface after a
couple of shots to keep the sharks from benefiting from all my hard
work. I am pretty sure I can build a gun for about as much as a decent
hand-held pneumatic gun (<$300.00). The motivation for all this is
the idea of spear-fishing at 1Atm for SEVERAL HOURS at a time with no
concern for dive tables, being able to survey a fishing area without eating
into dive time, having the ability to patiently wait for prey, not worrying
about how big a fish is and if I have enough air to fight it ( I got real
stupid once and shot a 35lb barracuda with little air
left in a single tank @ 80ft, the dive master rightly refused to let
me have a second dive that day), and dramatically increasing the
amount and type of fish caught (provided I get the gun right!!). This
type of hunting fits unbelievably well with a psub. The sub only has
to be able to submerge to certain depths (in my case, about 120' maximum,
normally 45-90'), manuever for very short periods of time, and hold a
somewhat stable position for 30 minutes or more (fish are curious, they will
come to you). I've speared most of my fish sitting on cross braces on
oil platforms, trying to conserve air by not swimming around too much.
My son's a commercial diver and he literally has to push them out of his way
when he's doing hull cleanings, prop maintenance, etc. I think they
will flock to a sub, especially if it's "just sitting there" with a basket
of crushed barnacles on top of it:).
Best Regards,
Cliff
Cliff,
How are you going to
spearfish while you're inside the sub? How will you retrieve
the fish? Are you thinking reeling them back into next to the
ship? I haven't totally figured what type of spearfishing unit
I'm going to use.
Brian
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005
12:04 PM
Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST]
Discharging Batteries
Good Question. I actually have
a few of reasons. Putting them under the seats gets them
conveniently out of the way but still easily accessible for change-out
(from a support boat), eliminates several cubic feet of cabin
space that would otherwise have to be displaced by adding more
weight, doesn't add to the complexity of the shape of the pressure
hull, and minimizes the amount of "second skin" that I will have to add
to smooth the outside shape since I intend to spear fish with pneumatic
spearguns mounted on the sub. I don't want fish on steel
cables getting tied up on battery pods, motors, etc. Due to the
distance I have to travel to fish, I have resigned myself to building a
towable sub. For practical reasons it will have to be as small as
possible and somewhat planeable(sp?) when towed. I think I hit
most of the reasons.
Thanks Again for your
Input,
Cliff
-----Original Message-----
From:
owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
[mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org]On Behalf Of
Akins
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 1:12
PM
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: Re:
[PSUBS-MAILIST] Discharging Batteries
Cliff,
Why not just put your batteries outside the cabin in battery
pods? That way you don't have the problem to begin with.
Kindest Regards,
Bill Akins.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005
3:12 PM
Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST]
Discharging Batteries
Actually, that's what prompted
my question. I blew a car battery up trying to jump-start the
wife's car. Fortunately, I had been using a skill-saw in the
garage moments before and was still wearing safety
glasses. After a really fast shower I retrieved the
safety glasses and noticed that they were literally dripping with
slimy acid residue, I still get chills thinking about it.
Since this occurred while attempting to charge the battery,
I was under the assumption that charging was the
culprit. Yours is the first time I've heard of a battery
exploding while under "normal" load. I'll probably go with the
AGM batteries and put some lockable 1/8" steel plate between myself
and the batteries anyway. Not sure what I can do to ventilate
the gases in the event of an explosion, I was planning to shut
down all electrical systems, switch to emergency air (scuba
regulators/mouthpieces), and get to the surface
asap.
Thanks Everybody,
Cliff
Hi Cliff,
About sitting on batteries in a sub... Have you ever
seen/heard one explode? It CAN happen while discharging,
especially if there is a poor or corroded connection at the
battery pole enough that when you pull a fairly large current, a
spark may occur. Last summer my son got in my pickup and
went to start it. I had been driving it 15 min.
earlier. When he hit the starter, the battery exploded under
the hood with a sound of a deer rifle shot. Acid
went all over the engine compartment, the battery was split wide
open, and luckily, there were no dents in the hood.
Moral of the story... IF you have to have them in the
compartment with you... make sure you are shielded from an
explosion, BUT make sure there is still ventilation to allow any
explosive gas to dissipate. PS Of course, my
pickup didn't have
hydrocaps!
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