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A big hearfelt congradulations to you Pierre. You
earned it! I am very happy for you. I know you are realizing your dream
and having a ball doing it.
As with anything, it sounds like you have a
few bugs to work out but basically it sounds like
you have things very much under control. I have a suggestion for a propeller
guard for you. Measure the length of your propeller
and then find a pvc pipe that is just a little bit
bigger than your prop. Then cut the pvc pipe so it will cover your prop like you
want and attach the
pvc to struts that attach to your motor so that the
attached guard is positioned equally around your prop. You could even clamp the
struts to your motor housing.
Be sure and let us know when you put the pics and
video up at moki. I loved reading your story of your first dive with Big. I know
it was exciting for you and it was exciting for all of us to read
too.
Kindest Regards,
Bill Akins.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, June 04, 2005 11:10
PM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] BIG is now a
p-sub...
Hi guys,
Today we launched BIG.
After 2.5 years
of design and building, moving to 4 different workshops,
investing 2500 $
(canadian, but still...) I finaly put BIG in the water!
What a
trill!!!!
When it went down the boat ramp, on it's own tiny wheels, I
could not
refrain myself to think that it would leak so bad, crash,
explode or else.
But nothing happened. I had 2 very small leaks. Nothing a
good scott-towell
could not handle.
I had 2 friends in divers
outfits ready to dive so I said BIg was ready for
next step; Getting me
inside it.
At first, the water-line was way lower then I though. We had
to use 80
pounds of additional weight to make it as low as it was supposed
to be.
So I jumped inside it, secured the hatch. Everything was still
ok. I engaged
the auto ambient pressure system and... nada... The
electronic circuit
didn't worked (too much humidity i think). So I had to
rely on my manual
back-up to equalize pressure.
The depth where i
was was 10 feet. Relaxing my breath and my hearthbeat, I
made a sign to my
divers and opened the ballast vent valve. Nothing
happened. I waited for
about 30 secondes and could not tell if I was going
down. I asked a diver
to look if air was going out of the vent and he said
yes so i waited still
longer. It tooked about 2 minutes to get the sub to go
below the
water-line. What a trill!!!! oh my god! I was soooo nervous!
Looking in
the top windows and seeing like 2 inches of water over the hatch!
I was
finaly under-water! I made it! And was still alive!
Some seconds later
I hit the bottom and rested there for a couple of minutes
ajusting the
pressure, tripple checking everything. All was good. So I
decided to make
BIG slightly positive. I opened up just a bit the air valve
for the
ballast and I went rocket to the surface! had to wait 2 minutes to
vent
the tanks, and back to the bottom I was... That time I was very gentle
with the valve and managed to get it under control. I was ready to try
those
2 engines. I was very suprised how fast it was! I can easyly go
faster then
a diver.
What a great day!
What was great: BIG
is operationnal, it goes very fast! once you get used to
it, you can
adjust bouyancy easyly. Also, very manuverable with the 2
engines set-up.
more then i though it was going to be. i can almost turn on
the spot.
Going up or down with motors is also very good.
What must be better:
Main thing to check, It is very slow to blow the 2 back
ballast tank. I
think that the holes i made are too small. Also, trim is not
good. always
nose up. I also need to install propeler protection. One of my
friend fin
cough in it with some minor damage to it but it is not very safe
since I
plan to always use BIG with at least 1 diver.
So in all. a very good
experience. What a trill! My 2 friends hang on BIG
and it was going fast.
We had a wonderfull time! Even if we only been to 10
feet deep. I can't
wait to put it back in the water again!
I would like to thank you all
for your help in helping me realise a dream!
Special thank to Jon and
Ray for making the site in the first place.
With-out you guys, BIG would
still be a dream...
Thank you!
Pierre "official owner of a
working p-sub" Poulin
P.S. I have a zillion pictures + video. i will
post some tomorrow. Need bed
now
:)
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