The problem with getting good answers really quick is then you can't play around any more. You have to go out to the barn and start welding and grinding. :)'
I believe it's great to read all manner of tech manuals but some times it's so nice to cut through the clutter and get some good data straight from the horses mouth, sorta speak. Of course you'll need to verify the data given, but it can save you from wasting your time going down the wrong path.
When I first started gathering data on submarines, I had so many holes in my ideas that just going and talking to a couple of guys that had built two submarines cleared up so many things in just a couple of hours. Oh and the two subs they built were the Voyager I & II which are 48 passenger submarines built in south Seattle by Northwest Work Boats. The subs went to Hawaii for a time and then got sold. One is in Phuket, Thailand
http://phuketdir.com/pktsubmarine/index.htm
The other one I heard went to South Korea, but I haven't found much data on that yet.
These subs have one main screw for propulsion to and from the dive site. The screw is hydraulically powered. They use peanut oil for the hydraulic fluid, which is biodegradable if there is a leak in the water, and safer for passengers if there is a leak inside the sub. These are some of the fastest tourist subs out there. I recall they claim 6/7 knots surfaced. The main builder was a retired U.S Navy man that was a mechanic on a number of nuclear subs. One thing I remember him telling me, was that when dived at great depth, if there was a leak it would shoot all over the place like a ricocheting bullet, making it hard to tell where the leak was. So with this in mind he builds his subs to have as few through hulls as possible. Having only a couple of main valves to turn off so you can find the problem area later is safer.
As for bio-diesel it's biodegradable as mentioned earlier and a Cummings diesel motor can be converted to run on normal diesel as well as bio. So if for what ever reason, you can't get bio you can still keep sailing into the sunset. The Earthrace boat is doing just this.
Remember a bumble bee is faster then a tracker.
Brent Hartwig
From: vbra676539@aol.com
Reply-To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Horizontal Pressure Hull Weldment Supports?
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:21:05 -0500
You gotta love this group. Ask and ye shall receive. What could be better? Vance