RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] do a serious concrete sub project

[clientes@tolimared.com]

Jay, well spoken - what it means to make a simple dive in a psub . This is why
having a 40 tonner concrete submarine yacht on a bouy is less cost and easier
maintainance weekend diving than having a 2 ton "psub" on a trailer. 

Wilfried


> Years ago while in grad school for Marine Affairs (policy and management)
> and tourist subs were a hot number, did a study of how big the market was.
> Conclusion it is a very small market and there were only a handful of sites
> around the world suitable for conducting tourist sub ops.  A successful sub
> depends on a high tourist through-put, a high passenger loading factor (how
> many seats of full capacity are filled), a high seating capacity (numbers
> showed that a 15-passenger tourist sub would have a hard time covering
> costs), and a heavy operational schedule (multiple trips per day and most
> the days of a year).  This was proved out a short time later by the high
> number of boats going out of business and orders for new subs being
> canceled.
> 
>  
> 
> If you read Busby's commentaries, his book was an effort to document all of
> the subs in the heyday of submersible building.  The late 60s saw a ton of
> units built in the expectation of a burgeoning undersea lifestyle.  He
> recognized this wasn't happening and it was turning into a bust market so he
> collected all of the designs he could and documented them in his book.  Very
> few subs in his book were around long.  
> 
>  
> 
> Much like diving, submersibles are a tool to meet an end.  Unless you have a
> specific function for the sub, most get laid up after a short time.  Most
> PSUBbers are in it for the challenge, comradery, and knowledge gained along
> the way.  It takes a lot of work to make a dive in a submersible, you just
> don't go out for a joyride and sightseeing as you can in a small power boat.
> Prior to a sub outing you have to get HP air and charge the batteries, have
> to perform a thorough systems check prior to and after launch (it is amazing
> the things that can come loose towing a sub on a trailer), it is a major
> operation to launch the sub (how many are kept in slips?), then it has to be
> slowly towed out to a dive site (few have something that is really
> interesting to see or close to a launch site), a tow back to shore, a haul
> out, and the trip home where the sub has to be cleaned up and washed down.
> This is a MAJOR evolution for the average guy (haven't seen any women PSUB
> members, subs have to be a guy thing)!  There just isn't a great big market
> out there that can sustain regular production.
> 
>  
> 
> BUT WE LOVE OUR SUBS!
> 
> R/Jay
> 
>  
> 
> Respectfully,
> 
> Jay K. Jeffries
> 
> Andros Is., Bahamas
> 
>  
> 
> It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without
> accepting it.
>   -  <http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1152.html> Aristotle
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
> [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Joseph Perkel
> Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:31 AM
> To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
> Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] do a serious concrete sub project
> 
>  
> 
> In my observations regarding money making tourist sub operations. It appears
> to me that the location is the necessary ingredient to a successful
> operation, not the sub itself so much. You need a constant flow of "willing"
> traffic.
> 
> Take Karl Stanley in Honduras for example. Not likely the locals do much
> recreational subbing, and just having "tourists" is not necessarily it
> either. Who are these tourists? I suspect most of Karl's passengers are the
> adventurous "globe trotting" diver crowd.
> 
> Same thing in the Caymans and Hawaii, it's "who" the tourists are, along
> with the numbers that will make or break you.
> 
> Joe
> 
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