[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

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



Dan,

Thank you for your kind words.

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.
  -
Aristotle

 

 

 

 


From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Daniel Lance
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2007 5:16 PM
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] do a serious concrete sub project

 

Jay,

Excellent summation , Very succinct and great insight . Jon if you are reading these threads please preserve this response in some sort of a FAQ category for all the prospective dreamers.

This is the reality of diving a psub from a trailer .

Thanks Jay,

Dan Lance

 

 

----- Original Message -----

Sent: 2/17/2007 11:38:54 AM

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

 

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 Busbys 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 wasnt 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 dont 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, an! d the trip home where the sub has to be cleaned up and washed down.  This is a MAJOR evolution for the average guy (havent seen any women PSUB members, subs have to be a guy thing)!  There just isnt 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.
  -
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

************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Your email address appears in our database because either you, or someone you know, requested you receive messages from our organization. If you want to be removed from this mailing list simply click on the link below or send a blank email message to: removeme-personal_submersibles@psubs.org Removal of your email address from this mailing list occurs by an automated process and should be complete within five minutes of our server receiving your request. PSUBS.ORG PO Box 53 Weare, NH 03281 603-529-1100 *************! *********************************************************** ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************