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
----- 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
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