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Hi Scott,
Congratulations, in about a month. Building a sub is
a great project. Plan to spend some time doing it. If you get
frustrated, put it aside, but don't forget to get back to it. To many get
started and not finished. Think long term and you'll have a sub.
I built a two man K-350 "Persistence." There
are plans for a short one person version and the two person version. The
two person version has a hull tube that is six feet long and then another foot
for each end cap making the pressure hull eight feet long in total.
If your building the two person version, I would move the
battery pods aft six inches to a foot. Study the plans to see what else
this will effect but as it is, most of my internal weights are located far aft
to trim to level. You could also lengthen the battery pods by one battery.
If I take a second person with me, they usually prefer to lay on the deck
under my seat. This puts their nose right up to the forward viewport,
which is a great view, but it makes the sub nose heavy.
Enclosing the MBT's is a good idea. Mine are
enclosed far more then the original and they work great. Just be careful
not to enclose to much so if one tank got filled with
air accidentally, you aren't totally nose up or down. If that happens
you may not be able to blow the lower tank. A few holes drilled at
the end should work.
The K sub plans don't give a clear idea of the size of the
MBT's. I gauged mine by the size of the frame that supports them.
Now I think my forward tank could be a bit bigger.
Another thing I'd change is, put your MBT vent valves
right on top of the tanks and run linkage to the conning tower or where ever.
Don't put those two valves in the conning tower then run lines to them.
They take to long to vent and sometimes they get air locked when water is caught
in the line.
Depending on how and where you plan to launch your sub you
may want to consider saddle tanks also. Launching from the trailer I have
it takes five feet of water to launch my sub. If I had saddle tanks that
could get the sub up a but higher, it would be easier launching from
shallow boat launches. As it is, there are many boat launches I can't
use. My sub's water line is right at the lowest part of the weld that
transitions the conning tower to the hull.
No need to lower the conning tower. When the sub is
surfaced, you can't lay it over enough to take on water if you try. It's
pretty stable but you sure don't want to be lower to the water and take in a
wave. Don't change that.
Maybe a bigger front viewport would be nice, but your
getting into a big structural change there.
Just my thought.
Good luck, Dan H.
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