Hi Les. Good to hear from you. Sounds like you'll have lots of windows,
and what a great price. With the windows in the tower, and these new
ones, you'll be able to see really good.
You sold your other sub to a guy who owns docks ? Will he be using it to
inspect his docks ? I wonder if a private (un-certified ) sub could make
a few dollars doing inspection work in the local harbor here. Maybe someone
would like to have a video of the bottom of their boat, or maybe use the sub
to retrieve objects lost. The harbors are always murky and scuba diving would
be a long slow process. I've dived in murky water before, and when visibility
is only 1 or 2 feet, it gets kind of creepy down there, and takes for ever to
find something. Mostly just crawling along and feeling for stuff with your
hands. Not much fun. Maybe with a good metal detector and grabber arm, some
recovery might work. There's lots of stuff laying around in the harbors.
When I get the sub running, I'll talk to the harbor master and see what
the rules are.
I wonder if there would be a use for a small tethered sub that went down
to 50 feet, with all power and air supplied from above. On-board emergency air
and power of course, but a tether for shallow operation would allow greater
power, fresh air, and communication. A sub with external power ( 220 volts ?)
could compensate for the extra drag of the tether with bigger motors, and have
a long submerged time. I'm going to find out how many ROV's are in operation
around here.
We have these big squid that have moved into the area in the
last couple of years. The local fishermen are catching some 200 pounders!
Nasty little buggers. Might be fun to get one with a sub! Or at least a video
of them. Well, better get back to work. Congratulations on the progress,
sounds great! Frank D.