I've been thinking of that buoy release Dean mentioned, and I like it. He
proposed a simple turned down wooden closet rod, with fishing line wrapped
around it's turned down middle section, and sealed up so it doesn't get water
logged.
My thought is to use something like that, and have it encased in a two
inch pipe sticking into the hull near the sub's top with a welded bottom
cap. The pipe ( of course ) will be connected to a ball valve and to release
the buoy, just open the ball valve and the buoy will float up, unspooling
the fishing line as it ascends. With a 2 inch pipe/valve there is enough space
to make a buoy a little more sophisticated than just a closet rod. I was
thinking along the lines of a buoy with a light on top, and maybe an antenna
and signal device built in, about the size of a flashlight. The device can be
turned on at the beginning of each dive and stowed in it's release tube.
Like the dive lights in my dive planes, the batteries will be simple "D"
cells giving me easy access and cheap replacement, and no thru-hulls or wiring
to deal with. Just put fresh "D" cells in there when I dive and turn them on
when launching. If I will be going up and down all day, It's real easy to just
pull the dive lights out of the dive plane "wings", pop in new batteries, and
stuff the dive lights back into the wings. Same with the buoy. I would expect
the batteries in the buoy to last several days, with just a low power LED for
a beacon, and an intermittent signal sending unit. The fishing line cable will
need to be pretty small, but is not used for leading a grapple hook down so
only has to hold on to the buoy and could be 1000 feet long with room to
spare. Plus, It's cheap and easy to replace the line during regular
maintenance. Now, I won't be able to reel it in from inside the sub, but I
don't see that as being very necessary, as a buoy release only happens when
you're in serious trouble. Got any thoughts on this ? Frank D.