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Vance. That has always perplexed me a bit, and I guess some of the K boat
owners as well. I've noticed a few of the tanks on the K boats have bottoms
on them. Les made a comment a couple days ago about his new MBT's having bottoms
on them too, like his old boat.
I was talking to my daughter the other day about how scary it would be to
get out in a big storm with one of these little subs. I seem to recall a story
where someone in a psub was out in a storm and was never seen again. I like to
think the pressure hull would outlast heavy wave action, but if the ballast
tanks can't be shut and sealed ( or mostly ) and the sub gets tipped often
enough, you run out of air to blow the ballast, and you sink. Dropping the
drop weight should stop you from sinking with the ballast tanks flooded, but
rolling around with little bottom ballast in 40 foot waves would prove
troublesome.
Or as you said, even getting semi vertical or tipped to one side would make
it hard to blow the ballast without some type of containment.
I spent some time designing my tanks so they can take a beating, and being
vertical or tipped 90 degrees over on their sides won't stop them from
working. The K boat tanks seem to have a weakness in that regard.
Not a problem in a lake, but the ocean can be a very different place. Frank
D.
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