Brent, From my discussions with the US Coast Guard while assisting with making plans for the Maine trip, the issue of “classed” never came up. The USCG can stop you from operating on any navigable waters if they think that you present a threat or a safety issue (whether to yourself or to others). Well it looks like Jones finally has subs in the water…it has taken him close to 20 years (and they are the large luxury yacht submersibles that he keeps pushing but just a copy of Link’s original concept). Haven’t spoken with him in years but it looks like he hasn’t changed. Wasn’t U-Boat Worx building out of Dubai? If so, they are under indictment for embezzlement as I posted a while back. R/Jay From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Brent Hartwig I had a phone conversation with Bruce Jones a while back, and he tried to make it sound like only classed sub are allowed to operate in the U.S. waters. Of course we know that unclassed subs have a range to currently work in. But he didn't want to hear that. I guess some just want subbing to be a very very exclusive club. I had also heard that in some busy harbors the Coast Guard wants you to file a dive plan, and get clearance. Like was done when the S101 was diving in the Seattle area. Have you guys heard about the below data, and is there a statute I can reference? "In most countries, including the United States, it is illegal to commercially operate a sub not built to classification standards and operated without a valid class certificate. In the U.S. it is at the discretion of the U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port at so whether to allow private home-built or non classed subs to operate without paying passengers in U.S waters. Submersibles that are not classed by any classification society cannot be insured and they cannot legally carry passengers for hire. Small, inexpensive submersibles like those sold by U-Boat Worx fall into this category."
For more info on Triton: http://www.tritonsubs.com/files/triton-brochure.pdf There is also quite a bit of data on the Triton subs in this new PDF brochure that is interesting. I found the U-Boat Worx comments to be a bit rude. But maybe that's just me. As is turns out Bruce Jones lives just minutes from me. How crazy is that. Regards, Brent |