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Jay,
I think that sounds reasonable as long as we are
dealing with knowledgeable USCG Captains with a good dose of common sense. We
also need to work on being knowledgeable, with a good dose of common sense, if
it can be had. That of course means I have my work cut out for me.
;}
When I mentioned to Bruce that I had a private
(unclassed) sub, he tried to make it sound like I wouldn't be allowed to play in
the water with it at all. I wasn't calling about that issue, so I was a little
surprised how aggressive he took to the issue. I was just calling to see if I
could get involved in the underwater hotel project that I had heard was being
built in Portland, Oregon. That is on hold for now, with talks of doing it
in Belize.
Yep it's basically a Link original
concept. As far as I can gather, the Triton yacht subs are Paul
Moorhouse designed. With Marlin Submarines producing at least the first one. Now
it looks like the production is in Vero Beach, Florida with Patric Layhey as the
lead in charge. Last I heard, Marlin Submarines was busy building the S202 and
S203 for Promare. I've seen Patric Layhey on the Nova show making sure the crew
was ready for the Alicia subs sea trials, and later on Karl's View From Below
film saying Karl's sub, was currently the only deep diving tourist sub. He
seemed like a nice subdude in those clips.
I like the idea of being in water with a great view,
but not getting wet, like you have in the clear acrylic sphere pressure hulls.
But the snell's effect does mess with the reality of what your seeing in those
designs as they are currently configured. I've heard a few stories of how Karl
Stanley will have some passengers come and look at the six gill sharks from the
conning tower with it's flat view ports. So they can see the actual size of the
sharks, since the 4 inch think spherical sector dome up front enlarges every
thing a fair bit. That I admit can increase the thrill factor. But then again,
even a gold fish, can be made to look huge, with the right
optics.
Cheers,
Brent
From: Jay K. Jeffries
Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2009 3:36 PM
Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Sub Operation at the Discretion of the
U.S Coast Guard 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 |