Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] elliptical heads

[Jon Wallace <jonw@psubs.org>]

Frank,

I share your concern about the Boston sub.  Seeing it up close, there 
was going to be a lot of work to get it into diving condition again.  My 
experience with both building my house from scratch and maintaining it, 
is that the work involved with taking something apart and bringing it 
back to working condition again is more than double the effort required 
to start from scratch.

My thoughts on a saucer sub and instability due to surface conditions, 
is that for a psubber the effects of such conditions can be minimized by 
not diving within a window of weather that will result in those 
conditions.  I suspect that most psubbers are fair weather divers anyway 
and won't be diving in conditions with three foot seas.  Even for a 
non-saucer design, two and three foot seas are going to have a negative 
effect.  Especially for subs that have a low profile conning tower.  So 
I'm guessing that this issue can be managed.

The benefits of the saucer shape from the perspective of fabrication and 
cost has obvious advantages and is what attracted me to the design.  As 
with most things, there are pros and cons, give and take, with the shape 
of any vessel.  While I haven't settled on a design yet, the saucer is 
still on my list.  You've done a lot of work to counteract the effects 
of instability and I suspect those will ultimately prove effective.  I'm 
looking forward to seeing your sub as well since it is a design I am 
considering.

Jon




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