|
Hi Frank, Dean, I was thinking of something as Dean described able to be towed
50 miles out to islands with a genset aboard and compressor so you could do a
week of diving. Live aboard the tow boat with reasonable comfort but able
to tow at 8 -12 knots. Great concept Dean. Just need to come up with a design for my 5 -6
tons that is stable in a 5 ft swell. So far I think I need 2 x 40 ft long
48” diameter pipes. That is some serious thing to tow. Where do
you stop?? Chs Hugh From:
owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
[mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of ShellyDalg@aol.com Hi Dean and Hugh. The pontoon boat I was contemplating at
about 16' long would be for fair weather and close to shore sub operations. The
sub would merely "tie up" to it. Your concept of a large pontoon boat sounds more like a floating
"dock" and is a great idea. The tender for the Lake Diver was big
enough to act like a barge and bring the sub "up on deck" which is
also a good idea. I'm not sure how large a boat should be to carry a sub in the open
ocean but I'm guessing at least 80 feet. The size is really dependant on how heavy the sub is, and where to
locate it on deck so it balances with the boat. One problem with bringing a small sub up into the middle of a
pontoon boat like you explained would be securing it so the two would travel in
tandem when swells, waves, or wakes start "rockin' the boat". The sub
could damage the pontoons if it was rockin' around between them. Lake Superior gets pretty rough even on nice days. I like the concept of floating pontoons next to the sub. It
will take a pretty massive frame to hold it together with an opening in the
back big enough to motor the sub in there. Maybe you could have a rigid frame
and bring the sub "up" into the middle. Or have a removable frame
member at the back that would slide in or drop down and re-connect the pontoons
in the back to re-establish a rigid frame. Hugh, your sub at 6 tons will take a pretty big boat to haul up
the sub. There are some "floating docks" available and they can get
huge. Maybe buying a used barge and outfitting it for sub operations would
be possible. There was a few for sale in San Fran Bay and some were
used for house boats. The local harbor in Santa Cruz has one they use in channel
dredging and it carries a lot of weight. Frank D.
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4650 (20091130) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com |