Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Distress buoy

The JSLs use a standard teardrop shaped buoy, deflated. There is a tee fitting in the fill port with a quick release for the fill line on one side and a low pressure relief (check) valve in the other. You fill the buoy from inside and when it pulls away, the quick release detaches and up she goes. Works like a champ. The nice thing here is that you can roll the deflated buoy up or squeeze it into an open topped funnel or tray or bungee it down flat or whatever (they use an elongated funnel at HBOI). It doesn't take up much room but inflates to the size of.....of, say a conning tower or better. Lots of buoyancy, which is needed out here in the Gulf Stream, of course, and isn't bad anywhere else. The line is spooled on an aluminum reel that is about 30" across, which is more than we'd need, but then we aren't going to 3000' and they are (or were, at least). Side note: The line on that spool on the JSLs does not wrap around an axle, by the way. The axle merely rotates the unit and the line is wound on an open topped tray further out on the radius. By making that line bed radius larger, the reel moves more freely and avoids a tendency to bind up down toward the axle. And, like I said, it works like a champ.

-----Original Message-----
From: ShellyDalg@aol.com
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 10:46 am
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Distress buoy

In a message dated 8/27/2010 7:59:39 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, vbra676539@aol.com writes:

Almost anything I do puts the reel and buoys in the pilot's way.

Hi Vance. It seems to me the placement of the buoy and reel wouldn't be a problem as long as the line is fed through the lifting eye. The buoy could float up from almost anywhere on the sub, provided it didn't get hung up on something.

As Hugh suggested, it could be possible to use a fairly light ( floating ) line on the buoy and use that line to attach a stronger line, then use THAT line to follow with the heavy hook and cable. In that way the buoy itself could be quite small. The link Jens put up with the "two rope" system would work in securing a stronger cable used for leading the heavy hook and cable into place.

On another note......I wonder if a buoy that was inflated with HP air upon release would work to simplify the release mechanism. I'm thinking along the lines of a free flooding hard cylinder like a small propane tank. It could be held in place by a rubber band or something easy to break. Once the air is applied the buoy would become positively buoyant and float up. No "breakaway" air line or mechanical thru-hull would be needed. Just a 1/4 inch air line with valve. The buoy would act much like a soft ballast tank. Just keep the open hole in the bottom small and as the buoy ascends the excess air would simply bubble out. It wouldn't take much air even at depth to blow out a little tank. If the tank was made from aluminum or plastic it wouldn't add much weight, and releasing the buoy wouldn't decrease the subs overall buoyancy.

Frank D.