Hello all, I was the third passenger on the Bionic Guppy and I did a write up that night with photos while things were fresh in my mind. At Jon’s request I forwarded a copy to him. I did the write up without any requests from anyone. As Jon points out I don’t think any of the three participants have the same story. Being left by the support ship was somewhat alarming to all of us. Ken Martindale PS David, don’t quit the group. From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of kocpnt tds.net Hi Cliff, There were as usual in any incident many contributing factors. 1. The surface support boat left us in the bay to fend for ourselves. 2. The design of the soft tank inlets was not well thought out. I have discussed this with Vance and Dan Lance at some length and have a sound solution. 3. The hard tanks and battery box were not securred as well as they should have been. However in answer to your question,The root cause was front left passenger (David Bartsch) failing to stay in his seat per my instructions during the disembarking of another passenger. By moving rearward prematurely the weight transfer caused the aft end of the sub to go down to the point that the front soft tank air was released and we lost that amount of bouyancy in waves that were probably 12 -15 inches high. Water entered the hull and the rest is history. By better design of the soft tank inlets, this probably would have been avoided. Best Regards, Jim K |