"These tanks are in addition to
the fore and aft tanks, not a replacement. The rationale is..." Hi Alec, It's been a long time since I've piped in, good to see your well thought out improvements, Snoopy is all grown up now! What you are in fact gaining with the above is both reserve buoyancy as well as lateral stability, perfectly suited for open water ops. You also gain a failsafe ability were one to loose a seal on either of the end tanks, the K boats weakest link
are the MBT's as designed for the reasons you've stated.
As for me, no time to build anything, plane, boat, sub, (or spaceship ala Madsen) but, I've been following in Jay's wake for about a year now with the snippets of time available to me late at night in acquiring marine design credentials above and beyond my aeronautical base.
Eventually, I will draw up plans for various vessels as well as aircraft for the homebuilt market in an effort to fund whatever my retirement project
turns out to be.
In the meantime, an intrepid tinkerer such as yourself could take lessons away from Alvin, Shinkai and others in that the K boat's
are screaming out for a similar exostructure frame to mount modular soft tank, variable ballast (weights), and propulsion components. All in an effort
to improve safety, control and ease of maintenance. With your "Torpedo Tubes" on Snoopy you inadvertently mirrored a technique utilized from a popular
homebuilt helicopter design that uses a removable ballast weight to vary the W&B between solo and dual flight.
Best!
Joe
> Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] K-600 Reconditioning > Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:50:05 -0500 > From: Alec.Smyth@compuware.com > To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org > > Still working on them! At this point the tanks themselves are done, and > I am painting them, but I have to do the mounting and plumbing bits, and > I haven't yet sourced the parts for that. These tanks are in addition to > the fore and aft tanks, not a replacement. The rationale is... > > - I am very low on freeboard in open water, if any burping takes place. > You don't want to sit inside the boat during an hours-long tow, and by > the end of a tow the sub has normally burped quite a bit, so it can be > hairy boarding. Additional tanks will not add a lot more freeboard, > because once the apex of the main cylinder is above the surface, the > marginal lift required for any additional freeboard increases > tremendously. However, as the saddle tanks won't burp, at least the boat > should stay up instead of settling down. > - I don't have a VBT anymore, I've gone to fixed lead ballast. It's not > fun shipping and unshipping the weight of a person in weights each time > you go between diving alone or with a passenger. I am hoping to > permanently ballast for one person, and if I have a passenger on board > simply use a much larger "bubble" to compensate. > - Fore and aft tanks are great for adjusting longitudinal trim, but for > buoyancy trimming it should be easier with saddle tanks. > - I'm hoping to plumb the saddle tanks with much larger tubing than the > standard MBTs, so I can vent my bubble very quickly as it expands on an > ascent. On the Kittredge tanks I now have half inch valves. It's > certainly faster than the smaller original ones I had before, but for a > tank that will have a large bubble, I'd prefer the dump to be super > fast. > > The tanks are 3/8" fiberglass, molded on male foam molds that I then > dissolved. Note also Greg came up with a very nice solution that used > off-the-shelf tanks for saddle MBTs when he reconditioned Scott > Cassell's K-250 "Great White". > > I'll upload photos when done, probably in 2-3 weeks. > > > Thanks, > > Alec > > > > The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. It contains information that may be confidential. Unless you are the named addressee or an authorized designee, you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you received it in error please notify us immediately and then destroy it. > > From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org > [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Jon Wallace > Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 3:02 PM > To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org > Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] K-600 Reconditioning > > Alec, > > Any photos of your saddle tanks yet? I've begun to consider the same > thing for the 600, possibly removing the bow and stern tanks completely. > Now that I have the existing tanks off in preparation for refinishing, I > like the look. It's more compact and clean looking. I can easily match > the flotation of the bow/stern tanks with appropriately sized saddle > tanks, or add them to the existing configuration to provide more lift > and stability on the surface. > > So I'm curious, did you remove the bow/stern tanks or just add the > saddle tanks to the stock K-250 configuration? > > Jon > > > > > ************************************************************************ > ************************************************************************ > ************************************************************************ > The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal > CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. 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