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Visibilty
Is it my imagination (vivid always!) or is onboard visibility secondary to all
engineering function?
My reason for asking is that there is (and, to a point, justifiably for obvious
technical reasons) a large amount of energy being spent on visibility as a sort of
"value added" feature of getting our subs done "right". "Right" implying that
fantastic vis is really more of a "fun" thing and not realy what submarining is
about.
What I mean is that almost no one is stressing visibility as a way of actually being
there. Great vis, aside from being a safety advantage, is more than an engineering
challenge - it is IMHO the absolute essence of what we are up to.
Please, don't get me wrong. There are those that have DONE with whatever choices
they felt comfortable making. I am not yet in that league myself. They have subs -
I don't.
But, my passion is vis. A tiny viewport that really forces me to stick my nose
against the port sort of, well, defeats MY reasons for building a sub in the first
place. Our waters up here often have well over 110 feet of vis with loads of BIG
marine life, kelp, etc. I love being surrounded by hundreds of schooling fish or
watching sea lions come up for a peek, or eels swimming up for a look. INTERATIVE is
the word I'm looking for.
Graham Hawkes' one-at sub has a dome that gives a FANTASTIC view for the pilot. Ref.
also Nuytco's Exosuit. The WASP, JIM, Nuytsuit, Kitteredge (dome, I believe),
DeepWorker, DeepRover, Aquarius, all have that fantastic viewing area in common. My
ambient dry sub (currently in my backyard awaitng conversion) will have a canopy
similar to a light aircraft. At one point I even had Chipmunk canopy - it was a
little too fragile, thank you.
Opinions?
[Camera falls off, writer's face drops into dramatic sidelight - turns to camera as
if to say "Is a flame war on its way?]
--
Rick Lucertini
empiricus@sprint.ca
(Vancouver, Canada)
"Most people die with their dreams still inside them."