Re: Ambient-pressure fibreglass and plywood

[Michael B Holt <michaelbholt@juno.com>]

On Fri, 05 Mar 1999 10:42:32 -0800 Rick Lucertini writes:
>Very similar.  His boat was the genesis of the ambient sub in my own 
>repetoire of designs.

I suspect his boat was the origin of many similar ones.  I bought the
plans
to his boat.   By the way, did you know that boat was patented?   It's
U.S.
patent number 3,416,478, dated December 17, 1968.   I have a copy of
it before me now.

>My preference is that, because I'm already a diver, the last thing I
want is to be
>wet.  I'm not saying I won't one day design a LILO (lock in - lock out
chamber).

It's always been feeling that if one is on a boat and one gets wet, one
has
done something wrong.    Dinghy racers tell me I'm missing the best part.

I'd given some thought to a diving bell appended to a dry sub, for use
at shallow depths.   I've never even done sketches of it, however. 

I don't dive because my doctor told me not to: I have epilepsy.   Come to
think 
of it, he told me then (when I was 14) that I should think about a
submarine.
Would building a sub then be "by doctor's orders"?

>But, being dry U/W would truly be a treat.  Also, our waters up here are
very
>conducive to long distance touring, something I fell in love with as a 
>motorcyclist all those years ago.

You'd do underwater touring?

My girl friend used to adorn the back seat of a Goldwing, in her previous
life.   Some of her ideas resulting from that experience have caused me
to work on some small powerboat designs from the point of view of 
someone doing long distance touring.

>Sure.  If you can JPEG it, would you mind sending me a copy via email?

I'll see what I can arrange.   

>One thing to keep in mind: if you take a look at a fighter jet canopy,
they have a
>very tiny frontal area that is a flat panel.  You may want to consider
the same.

The origin of my canopy was the Curtis P-30 Swift.   It had a graceful 
bubble that was made of flat panels curved in one plane only.   That
idea would be much easier to build than the full bubble.

I'd envisoned making a faceted canopy, and bolting the transparent 
panels onto a frame.   The frame would then be gasketed and bolted
to the deck of the Markam submarine.



Michael B. Holt
Oregon Hill, Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.
--

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