Re: Trojan (virus)

[protek@shreve.net]

Vance,

   Yes, Harold's sub has internal ribs.  How many and how wide I cannot
remember.  I told harold that I would not have used Lexan because there is
no data on it.  He built a test window and cycled it "once."  You may have
gotten onto psubs too late to catch the cycling debate a few months ago,
and I don't want to get everyone started on it again.  But, he took the
window to several thousand feet simulated, and it blew.  He felt that it
would be OK at the depths he was going to use the sub.  Lexan is unproven
and there is little or no data on it in this type of service the last time
I looked.  His dive planes were made of acrylic or Lexan, I am not sure
which.  The total area of each and there are two, would be less than 2 sq
feet.
   One thing that I didn't tell you was that his displacement is on the
order of 4500 pounds which is almost exactly 3/4 of my boat's displacement.
 I don't have the dimensions of his boat exactly but it is considerably
shorter than mine.  The theme of Harold's sub is more suited for general
operation than mine.  He built a high visability sub with lots of windows
and lots of inside room, compared to my larger hull design.  His is a two
place, while mine is a one place.  I was not as interested in underwater
viewing as much as playing fast attach submarine commander. :-)  My sub
travels over 6 knots submerged.  Harold's travels about 2 knots.
   There are two things however that I would have done differently with
Harold's.  First the windows.  Second, his saddle bag ballast tanks were
sheet steel formed and welded in place onto the 1/4 inch hull itself.
There is no rust protection inside his tanks and no real way to install it.
 I tried to talk him into an access door into these "soft" tanks for
inspection and coating but he has not done this.  He did tell me that rust
is ejected out of the tanks on each blow.  I have access doors on my soft
tanks.  It is a genuine pain to get to them but they are there.
   Once again, I am sorry for the trojan virus I emailed to everyone.  Hope
nobody executed it.


Gary Boucher


At 09:00 PM 5/3/99 EDT, you wrote:
>
>In a message dated 5/4/99 1:48:49 AM, protek@shreve.net writes:
>
><<In general there are some things that I would have
>done differently, but there were some things I wish I had done like Harold
>did when I designed my boat.>>
>
>Gary,
>	Tx for the warning--I don't think I had any trouble with the 
>virus--and prison's too good for 'em in my view.  I'll agree with your 
>sentiment about wishing you'd done things differently.  Seems like there are 
>lots of good ideas out there.
>	Interesting variations on the sub you described.  Internal ribs?  I 
>don't much care for the lexan viewports--at least no one talks nice about 
>them, and I know that lexan is oil soluble to some extent.  Apparently oil 
>reduces the outer layer strength which changes the capabilities of the 
>material .... something like that, anyway.  What sort of dive planes does he 
>have?  The Perrys used a pair of bow planes of something like a square foot 
>each and in neutral trim they worked quite nicely above half a knot or so.  
>The Nektons use a single plexi plane that must be in the neighborhood of 3 
>square feet and will bump your little head if you aren't careful at speed.  
>Same with mine.  Swoops up off the bottom sweet as pie.
>	Thanks again for the diversion with the virus.  And that'll be quite 
>enough of that young man, as my sainted grandmother was wont to say.
>Vance
>
>