[PSUBS-MAILIST] Ethical obligation to inform

[Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles]

Hi Alan,

Good point regarding the taxi comparison.  However, regarding commercial 
fabricators, the issue is not to differentiate between commercial and 
non-commercial use, but rather certified vs home-built submarines for 
private use.  An overlap in the "personal" or "private" submarine 
category exists because commercial fabricators do have a market to 
supply rich people a submarine "toy" for their own personal use.  What 
we are seeing, I believe, is a desire from some commercial fabricators 
to differentiate, in as obvious way as possible, their certified vessel 
from a home-built vessel to protect their business from any public 
misconception about "personal" submarines that might result from an 
accident involving a home-built.  What's the easiest and most obvious 
way to do that?  Diminish the perceived quality and/or reliability of 
non-certified home-built submarines by slapping a label on them such as 
"experimental".

As you illustrated with your taxi and private surface boat examples, it 
would be much better from our perspective if certified submarines were 
identified in some manner such as having a sticker from the certifying 
authority, or "CERTIFIED" emblazoned upon their hull, if they really 
believe demarcation is necessary to protect their business.

Jon



On 7/17/2017 4:55 PM, Alan via Personal_Submersibles wrote:
> Thanks for searching that out Jon,
> if they require a differentiation between commercial & non commercial
> submersibles then the onus should be on the commercial vehicles to
> mark their submersibles. ie. cars don't have "private vehicle" emblazoned
> on them, but taxis have "taxi" written on them. Would a surface boat 
> under
> 20ft be required to have non commercial vessel written on it? I doubt it.
>     I remember hearing that the MTS didn't include submersibles originally
> & it was the submarine people that wanted in.  From what I have seen of
> Will Kohnen's submersibles, they are a rich persons toy rather than a 
> commercial
> vehicle; so his interests would lie in limiting any rules for personal 
> submersibles.
> Regards Alan
>