[PSUBS-MAILIST] VAST

[irox via Personal_Submersibles]

I was looking at buying a VAST (one of a few (3?) sold as a "K250" after VAST went under)
a while ago. Then Daniel Lance gave me a great piece of a advice: "Don't."  It was
cheaper and better to build a K250 from scratch then buy and refit/modernize as VAST.

Much later I completely ignored his advice while having a minor mid-life issue and
bought one.  I consider it a submarine shaped piece of scrap metal with a trailer and
some lead (at least until it's restored).

To deal with the issues of not being able to inspect certain parts of the hull, I
used an ultra-sonic thickness to determine if there is any significant corrosion.
This can be placed on the outside of the hull and reports the thickness of the material.

Ultimately Daniel Lance was spot on with his advice and it would have been
easier to build or commission a K250 from plan instead.  Although there is something
to be said for having a K250 shaped piece of artwork/scrap in your garage.

My plans (when I get time) are to strip it, add external framing, then remove the internal
ballast tanks.  Hopefully creating a nice platform to build on, with a little more room
inside.

If I was doing this again, I would prefer to not buy a VAST, either hold out for a real
K250 or build one from scratch.

Cheers,
  Ian.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
>Sent: Mar 21, 2017 10:11 PM
>To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
>Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] VAST
>
>
>Inspect the old VAST submarines carefully.  They are old as the hills 
>(almost) and may require more work to recondition than building a new 
>K250.  In particular, they had an integral internal hard ballast that 
>would make it difficult to assess hull viability without some 
>destruction and rebuilding of that element alone. Keep in mind that 
>Kittredge submarines evolved from ideas and refinements that were 
>learned from operational lessons with previous models.
>
>You can read the basic history of Kittredge submarines here:
>http://www.psubs.org/reference/publications/kittredgesubmarines.pdf
>
>Jon
>
>
>On 3/21/2017 11:30 PM, River Dolfi via Personal_Submersibles wrote:
>> Also interested in more details about the Maryland VAST boat. These 
>> were structurally the same as the later K250's? From what I can gather 
>> there are minor differences in the varaible ballast system, is this 
>> right? Or is the only difference that one was built in Kittredge's shop?
>
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