[PSUBS-MAILIST] First Launch

Tue Oct 22 14:00:57 EDT 2013

Congratulations James!
I have been watching your progress closely thanks to your well documented pictures of construction as I am building a K-350 as well and have been impressed on the quality of your build. It is easy to just slap something together and get the same results but there is so much more pride in a project when you go the extra mile to do a quality job which is usually much more of a hassle. Your wood floor boards are a nice touch and one that I am going to use after seeing them!
Can’t wait to hear from you once she goes under.
Best of luck

Rick 

From: Smyth, Alec 
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 7:33 AM
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion 
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] First Launch

That actually happened to one of my naval architecture professors, when he was a young engineer launching his first vessel. It was a commercial fishing ship, and the yard put on a big launching ceremony with lots of VIPs present. She went down the slipway and promptly turned turtle in front of the crowd. The reason was that the fitting out was going to be done afloat over the next few months, and at the time of the launch the engines and other engine room equipment (heavy and low) had not been installed.  Talk about an embarrassing situation, but fortunately he overcame it in time, and in fact was probably the most prolific naval architect in the country when I had him as a teacher in his seventies.  

Cheers,

Alec

From: Personal_Submersibles [mailto:personal_submersibles-bounces at psubs.org] On Behalf Of James Frankland
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 10:02 AM
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] First Launch

Thanks guys.

Jim, yes could have been a grumpy commercial diver, but i suspect more likely just some misserable old school fisherman who just didnt like to see someone using an area of the harbour he isnt allowed in.  We have a lot of them here.

I was deliberatly trying to avoid spectators and media as I wasnt even sure the boat was going to float.  Would have been embarrasing to make a big fuss over it with the TV and everything there just for it to leak, or tip over and sink!  

On 22 October 2013 14:43, Smyth, Alec <Alec.Smyth at covisint.com> wrote:

That’s a really different and clean looking 350, congrats! I suspect she will be far more efficient on surface runs or tows, which is a huge plus. I’m looking forward to dive reports, and am green with envy that you have a sub right on the ocean, whereas in these parts we’re limited to muddy puddles, and often man-made puddles at that. Congrats on a super job, and thanks for the detailed project page.

Best,

Alec

From: Personal_Submersibles [mailto:personal_submersibles-bounces at psubs.org] On Behalf Of James Frankland
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 5:07 AM
To: personal_submersibles at psubs.org; member-forum at psubs.org
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] First Launch

Hi All,

I got my boat in the water at the weekend for the first time.  Put the pictures up here.

http://www.guernseysubmarine.com/operations.htm

I didnt get any leaks at all, so i was super happy.  I wasnt really expecting to try and dive and would have been happy with just no leaks and a float test, but everything worked fine, so i gave it a go.  Unfortunately i didnt have enough lead.  I added 90KG (198lb) of lead, but it still wouldnt go down.  What i didnt mention on the website was that i was forced to stop testing because the harbour master came along to say that they had had an anonymous phone call from some bloody do-gooder who pointed out that we were using the comercial area of the harbour and didnt have a proper comercial dive team, which is officially a legal requirement.  So even though i had full permission from the harbour, i was forced to stop on a technicality.  They think it was some missery that has the hump on with harbour and just wanted to be awkward.  Shame because I was about to load a pile of anchor chain into the boat to get me more weight.

The boat did seem to be very light at the back and i kept squirting air into the forward tank to level it out.  Thinking about it, i suspect that the forward tank was settling into the correct position and it was the aft tank that was riding high.  Just need to get some weight at the back.  I had a slight list to port as well which i've no idea where that came from.  Again i will trim that up.

Anyway, i was really pleased with how it went on my first day.  Im meeting my divers tonight who took a load of underwater pics apparently, so i will see how they look later.  Might put some on the web if they are any good.

Kind Regards
James

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