[PSUBS-MAILIST] R300 Dive at Lake Amistad

Thu Jan 28 17:18:01 EST 2016

Cliff,I'm wondering if you could make or modify an inflatable pontoon.Sort of like an inflatable boat with the back board removed.Deflate it, drive on & inflate for transit.To a degree it would solve your free board issues when getting in & out,also it would act as a wave buffer stopping the waves flowing up the hull & in to the hatch.Alan

      From: Alec Smyth via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
 To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> 
 Sent: Friday, January 29, 2016 10:25 AM
 Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] R300 Dive at Lake Amistad

If you towed submerged, my guess is with the shape of your boat you could go a whole lot faster because you wouldn't be trapped in the trough of your bow wave. But on the other hand you would be above your comms speed, so slightly concerning if you were tearing along and had some issue.
Best,
Alec
On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 3:46 PM, Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

Hugh, I am sure if I installed dive planes on the bow I could improve surface speed but might adversely affect ability to roll.  I found on the last dive that I could use the vertical thrusters to generated a little lift  and get anther couple of knots on the surface. To conserve batteries, I would probably tow the boat if I had to go more than a couple of miles.  One of the mods I am going to test next time out is to make an attachment lug closer to the bottom of the bow  I would screw this lug into the 2" forward MBT flood port.  I think towing from this lower location should counter act the bow wave to some degree.  If I could get the tow speed up to 5-6 knots, that would make a big difference in tow time.
Cliff

On Thu, Jan 28, 2016 at 1:55 PM, Hugh Fulton via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

Cliff,  Congratulations on the dive and success of the remodeling.I was interested in your comments of the restrictions of speed on the surface due to the bow wave/visibility.  Makes sense.Can you not put on dive/surface planes to assist lift on the surface and then increase speed.  Could try on a model in a pool.Regards,  Hugh  From: Personal_Submersibles [mailto:personal_submersibles-bounces at psubs.org] On Behalf Of Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles
Sent: Friday, 29 January 2016 3:41 a.m.
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] R300 Dive at Lake Amistad Alan, operation of the four Minn-Kota thrusters was a joy.  Maneuverability is an order magnitude better than before plus they are super quite. I use a foot control that you tilt forward to increase speed of stern thrusters and if you tilt the foot control back you can reverse the stern thrusters.  With this I now have brakes.   I have a 3-axis joy stick which I use to control pitch, roll and yaw through PLC. I programed three different vertical thruster modes. The first is full control in which starboard-port movement generates roll, the second in which I switch them over to momentary  switches for up and down movement and have them locked together and a third in which I have them back on the joystick but lock out roll.  I use the first mode when I want to fly underwater with full pitch, roll and yaw control.  I use the second mode for vertical ascent or decent and the third mode which gives yaw and pitch movement but locks out roll movement.  On the surface I have to be careful not to apply  full speed to aft thrusters or they will cavitate. On the ascent from the 154 ft dive, I could see out the viewport a steady stream of bubbles coming from the pressure reducing regulator used to pressure compensate the thrusters.  Also, after the dive I analyzed the logged data and confirmed that during each dive air was been supply to the thrusters for pressure compensation.  I have not done so yet but I plan on disassembling one of the thrusters to confirm it had no water encroachment during the dive.  I am really happy with the Minn-Kota thrusters.  After a full day on the water, I had a SOC of 90%.  With my previous drive train, my batteries would be at a 50% SOC for same number of hours.  As to boat length, I did end of shortening the boat by 2.5 ft. I also shortened the trailer by 3 ft.  As the pressure hull is shaped like a coke bottle, I could not cut much more off the stern FRP cowling. After I do a 400 ft unmanned dive to qualify the boat to 300 ft, then I am going to find some clear water.  How you doing for garage space?  I sure you could find me some nice clear water in New Zealand! Cliff On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 9:40 PM, Alan James via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:Thanks Cliff,congratulations on getting the refit finished.How did you feel it operated with the 4 Minn kotas. What was the steering like on surface & diving.I notice you didn't shorten the sub. What were the reasonsfor that, I thought that tale section would just be anappendage now.That was a shame about the visibility. Wait till you get in to some reallyclear water, you will be blown away.Cheers Alan  From: Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> 
Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2016 11:07 AM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] R300 Dive at Lake Amistad  Lake Amistad 2016 is a link to YouTube video of dive last weekend.  This is the deepest dive to date with the boat.  Got the thruster electrical issue from my last dive sorted out.  The objective in diving this lake is that it is the deepest in Texas and most of the time, the clearest.  Having said that, last weekend visibility was bad.  Surface vis was 6ft, lost all light at 80 ft and zero visibilty at 154 ft.  Still if was fun to get the deep dive in.   Clif
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