[PSUBS-MAILIST] A few Questions....

[Ron Mills <quandryron@yahoo.com>]

I'll start by letting on what I'm shooting for.  I
have a dream of sailing the globe.  I want to see the
world.  Now, this wasn't a really big problem for me
personally until I read about a story of a typhoon
catching a convoy? of sailboats and yachts in the
pacific that were leaving Australia for the
Phillipines.  The news story talked about how it
became a disaster which caused a loss of life.  What I
would like to do is build a boat which can traverse
the globe and when encountering storms.  I am thinking
of building something like the USSubs yachts.  Go
under the waves when things get dicey.  In researching
wave energy the ONR says that energy only will go half
as as deep as the wave is long or more appropriately,
half the wavelength.  

Sooo, I don't need to go really deep, maybe a hundred
feet I would think?  If someone has had there sub out
in rough waters perhaps they would be willing to
verify this.  

Next, which type of submersible to build.  A one atm
sub is heavy.  Roughly between 8000 to 5000 lbs for a
one to two person vessel.  That's a lot of mass to
move across the water.  I don't think that that would
be very fuel efficient.  So an ambient subship? seems
to be the best trade off.  It's light and simple to
build with some leeway on shape and materials.  But,
(it seems like there are always those 'buts' in plans)
from what I have found here, an ambient sub is tricky
to keep neutrally bouyant.  Correct me if I'm wrong. 
Also, you have to be careful how fast you descend and
rise or else you will get the bends.  Not something
that I am really looking for.  A note here, I am going
to get scuba certified regardless, 1 atm or ambient. 
That would be what I call priceless information to
learn.  What thoughts do you have on this idea. 
Please, please, if you see something screwy here, let
me know.  I am not wanting to kill or be killed by
something I didn't forsee.  Your knowledge and
experience would be greatly appreciated in this.

Another thought for the ambient folks.  If my vessel
were to be catamaran style I could use the pontoons as
ballast tanks with tubing running to the living area
to pressurize that area for counter hull pressure. 
The question is, if I come to a certain depth, say
50', and I closed off the tubing to the living areas
and ceased the equalization of inner and outer hull
pressures, would that stop the flow of water into the
ballast tanks and stop the accent and keep the living
areas dry?  This is assuming that the pontoons had
enough volume to take on the water to that depth and
still keep the living area dry.  I feel like I am
missing something here and I can't quite wrap my brain
around it.  The question may seem dumb but I don't
know, that's why I'm asking.  

And here's another thought, this would be the deep sub
guys I think.  When you have gone deep and you have
all that water pressure outside your hull trying to
get inside your sub it seems to me that there is a lot
of kinetic? energy there waiting to be used.  Has
anyone thought up a way to put that to use?  Perhaps
to use that pressure to run a turbing for generating
electricity?  You could run a line from the hull to a
low pressure tank to catch the water and have the
turbine between the two to run off of the flow.  Then
when the pressure is equalized shut the valve and blow
the water out with some high pressure air.  Then you
could do it again? and again?

These are just a few thoughts.  Perhaps they are
uneducated and silly to some, but they are mine.  I
would like answers or debate or both.  I'm anxious to
see what I can learn from you guys.

Thx,

Ron Mills

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