Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] nekton fatality

Ah, good. When do you expect to get it the water? What area?

Rick L

----- Original Message -----

From: vbra676539@aol.com

To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org

Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2006 5:41 AM

Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] nekton fatality

Well, I'd say yes, as psubbing isn't exactly about diving--it's about building, or in my case, re-building--which is what I'm doing to a K-350 this year.

Vance

-----Original Message-----
From: empiricus@telus.net
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 11:09 PM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] nekton fatality
Vance - thanks for the field notes. IMHO it really brings home what we're all about on this list.

Aside from commercial operations, are you psubbing in a boat of your own? Any plans to?

Rick L
----- Original Message -----

From: vbra676539@aol.com

To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org

Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 6:16 PM

Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] nekton fatality

Alpha and Beta were doing a recovery on a 26' speedboat from 200 plus feet. They got slings under the boat's bow and stern and started the lift. Alpha surfaced and Beta stayed to oversee the lift. The speedboat's bow sling slipped and its hull slewed to one side as it fell free, hitting the sub in the conning tower and breaking one viewport completely in half!!! The sub flooded immediately and sank (and boy howdy, that must have been some ride). The pilot and co-pilot were alright at that point, discussed the blow and go technique which was their only option. When the hatch popped, the remaining air bubble held captive in the conn roared up and sucked the pilot right out of the boat. He surfaced about half dead, and says he doesn't remember that ascent to this day. He survived to build and operate Delta for its entire lifetime. His copilot was less fortunate, and was found by the Alpha on the bottom near the sunken sub. Alpha retrieved th! ! ! e body and then went back to retrieve Beta. It was a tragic case of bad luck and poor judgement, not improved by time or hindsight. I think this happened during Beta's first year of operation, but don't hold me to that.

I'd say there was plenty to learn. The sling was not attached to the boat, for instance, and the sub was too damned close to a load. I don't know about pre-job planning and briefings. These were serious people, and this was no lark. They were working, and something went badly wrong. Armchair quarterbacks could point a finger or two, and if you and I were doing the same job today, we'd probably call around and try to glean some lessons learned from the folks who were there. I've done a bunch of lifts using submarines, but I'll have to say that we didn't stay near loads in midwater. Get hooked up, test the load then get the hell out seemed like good advice, and that's the way we generally played it. Nobody wanted to be UNDER a load and with iffy visibility, about two seconds could be the difference between seeing the lift, and running into it.

This was the first of four fatalities in the business (that I knew of at the time) three in the US and one in France, which served the rest of us as lessons learned. Painful lessons, to be sure, and sad. One to two surface and/or saturation divers died per year (on average) during the construction days in the North Sea, for instance. But none of them were submersible related. No lockout divers, no pilots, no crew. A hundred percent safety record was considered the minimum goal, as the penalties for screwing up were draconian, and often fatal. Looking back, I suspect we had some help from the lucky stars, or the fates or the hand of God, depending on which way you swing. We ran those boats right on the hairy edge of disaster sometimes, but the accumulated experience and expertise pulled us through.

I got a nice little attaboy from the Navy guys once, just for doing something they thought was downright crazy. An experienced Trieste pilot might have 200 dives in his resume for his entire career, and there I was, diving 150 to 250 dives EVERY YEAR!!! And I was just one maniac in a crowded asylum. Together, the dozen or so subs operating in the oil fields at any given time were doing thousands of dives per year...thousands!!! There were plenty of incidents, I can assure you, and a few accidents for spice--but no fatalities. None.

The Navy was mightily impressed by that, but this was back when I all but took it for granted. In retrospect, it seems fairly obvious that this fashionable and distinguished gray that I wear at my temples these days might really be a marker for overuse of cheek and sheer luck, eh, what? And just as a side note consider this: Delta Oceanographics runs twice as many dives per year than I did, and in perfect safety as far as I know. Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta have done ten or twelve thousand dives between them, with one fatality in nearly forty years of operations. That's pretty impressive. Mind you, I'll bet they could tell you a hair-raising story or two. In fact, I know they could. I've heard some of them.

Vance

-----Original Message-----
From: joeperkel@hotmail.com
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 8:41 AM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] ebay subs
"an operational error that resulted in a broken viewport in Beta",

Vance, I'd be curious to know what happened here? I'll guess this was a deep dive considering the lines design depth but, is this something to learn from?

Joe
From: vbra676539@aol.com
Reply-To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] ebay subs
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:03:56 -0400

The 1 atm is the old Nekton Alpha. It was the 1st of its class, not certified by ABS, and sold off when Nekton, Inc. went belly up. The odd cage around it is someone's idea of safety. Mostly it looks like it always did, shinier perhaps, but intact. This boat evolved from the little Submaray (I think) and led the way for a series that has done more than 10,000 dives with only one fatality (which was an operational error that resulted in a broken viewport in Beta, rather than a failure of design). You gotta love those Nekton boats!!! And I agree, a hundred grand is a whole bucket full of money--but then again, ask some of the builders what a certifiable 1000 foot sub cost, and they'll quote 125K to half a million and not even bat an eye. The difference is that Dan or somebody could build this boat for a third to a half of what they're asking--as long as you don't count his time. And hey, who's counting?

Vance

-----Original Message-----
From: irox@ix.netcom.com
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 6:21 PM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] ebay subs

The big food version of scuba tow: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260036619314 And a 1ATM that looks very much like a delta sub: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220032301940 Ian. ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Your email address appears in our database because either you, or someone you know, requested you receive messages from our organization. If you want to be removed from this mailing list simply click on the link below or send a blank email message to: removeme-personal_submersibles@psubs.org Removal of your email address from this mailing list occurs by an automated process and should be complete within five minutes of our server receiving your request. PSUBS.ORG PO Box 311 Weare, NH 03281 603-529-1100 ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************

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************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Your email address appears in our database because either you, or someone you know, requested you receive messages from our organization. If you want to be removed from this mailing list simply click on the link below or send a blank email message to: removeme-personal_submersibles@psubs.org Removal of your email address from this mailing list occurs by an automated process and should be complete within five minutes of our server receiving your request. PSUBS.ORG PO Box 311 Weare, NH 03281 603-529-1100 ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ **************************! ! ! **********************************************