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Hello Jay, I was talking to Greg Cottrell about this same matter several weeks ago, and he was kind enough to give me some of his take on it. He also thought/knew that the Delta's main pressure hull viewports having holes drilled thru the acrylic to attach them was pre-spec as you said and have them grandfathered in. He also said that they wouldn't be allowed to change them now if they wanted to keep ABS certification. Unless they had loads of money to get the whole sub re certified. That didn't make total since to me. I would think they could just deal with the viewport assemblies and how they are installed, as well as do some new calcs for that. But not have to redo all the calcs and what not for the whole boat. The main pressure hull view ports and the front main ballast tank acrylic windows all have the attachment holes drilled in the acrylic from what I've seen. The windows in the front most part of the sub are part of the free flooding front MBT, much like the much thinner acrylic dome over Idabel's large front dome, that acts as the front MBT. Where do you think Karl got part of that idea from. ;)' We can also see in a couple of the pics below that the Delta has five small viewports mounted in it's front main pressure hull head. I was talking with Karl about the two viewports he had fail, one on Idabel and one on C-BUG, that had holes drilled in the acrylic to attach them, that I had read about, and had wondered if the holes were the cause of the failures. He said no, they failed for other reasons that had to do with the metal structures that were around them not supporting them evenly. He has since changed the design of the lower front flat viewport. This doesn't mean that drilling holes in acrylic is a good idea, in my opinion. It's just a interesting piece of data to add to are data. http://www.frappr.com/?a=viewphoto&id=2384531&pid=10409653 http://www.frappr.com/?a=viewphoto&id=2384531&pid=10409648 Your resident hippy dreamer ;)' Regards, Szybowski From: bottomgun@mindspring.com To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: Acrylic Viewports Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2008 11:39:48 -0400 Then correct my last since she is ABS certified (but may have a waiver if she was pre-spec built), what you may be seeing is a guard over the port proper. After the accident in one of these subs where the port was shattered, Plexiglas or acrylic impact guards were installed over the ports. This may be what you are seeing bolted on. R/Jay
Respectfully, Jay K. Jeffries Andros Is., Bahamas
Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. - Euripides (484 BC - 406 BC)
From:
owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
[mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of ShellyDalg@aol.com
I doubt the window plexi is drilled. Their sub is ABS certified. I'll let you know after I visit. Frank D.
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