Re: battery boxes

[Phil Nuytten <72020.572@compuserve.com>]

Hi, Vance!
        Good to talk to you at the Portland show. Re: the rib/ring
stiffening on Sea Urchin. It actually has two stiffeners that are fitted
like horse collars perpendicular to the base of the right angle formed by
the top hatch coaming and the cylindrical hull. Looking from the top, the
'collar' is widest at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions, and the hull
cylinder is on this same 6/9 axis. The collars taper to a rounded point at
mid hull line. The penetrators are thru' two 6 inch diameter stainless
steel discs, one inch thick, drilled and tapped, welded into the bottom of
the horse collars on each side, where they come together.  Hmmm, pretty
poor description - would take ten seconds to draw on a cocktail napkin,
tho'. (G)
        Re: the fibreglas hulls on some UK subs . .yeah, Graham likes ( or
did like) that  style. He first first used it on the Wasp, when he was an
employee of UMEL and DHB  (  Farnborough companies that we - Oceaneering -
had a significant interest in: DHB Construction Ltd. was our 'JIM'
operating arm)  and  then, later,  on Mantis for OSEL. There were a number
of all GRP ( Limey for fibreglas) hulls made, in the 70's, and they were
quite succesful. The 'LR' series made for Vickers as deep lock-out boats
were parcticularly notable - The British MOD still has one on contract as a
submarine rescue vessel. 
         The cylinderical fiberglas hulls are mandrel-wound. That is, were
wound and cured on a big lathe-like arrangement that allowed the bias of
the glass fibres to be alternated - kinda like  lap-strake boat
construction!
        We (Nuytco) have interesting design for a shallow version of the
DeepWorker,  done all in fibreglas.

Regards
Phil Nuytten