[Member-Forum] First Launch

Tue Oct 22 08:40:39 EDT 2013

Well done, mate.
Vance

-----Original Message-----
From: hank pronk <hanker_20032000 at yahoo.ca>
To: PSUBS Member Discussion Group <member-forum at psubs.org>
Sent: Tue, Oct 22, 2013 8:21 am
Subject: Re: [Member-Forum] First Launch

Hi James,
Well done, that is a fine looking sub.  That was a pretty classy sub test, crane and all.  I am surprised someone complained.  Most people are very interested to see a sub launch and it usually draws a crowd.
Hank

From: James Frankland <jamesf at guernseysubmarine.com>
To: personal_submersibles at psubs.org; member-forum at psubs.org 
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 3:06:49 AM
Subject: [Member-Forum] First Launch

Hi All,

I got my boat in the water at the weekend for the first time.  Put the pictures up here.

http://www.guernseysubmarine.com/operations.htm

I didnt get any leaks at all, so i was super happy.  I wasnt really expecting to try and dive and would have been happy with just no leaks and a float test, but everything worked fine, so i gave it a go.  Unfortunately i didnt have enough lead.  I added 90KG (198lb) of lead, but it still wouldnt go down.  What i didnt mention on the website was that i was forced to stop testing because the harbour master came along to say that they had had an anonymous phone call from some bloody do-gooder who pointed out that we were using the comercial area of the harbour and didnt have a proper comercial dive team, which is officially a legal requirement.  So even though i had full permission from the harbour, i was forced to stop on a technicality.  They think it was some missery that has the hump on with harbour and just wanted to be awkward.  Shame because I was about to load a pile of anchor chain into the boat to get me more weight.

The boat did seem to be very light at the back and i kept squirting air into the forward tank to level it out.  Thinking about it, i suspect that the forward tank was settling into the correct position and it was the aft tank that was riding high.  Just need to get some weight at the back.  I had a slight list to port as well which i've no idea where that came from.  Again i will trim that up.

Anyway, i was really pleased with how it went on my first day.  Im meeting my divers tonight who took a load of underwater pics apparently, so i will see how they look later.  Might put some on the web if they are any good.

Kind Regards
James

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