[PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip / Dive Report...

Sat Feb 25 16:29:36 EST 2017

Cosmetic? Pshaw! In Germany, real men have dueling scars. Glückwünsche!
Vance

-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Suhr via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
Sent: Sat, Feb 25, 2017 4:05 pm
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip / Dive Report...

Thank Tim. Yes, I do have a few photos which I will post on the site
and then share the link. I would give a thousand dollars and my left
eyeball for a video of that davit failure, unfortunately we didn't
catch it on film.

Alec, I agree with you that hoisting/maneuvering the hull is probably
the most risky part of standard sub ops! In the aftermath of the
incident, I remembered your story about Snoopy falling a short
distance in your shop... she is a tried-and-true vessel, that's for
sure.

Re-reading my hastily prepared report, I now realize that I included
nothing about what we did following the davit failure... so after we
got over the shock and got our wits about us, dad jumped back in the
water to make sure she wasn't leaking anywhere and to recover the
spreader bar (still attached to snoopy's lifting lugs). Dad handed up
the spreader, then slowly swam snoopy down to another davit, which
Mike and I thoroughly inspected before snapping on the spreader and
lowering it down to dad, who hooked her up for a second time that
evening.

With dad back out of the canal, we cautiously lifted Snoopy out of the
water and onto the dock with the second davit. During our normal fresh
water hose-down we spent extra time checking everything over to make
sure any damage was discovered and noted, though we noticed nothing
serious (unfortunately there is a fresh surface gouge in the port
saddle tank where the spreader bar came to rest, but it's only
cosmetic). ~ Doug

On 2/25/17, Alec Smyth via Personal_Submersibles
<personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
> Great report Doug, thanks! I always maintain the most dangerous part of a
> little sub is in the workshop, and in particular the lifting. There's all
> sorts of precarious situations one can let onself into when you need to do
> things like flip the boat upside down to work on the bottom, etc. My
> scaries incident by far was when a chain lift broke and dropped Snoopy a
> foot onto the concrete floor of the garage. It was just a foot, but it was
> probably picked up by nearby seismographs.
>
> Best,
>
> Alec
>
> On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 4:06 PM, Douglas Suhr via Personal_Submersibles <
> personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>
>> Holy smokes is this email overdue - sorry guys - better late than
>> never (right?).
>>
>> Greetings fellow PSUBBERS, Doug Jr. here with a basic trip / dive
>> report from our October, 2016 excursion to the Florida Keys with
>> submersible Snoopy.
>>
>> The group ended up being no more than my own family and my friend Mike
>> Patterson.
>>
>> To start off, we had a relatively limited amount of time on location
>> (about 6 days), considering that it was our first real trial with
>> Snoopy. Complicating matters was the fact that October is still within
>> hurricane season and the weather was not kind to us... we managed to
>> be down in the Keys between (and not during) hurricanes / tropical
>> storms, but the weather was still a major obstacle, giving us rain /
>> thunder / lightning / strong winds / rough seas / poor water
>> visibility... the works. Luckily the canal (of about 25 feet in depth)
>> offered us enough shelter to conduct some test dives in spite of
>> conditions.
>>
>> Snoopy herself offered us excellent service with no major issues (no
>> leaks, no electrical issues, etc). Prior to operation, we O2 cleaned
>> the entire oxygen system (hoses, gauge, reg, valves, etc.) and when
>> first in the water, my dad as support diver noticed an extremely small
>> O2 leak on the exterior reg (producing super small / slow bubbles in
>> the water). We rectified the problem by snugging up the fittings with
>> a wrench.
>>
>> With Snoopy right off the  dock in the canal, we all had a great time
>> acquainting ourselves with buoyancy and thruster control, noting the
>> slight delay in reaction to input as well as the overall sensitivity
>> of the controls.
>>
>> In terms of trimming out for proper buoyancy (via trawl floats), I had
>> been concerned that Snoopy wouldn't provide enough positive buoyancy
>> for two heavier occupants, but my worries were belayed soon enough
>> when I tried to dive solo (with no floats in the tubes) and the sub
>> was WAY too buoyant. We ended up using all of the dive weights we had
>> on hand, plus a few 10 LB anchors that we had lying about and finally
>> I came to nearly neutral buoyancy (I weigh about 190lbs).
>>
>> I don't have much doubt now that we have enough flotation in the
>> submersible's current weight/float configuration to safely dive two
>> heavier occupants, however, we ran out of time to test with two people
>> aboard.
>>
>> Aside from limited time and poor conditions, here are a few other
>> issues we encountered: As Alec, Steve and anyone else who rode in
>> Snoppy down in the Keys can attest, it gets HOT in the hull when you
>> are on the surface (even if just for a couple of minutes). Being under
>> the dome (in the Keys) reminded me of being in a greenhouse: hot and
>> humid. We need a better way to control the humidity within the hull
>> (if nothing else than for the electronics' sake). Air conditioning
>> would be a dream!
>>
>> I made the silly mistake of not bringing a scale for proper weight
>> calculations (I assumed we had one at the house, but we didn't, then
>> couldn't find any at the local drug stores!?!?). So we were doing a
>> lot of guessing and checking when it came to trimming out. It took a
>> while, but we ended up getting a pretty good system figured out.
>>
>> The only real nasty experience we had through the duration of our stay
>> in the keys occurred when the davit we were using to launch and
>> recover the sub failed and dropped the sub down into the water. The
>> davits we use are rated at 5,500 LBS and Snoopy weighs in at around
>> 2600 LBS, so no problem... when the lifting equipment is new. Problem
>> is that these davits have galvanized cable that has a way of looking
>> healthy on the outside but ugly within the strands (after being
>> exposed to the elements for some time). On one of our last recoveries,
>> the cable of the davit we were using snapped violently, dropping the
>> sub about 5 feet through the air and right back into the canal.
>> Thankfully, it didn't occur when we were swinging the sub over the
>> concrete dock and no damage resulted... but it taught me a powerful
>> lesson in being prepared for the unexpected!
>>
>> I know that to most of you guys these tips are common sense, but for
>> the sake of safety, let me review a few things to consider when
>> launching/recovering with cranes/davits:
>>
>> 1. Never allow anyone under (or even close to) the vessel when it's
>> being hoisted.
>> 2. Use at least two tag-lines to control direction and arrest sway if
>> lifting from a single point crane.
>> 3. Don't lift higher than necessary.
>> 4. Inspect equipment regularly and replace components when necessary.
>> 5. Ensure hatch is closed and secured prior to lifting (this probably
>> saved Snoopy from going to the bottom of the canal, as the
>> 'splash-down' was extreme).
>> 6. (for dome hatched vessels), wrap spreader bars, pulleys, blocks and
>> other hardware in carpet (secured by tape or zip ties) so if a failure
>> occurs the submersible won't incur damage (another thing that saved us
>> - the spreader bar bonked Snoopy on the head, but she was protected by
>> thick padding).
>> 7. Never stand in line with tensioned wire rope. When it snaps, it
>> whips with tremendous force.
>>
>> Although at the time I was shocked that what happened actually
>> occurred, in retrospect I'm happy it did, because for such a failure
>> to occur at all, it couldn't have had a better outcome or made a
>> stronger impression on me. Still a novice submersible operator, but
>> getting better with each lesson I learn! ~ Douglas S.
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>
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