[PSUBS-MAILIST] VAST

Wed Mar 22 09:18:31 EDT 2017

I was once hired to rebuild an early K-250 that as far as I know was a Kittredge built sub. It had packing on all shafts. Shafts were steel (not stainless). Plumbing was copper with flare fittings. No check valves. The flood "valve" was a 2" pipe cap. Since the VAST subs were earlier I assume that they used the same features.
Greg

      From: Alec Smyth via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org>
 To: Personal Submersibles General Discussion <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> 
 Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2017 8:42 AM
 Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] VAST

I'd agree with that, but this particular one would be interesting to check out. I saw photos of it and at least in those it looked quite pristine. Not because it's got new paint or has been restored in any way, but because it's a "barn find" that seems to have been put in a storage locker when it was relatively new. From what I saw the VBT was formed by two flat plates welded on the inside of the hull, giving you no access for inspection or maintenance. That would have to go, at a minimum. I'm not even sure if Kittredge had adopted O rings at that time or was still using packing!

Alec
On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 1:11 AM, Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles <personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

Inspect the old VAST submarines carefully.  They are old as the hills (almost) and may require more work to recondition than building a new K250.  In particular, they had an integral internal hard ballast that would make it difficult to assess hull viability without some destruction and rebuilding of that element alone. Keep in mind that Kittredge submarines evolved from ideas and refinements that were learned from operational lessons with previous models.

You can read the basic history of Kittredge submarines here:
http://www.psubs.org/reference /publications/kittredgesubmari nes.pdf

Jon

On 3/21/2017 11:30 PM, River Dolfi via Personal_Submersibles wrote:

Also interested in more details about the Maryland VAST boat. These were structurally the same as the later K250's? From what I can gather there are minor differences in the varaible ballast system, is this right? Or is the only difference that one was built in Kittredge's shop?

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