[PSUBS-MAILIST] full article RE: Unusual sub on Flickr (TEXT ONLY)

["Patrick" <pat_man_ta@hotmail.com>]

Juneau's Captain Nemo
Local mechanic builds personal submarine

BY JULIA O'MALLEY
THE JUNEAU EMPIRE ? 2002
Cal C. Giordano has been building a homemade submarine in a garage near 
Juneau Airport since late June. Recently he took the 20-foot craft, made 
from an industrial buoy and a large propane tank, for a test float in Auke 
Bay.
"And I came home with a Coast Guard escort," Giordano said, chuckling. "I 
didn't have my AK (boat registration) numbers yet."

The homemade submarine, christened Arch Duke Grand Excelsior Ruler of the 
High Seas, looks like a enormous, wingless, extra-terrestrial mosquito, with 
a propane tank abdomen, a buoy head, and three oversized port hole eyes. The 
outboard motor in the back makes it hum.

"The design is 100 percent my own," Giordano said. "I'm an artist, I come 
from an art background, plus I have a pretty good grasp on physics. (The 
design) combines my love of art with basic submarine science."
Giordano is a self-described "ace mechanic master craftsman" who taught 
himself welding and boat mechanics. He hasn't taken a science class since he 
was in high school in Bethel, where he grew up. He learned most of his 
submarine-building physics from experience, reading books and watching the 
science shows on cable television.
"The Discovery Channel and the Learning Channel, that's about it," he said.
Giordano said he has designed and built some cannons and several other 
vehicles, including a steam-powered go-cart and a steam rocket. He started 
drawing a sub in a notebook in his spare time, and after a while the idea 
took off. "I didn't stop designing it until it looked real neat," he said.

Then, he decided to build it by his 37th birthday on July 25. He makes a 
living as a boat mechanic, so he had to work on the Arch Duke in his off 
hours. Sometimes he stayed up all night.
"I decided I would build it on the old military schedule, go from plans to 
finished in one month," he said. "Some mornings I was really tired."
The craft cost about $2,500 to make, and many of the parts were salvaged or 
sold to him by local businesses at discounted prices.
"The only real cash outlay was for the portholes and the buoy," he said.
The buoy, which is 48 inches in diameter, was ordered from a company in 
California. Giordano has turned it into the pilot house. Inside, he mounted 
a plastic seat, throttle and steering wheel. Eventually there will be a 
bilge pump, he said. The propane tank in back is a completely separate 
chamber that can keep the pilot house afloat if the front compartment were 
to take on water, he said.
The run-in with the Coast Guard last week ended with the inspectors warning 
him to get a license and proper safety equipment.
"They were really nice about it and asked if they could take pictures," 
Giordano said.
Aside from the minor Coast Guard snag, the Arch Duke's first dip was a 
success. The boat was stable and could right itself easily when tipped. 
People from the harbor gathered to watch him come in.
"She passed with flying colors," Giordano said, beaming. "When I came in, 
people were saying, "What the heck is that? Hey, that's cool!' "
Kurt Iverson was walking the Auke Bay dock on his lunch break on Monday when 
he saw the Arch Duke moored there.
"My first thought was that it was a submarine and then I saw an outboard 
motor on the back and I noticed the wheels on the bottom and I had no idea 
what those were for," Iverson said.
The wheels, which Giordano is particularly proud of, are part of the Arch 
Duke's built-in trailer. Giordano has been hauling the craft with a 
Peterbilt tractor. The wheels, which look much like those on a small 
airplane, are filled with water and antifreeze to keep them from disturbing 
the buoyancy balance of the craft and to keep them from freezing. Giordano 
has built the boat to withstand freezing temperatures. The bow is designed 
to break ice, he said.
The next step is to submerge the Arch Duke. Giordano plans to test it at a 
depth of eight feet with the help of an internal propulsion system, 
basically the outboard motor installed inside the propane tank, which he has 
yet to construct. His oxygen will be supplied by a snorkle-like tube that 
will extend above the surface of the water. Another tube will release 
exhaust. Eventually he plans to have an oxygen supply attached to the pilot 
house.
Giordano realizes being inside a small metal buoy under water could be 
dangerous, especially if something were to go wrong when he takes the boat 
deeper than eight feet, where the water pressure is high. Giordano stressed 
that he has built and tested the boat with safety in mind.
"The one thing I try to rely on is safety being the main factor," he said. 
"It will go deeper than any depth I will ever take it. I don't want to get 
killed, so I will never take it as deep as it will go."
Giordano also wants to make some cosmetic upgrades on the Arch Duke, 
including welding a large metal shark fin on the back, and mounting a 
137-pound brass cannon on the fin "for nostalgia and looks," he said. The 
cannon will be removable.
"I can't leave no cannon in the harbor, but it will be real nice to have on 
there, and good for holidays," he said.
Julia O'Malley can be reached at jomalley@juneauempire.com. 



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