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Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] test
Are my posts, posting??
I sent a post asking where a good Sphere source would
be, and ow to correctly calculate it's crush depth.
-David
--- Patrick <pat_man_ta@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 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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