sub
Excellant condition. 1200 lbs so it can easilly fit on the swim step of most 40' boats! 2.5 knts underwater. Enter & exit via aft opening allws for passanger to swim out and back in! The two electric motors are powered by 6v batteries. Three ballast tanks for full control. Emergency drop lead and tank blow system for emergency ascent. Easily transported on a trailer AND CAN ARRANGE FOR SHIPPING WORLDWIDE!.
The new subs sell for $60K+, depending on equipment.
This sub went around the world on a 186 ft mega yacht and the owners loved it. I purchased the sub from the owners when they sold their yacht.
Time under water: if you use a dive computer, you can stay as long as you want depending on your air supply. You will need extra tanks for your decompression stops. The rules are the same as SCUBA diving, however, because decompression stops are not an issue - you can hover at 40 ft as long as you have air, listen to music, eat lunch, etc., depth is a matter or extra air doe decom stops. Speed is adjustable and depends on charge on the batteries, water current, and how much weight you are carring. You enter by swimming into the aft opening, fliping down one of the two interior seats, and sitting in the seat.
Run time , depending on speed used, weight, current (against the current or with the current) about 2-3 hours.
Capable of cruising at 100 ft (or more, depending on air alloted for decompression stops). Three SCUBA tanks for extra safty. Electrical monitoring system. Sealed battery compartment.Rechargable 6v golf cart batteries. Full auto or manual ballast system.
SportSub family of personal submersibles is the culmination of over twenty years of product refinement. International VentureCraft Corp. provides the safest, most reliable, attractive, easy to use, and exhilarating submersibles available anywhere. The design is both sophisticated and elegant in its simplicity.
A casual inspection of a SportSub makes it look deceptively simple. Very attractive but doesn't look very complicated or high-tech. Looking up from below, the hull appears to be nothing more than an open shell. What keeps water out of the cockpit? Why is there a big hollow nose with an open bottom? This sub must be just a capsule that SCUBA divers use to drive around while wearing their breathing apparatus! Why not just use a dive puller?
Concept The basic principle of the ambient pressure submersible is the same as a diving bell. It's like taking a giant drinking cup and turning it upside down and pushing it under water. The air trapped inside stays there as long as you don't tip it too far sideways. The bottom is open to the water so the internal pressure and the external pressure are always equal. The SportSub design ensures that the air pocket trapped in its cockpit never shrinks or expands as pressure changes during descends or ascends. If the air pocket volume were allowed to shrink or expand with changing pressure the buoyancy would change, causing a loss of control. This is regulated by the SportSub's automatic buoyancy control system, which maintains neutral buoyancy throughout a dive.
Stability Neutral buoyancy does not equal neutral stability however. The SportSub is kept in a stable, upright position at all times because its center of buoyancy and center of gravity are as far apart as possible, causing a sort of pendulum effect. The bottom of the SportSub is where the majority of its weight is located and the top is where the buoyant air pocket is located. This causes a very strong tendency for the bottom of the sub to stay directly under the top, and prevents any air from spilling out the bottom of the cockpit.
Buoyancy Range SportSubs can be configured to ride high on the surface, with the entire cockpit and upper hull above water, submerged at neutral buoyancy, or landed solidly on the bottom with enough weight to keep them there while the occupants exit for an extra-vehicular excursion.
Buoyancy adjustment is accomplished by flooding or blowing water ballast within three separate ballast tanks. Flood valves in the cockpit allow air to escape out the tops of each ballast tank while water floods in through their open bottoms. Blowing ballast reverses this procedure, requiring the flood valves to be closed while blow valves are opened to allow pressurized air to bubble into the tanks, rising to the top and forcing water out the open bottom. The forward ballast tank is the hollow, bottomless nose. The entire tail section, surrounding the main air supply tanks, is the aft ballast tank, and the cockpit itself is the third tank.
To ride high on the surface all three tanks are filled to capacity with air. To submerge, both fore and aft ballast tanks are completely flooded while the air volume in the cockpit is adjusted such that neutral buoyancy is achieved at the occupant's weight. To land on the bottom, the cockpit air volume is adjusted to its minimum, providing maximum negative buoyancy.
Entry/Exit It might be nice for a SportSub to have an entry and exit hatch at its highest point so passengers could climb in and out above the water. There are several advantages, however, to the swim-in method we chose.
Visibility It seems logical to assume that more windows would provide better visibility. This is not the case under water, for two reasons; reflection, and refraction. Most underwater environments are dimly lit as light filters down from the surface. This surface light must be kept out of the cockpit or it will cause reflections. It would be somewhat like driving a car at night with the interior light on. Anything bright in the cockpit would be reflected by the front windows, causing a ghost image to appear in the pilot's field of view.
The SportSub's balanced pressure hull allows large, flat windows to be used because they don't have to withstand much pressure difference. Flat windows minimize the natural distortion, called refraction, which occurs when water and air meet. These are used for forward-looking windows to permit accurate visual navigation. The dome shaped side windows exploit the distortion effect and provide a wide-angle lens effect allowing occupants to see a larger vista.
Breathing Air Quality Fresh air is continually circulated through the cockpit during a dive. Airflow is regulated by a flow meter which is set by the pilot according to a formula, depending on how many occupants are in the SportSub. This formula was developed through extensive research done by scientists and medical doctors using a SportSub cockpit in a hyperbaric chamber. All breathing gasses were monitored while different sized subjects occupied the cockpit in the chamber. Male and female subjects were tested, both at rest and under conditions of controlled exertion. The chamber was set to various pressures to simulate different depths. The formula was derived to provide adequate airflow for worst-case conditions. During normal operation of a SportSub there is much more air circulation through the cockpit for buoyancy control than from the flow meter so there is never a lack of fresh air.
Pressure Compensated Dry Compartments There are a number of compartments within the SportSub that contain components that will deteriorate rapidly if they get wet. These compartments are the control panel, battery box, junction box and thruster motors. Keeping these areas dry requires compartments with either enough strength to withstand the pressures at the maximum dive depth or a means of pressure balancing. The SportSub regulates these compartments so that they are at a pressure just slightly above that of the surrounding water. This ensures that any leak will allow air to escape rather than water to seep in. This accomplishes two things; it keeps components dry even when there is a leak and it makes leak detection easy by watching for a stream of bubbles.
Maneuvering Controls The SportSub has to maneuver in two dimensions while on the surface, and in three dimensions while submerged. It moves forward, backward, up, down, and can even hover and turn on the spot, a lot like the maneuverability of a helicopter. All maneuvering is accomplished with only two thrusters, built in to the dive plains, and two control handles. The thrusters are located so that their center of thrust is at the same height on the hull as its center of drag, so there is no tendency to nose up or down with changes in thrust. The hull design also ensures that the dive plane position is below the water line when the SportSub is high on the surface.
One of the pilot's hands controls the speed and direction of both thrusters simultaneously, using a single joystick. Each thruster's speed is continuously variable from full forward to full reverse thrust. The pilot's other hand controls the up and down angle of the dive plains, which direct the thrust and provide hydrodynamic force if the sub has forward speed. By combining different thrust and angle combinations, very precise control is accomplished in all directions.
Electronic Buoyancy Control Electronic buoyancy control is the true key to the success of the SportSub design. Without automatic buoyancy control, the pilot of an ambient pressure submersible would be too busy adjusting buoyancy to safely navigate and enjoy the dive experience. Dangerously fast descents and ascents could occur if the pilot ever lost control. The SportSub's automatic buoyancy control system keeps buoyancy constant throughout a dive, regardless of depth. The pilot initially sets neutral buoyancy manually, since it is different with each set of passengers because they have a different combined weight. Once neutral buoyancy is set, the system is switched to automatic and the electronic system takes over. As it senses compression, while the sub is descending, it adds air to the cockpit to maintain volume. When the sub is ascending it allows air to blow out of the cockpit rather than expand in volume. By maintaining a constant air pocket volume in the cockpit the sub's buoyancy remains constant as pressure varies.
ReservAir The ReservAir system provides two essential emergency backup functions. It consists of a manual override for the electronic buoyancy control system and a completely redundant air supply to all the SportSub's systems. The ReservAir tank is located within the nose of the SportSub and its regulator and controls are completely separate from the main air supply. If the main air supply is depleted or has a malfunction of any kind, the ReservAir system provides enough air to safely continue the dive and bring the sub to the surface. The other function of the system is the manual cockpit air inlet. This valve allows the pilot to adjust cockpit air volume manually in case of a failure of the electronic buoyancy control system.
Drop Weights The primary objective in any emergency situation is to get the SportSub to the surface. Surfacing is normally accomplished by simply pointing the dive planes up and propelling the sub to the surface. If electrical systems have failed there are several ways to surface the sub by adding air to any of the ballast tanks, thereby increasing buoyancy. In the unlikely event that both air supply systems, and the electrical system, have failed, or been depleted, it is still possible to surface the sub. A series of ten pound drop weights are located in the cockpit. The pilot can drop these out of the sub, one at a time, until the sub begins to ascend. As it is ascending the cockpit air volume will expand.
These drop weights can also be used as ballast trim bars if a payload heavier than the buoyancy range is required in the sub. For every trim bar removed from the sub, an additional ten pounds of payload can be carried.
Hull Construction and Finishing The SportSub hull is constructed of fiberglass. That statement in itself, however, doesn't do justice to the technologies that are incorporated. Fiberglass is a generic term used to describe composite compounds of fiber reinforced plastic resins but there are a wide range of fibers, resins and construction techniques that can make one piece of fiberglass as different from another as tin is from titanium. The SportSub hull is all hand laid using multiple layers of woven and biaxial roving. Every seam is stepped to a different width at each layer. All interior components are joined with a curved interface filled with a milled fiber composite to eliminate air pockets. These construction techniques are more expensive and time consuming than those used in most common fiberglass products but are necessary to create a durable hull that can be submerged repeatedly and withstand tropical sunlight for many years. The SportSub is not simply finished with an outer layer of fiberglass gel-coat. It is sculpted and painted in much the same way as a hand built automobile. The paint is formulated to bond permanently to fiberglass yet withstand water immersion and continuous direct sunlight. It is harder and provides a better barrier to deterioration than gel-coat does, yet presents a smoother, more lustrous finish. Areas of the lower hull that come in contact with the sea floor are protected with heavy, dense polyethylene plates that can easily be replaced if they get too badly scarred or cut. Contact Randall Burg to view this fine yacht, 310 493 3366
The new subs sell for $60K+, depending on equipment.
This sub went around the world on a 186 ft mega yacht and the owners loved it. I purchased the sub from the owners when they sold their yacht.
Time under water: if you use a dive computer, you can stay as long as you want depending on your air supply. You will need extra tanks for your decompression stops. The rules are the same as SCUBA diving, however, because decompression stops are not an issue - you can hover at 40 ft as long as you have air, listen to music, eat lunch, etc., depth is a matter or extra air doe decom stops. Speed is adjustable and depends on charge on the batteries, water current, and how much weight you are carring. You enter by swimming into the aft opening, fliping down one of the two interior seats, and sitting in the seat.
Run time , depending on speed used, weight, current (against the current or with the current) about 2-3 hours.
Capable of cruising at 100 ft (or more, depending on air alloted for decompression stops). Three SCUBA tanks for extra safty. Electrical monitoring system. Sealed battery compartment.Rechargable 6v golf cart batteries. Full auto or manual ballast system.
SportSub family of personal submersibles is the culmination of over twenty years of product refinement. International VentureCraft Corp. provides the safest, most reliable, attractive, easy to use, and exhilarating submersibles available anywhere. The design is both sophisticated and elegant in its simplicity.
A casual inspection of a SportSub makes it look deceptively simple. Very attractive but doesn't look very complicated or high-tech. Looking up from below, the hull appears to be nothing more than an open shell. What keeps water out of the cockpit? Why is there a big hollow nose with an open bottom? This sub must be just a capsule that SCUBA divers use to drive around while wearing their breathing apparatus! Why not just use a dive puller?
Concept The basic principle of the ambient pressure submersible is the same as a diving bell. It's like taking a giant drinking cup and turning it upside down and pushing it under water. The air trapped inside stays there as long as you don't tip it too far sideways. The bottom is open to the water so the internal pressure and the external pressure are always equal. The SportSub design ensures that the air pocket trapped in its cockpit never shrinks or expands as pressure changes during descends or ascends. If the air pocket volume were allowed to shrink or expand with changing pressure the buoyancy would change, causing a loss of control. This is regulated by the SportSub's automatic buoyancy control system, which maintains neutral buoyancy throughout a dive.
Stability Neutral buoyancy does not equal neutral stability however. The SportSub is kept in a stable, upright position at all times because its center of buoyancy and center of gravity are as far apart as possible, causing a sort of pendulum effect. The bottom of the SportSub is where the majority of its weight is located and the top is where the buoyant air pocket is located. This causes a very strong tendency for the bottom of the sub to stay directly under the top, and prevents any air from spilling out the bottom of the cockpit.
Buoyancy Range SportSubs can be configured to ride high on the surface, with the entire cockpit and upper hull above water, submerged at neutral buoyancy, or landed solidly on the bottom with enough weight to keep them there while the occupants exit for an extra-vehicular excursion.
Buoyancy adjustment is accomplished by flooding or blowing water ballast within three separate ballast tanks. Flood valves in the cockpit allow air to escape out the tops of each ballast tank while water floods in through their open bottoms. Blowing ballast reverses this procedure, requiring the flood valves to be closed while blow valves are opened to allow pressurized air to bubble into the tanks, rising to the top and forcing water out the open bottom. The forward ballast tank is the hollow, bottomless nose. The entire tail section, surrounding the main air supply tanks, is the aft ballast tank, and the cockpit itself is the third tank.
To ride high on the surface all three tanks are filled to capacity with air. To submerge, both fore and aft ballast tanks are completely flooded while the air volume in the cockpit is adjusted such that neutral buoyancy is achieved at the occupant's weight. To land on the bottom, the cockpit air volume is adjusted to its minimum, providing maximum negative buoyancy.
Entry/Exit It might be nice for a SportSub to have an entry and exit hatch at its highest point so passengers could climb in and out above the water. There are several advantages, however, to the swim-in method we chose.
Visibility It seems logical to assume that more windows would provide better visibility. This is not the case under water, for two reasons; reflection, and refraction. Most underwater environments are dimly lit as light filters down from the surface. This surface light must be kept out of the cockpit or it will cause reflections. It would be somewhat like driving a car at night with the interior light on. Anything bright in the cockpit would be reflected by the front windows, causing a ghost image to appear in the pilot's field of view.
The SportSub's balanced pressure hull allows large, flat windows to be used because they don't have to withstand much pressure difference. Flat windows minimize the natural distortion, called refraction, which occurs when water and air meet. These are used for forward-looking windows to permit accurate visual navigation. The dome shaped side windows exploit the distortion effect and provide a wide-angle lens effect allowing occupants to see a larger vista.
Breathing Air Quality Fresh air is continually circulated through the cockpit during a dive. Airflow is regulated by a flow meter which is set by the pilot according to a formula, depending on how many occupants are in the SportSub. This formula was developed through extensive research done by scientists and medical doctors using a SportSub cockpit in a hyperbaric chamber. All breathing gasses were monitored while different sized subjects occupied the cockpit in the chamber. Male and female subjects were tested, both at rest and under conditions of controlled exertion. The chamber was set to various pressures to simulate different depths. The formula was derived to provide adequate airflow for worst-case conditions. During normal operation of a SportSub there is much more air circulation through the cockpit for buoyancy control than from the flow meter so there is never a lack of fresh air.
Pressure Compensated Dry Compartments There are a number of compartments within the SportSub that contain components that will deteriorate rapidly if they get wet. These compartments are the control panel, battery box, junction box and thruster motors. Keeping these areas dry requires compartments with either enough strength to withstand the pressures at the maximum dive depth or a means of pressure balancing. The SportSub regulates these compartments so that they are at a pressure just slightly above that of the surrounding water. This ensures that any leak will allow air to escape rather than water to seep in. This accomplishes two things; it keeps components dry even when there is a leak and it makes leak detection easy by watching for a stream of bubbles.
Maneuvering Controls The SportSub has to maneuver in two dimensions while on the surface, and in three dimensions while submerged. It moves forward, backward, up, down, and can even hover and turn on the spot, a lot like the maneuverability of a helicopter. All maneuvering is accomplished with only two thrusters, built in to the dive plains, and two control handles. The thrusters are located so that their center of thrust is at the same height on the hull as its center of drag, so there is no tendency to nose up or down with changes in thrust. The hull design also ensures that the dive plane position is below the water line when the SportSub is high on the surface.
One of the pilot's hands controls the speed and direction of both thrusters simultaneously, using a single joystick. Each thruster's speed is continuously variable from full forward to full reverse thrust. The pilot's other hand controls the up and down angle of the dive plains, which direct the thrust and provide hydrodynamic force if the sub has forward speed. By combining different thrust and angle combinations, very precise control is accomplished in all directions.
Electronic Buoyancy Control Electronic buoyancy control is the true key to the success of the SportSub design. Without automatic buoyancy control, the pilot of an ambient pressure submersible would be too busy adjusting buoyancy to safely navigate and enjoy the dive experience. Dangerously fast descents and ascents could occur if the pilot ever lost control. The SportSub's automatic buoyancy control system keeps buoyancy constant throughout a dive, regardless of depth. The pilot initially sets neutral buoyancy manually, since it is different with each set of passengers because they have a different combined weight. Once neutral buoyancy is set, the system is switched to automatic and the electronic system takes over. As it senses compression, while the sub is descending, it adds air to the cockpit to maintain volume. When the sub is ascending it allows air to blow out of the cockpit rather than expand in volume. By maintaining a constant air pocket volume in the cockpit the sub's buoyancy remains constant as pressure varies.
ReservAir The ReservAir system provides two essential emergency backup functions. It consists of a manual override for the electronic buoyancy control system and a completely redundant air supply to all the SportSub's systems. The ReservAir tank is located within the nose of the SportSub and its regulator and controls are completely separate from the main air supply. If the main air supply is depleted or has a malfunction of any kind, the ReservAir system provides enough air to safely continue the dive and bring the sub to the surface. The other function of the system is the manual cockpit air inlet. This valve allows the pilot to adjust cockpit air volume manually in case of a failure of the electronic buoyancy control system.
Drop Weights The primary objective in any emergency situation is to get the SportSub to the surface. Surfacing is normally accomplished by simply pointing the dive planes up and propelling the sub to the surface. If electrical systems have failed there are several ways to surface the sub by adding air to any of the ballast tanks, thereby increasing buoyancy. In the unlikely event that both air supply systems, and the electrical system, have failed, or been depleted, it is still possible to surface the sub. A series of ten pound drop weights are located in the cockpit. The pilot can drop these out of the sub, one at a time, until the sub begins to ascend. As it is ascending the cockpit air volume will expand.
These drop weights can also be used as ballast trim bars if a payload heavier than the buoyancy range is required in the sub. For every trim bar removed from the sub, an additional ten pounds of payload can be carried.
Hull Construction and Finishing The SportSub hull is constructed of fiberglass. That statement in itself, however, doesn't do justice to the technologies that are incorporated. Fiberglass is a generic term used to describe composite compounds of fiber reinforced plastic resins but there are a wide range of fibers, resins and construction techniques that can make one piece of fiberglass as different from another as tin is from titanium. The SportSub hull is all hand laid using multiple layers of woven and biaxial roving. Every seam is stepped to a different width at each layer. All interior components are joined with a curved interface filled with a milled fiber composite to eliminate air pockets. These construction techniques are more expensive and time consuming than those used in most common fiberglass products but are necessary to create a durable hull that can be submerged repeatedly and withstand tropical sunlight for many years. The SportSub is not simply finished with an outer layer of fiberglass gel-coat. It is sculpted and painted in much the same way as a hand built automobile. The paint is formulated to bond permanently to fiberglass yet withstand water immersion and continuous direct sunlight. It is harder and provides a better barrier to deterioration than gel-coat does, yet presents a smoother, more lustrous finish. Areas of the lower hull that come in contact with the sea floor are protected with heavy, dense polyethylene plates that can easily be replaced if they get too badly scarred or cut. Contact Randall Burg to view this fine yacht, 310 493 3366
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