"Pool Dive"

Brian keeps telling me how incredible it is that we've managed to get the submarine in the water in less than a week...and he's absolutely right.

Special thanks to Robert and Chris for making it possible to transport the sub, to my family, and especially to my parents for allowing us to drop this 400 pound contraption into our pool!

Even though we were very pleased to get all the basic mechanical functions working in the garage last night, Brian and I came to the pool expecting for everything to go terribly wrong once the sub was underwater.  This thing hadn't been in the water for years, the ballast control system was only reinvented the night before, and it's not as if there's a manual that you can refer to troubleshoot!  But as luck would have it, all the primary systems did work in the water, and not only that, they operated even smoother than they did on land!  The engine worked flawlessly (perhaps slightly underpowered, but we only had one of the two 12V batteries hooked up), the rudder and hydroplanes operated smoothly, and the sub stayed quite balanced (no pesky capsizing!). 

The only real problems that we had were keeping the seats on (it seems that wood indeed does float), sealing the ballast valves (something we anticipated needing to do, perhaps with an O-ring and/or plumbers tape), and getting it out of the water (it literally took six guys to do it!), all very minor fixes.  Honestly guys, if we had the time (and the ambition), we could spend an afternoon this week and have it ready for a lake dive this weekend.

Maybe not that soon, but sometime in the next couple weekends, the submarine will be ready for another dive, possibly in a local lake.  Stay tuned to the blog, as we'll be posting the date and location in the near future.