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Anyone ever find out if Frank at Sub Concepts ever developed the WTC static dive system for the Robbe U47? Spoke to Frank earlier this summer and put an order in for his static dive system. I had bought the kit and all the bits to emulate Jason Overhusler's AE piston tank attempt at a static/dynamic diver and was told by Frank that he will have a full system by September/October this year. I tried to e-mail Frank recently but the messages kept on being returned no such address. Still on hold with the kit until I get a definitive system to make the Robbe a real static diver. Thanks Allan
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Allan,
Right now Frank has enough
Allan,
Right now Frank has enough building projects to last well into 2006, and he's about to acquire a new facility and hopefully some new personnel. Basically he's up to his eyeballs, and finishing the R&D projects had to take a back seat to customer boats. While he does have a concrete plan in motion that will eventually realize several great new products, I wouldn't plan on seeing that Robbe internal rack until spring at least. That's not an official word, just an educated guess.
You should press him to sell you a piston tank if you're trying to get a boat in the water for next summer.
--Jason -
Hey Jason]
[color=#000000]Hey Jason]Comment
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It's winter now, but she
It's winter now, but she ran fine all summer and worked as advertised. I never completed work on the front planes' control, as my interest in it dwindled when the boat did well without it. I also wanted to utilize the forward space for torpedoes, eventually.
Complaints are minor. First, the internal pressure gets relatively high when the tank is fully flooded. The dive tank compresses the air in the WTC as it draws water into itself. This means you need to tighten the screw joiner pretty firmly or it can fart a bit, which won't sink the boat or anything. But when you resurface, the internal pressure is then negative, which I don't think my shaft seals like because I've found a little water in there after I kept sailing that way.
Cranking the screw joiner (which is a weak member in the first place) overtorqued my solder joint, so I drilled a tiny hole through shaft and threaded rod, inserted a little steel pin and gooped it with silicone. That's worked like a charm ever since.
My second complaint is the access to the shaft seals. Namely that there isn't any access, so when one of them starts going out, it will probably be very annoying to remedy.
One nice thing about the high internal pressure while diving is that it could probably go to the bottom of the ocean an never leak. And fortunately the tiny crew never gets the bends, even on extended cruises. I have one of Frank's angle keepers in series with the rear planes' servo, which does a good job. My linkage setup is poor, and with dead space in the middle it's difficult to maintain a tight periscope run. I should have mounted the servos sideways and allowed the control rods to rotate through the cap instead of sliding. Live and learn.
At some point my deck gun decided to abandon ship, and I also bashed off one of the rear planes' outboard supports. So the old Robbe's a little beat up right now, but I hope to get some time this winter to make some drydock repairs.Comment
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