
Your Own Luxury Submarine! 347
cheapo writes "Not exactly computer related, but fun none-the-less. Someone on my boating mailing list turned me onto this website for your own personal luxury submarine. For a mere $78 million, you can make all the other folks at the marina jealous with a 213 foot toy." That 78
million dollar price tag might seem steep until you discover that it comes
with its own docking mini sub. Now thats a bargain!
I think not... (Score:3, Interesting)
Does GPS work on board when it is submerged?
Re:I think not... (Score:4, Informative)
Nope. Only ELF (extremely low frequency) signals can penetrate the murky depths.
Subs take a GPS fix when they're surfaced or close enough to the surface to extend an antenna. In between fixes they rely on inertial navigation systems (and the quartermaster's grease pencil) to determine location.
Re:I think not... (Score:2)
4 days battery power at that depth is pretty damn cool, but with acrylic windows? Be afraid, be very afraid..
Gates needs it... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Gates needs it... (Score:2)
Makes sense given Microsoft employees houses monopolize most of the puget sound anyways.
Re:Gates needs it... (Score:2, Funny)
"Captian, we've got an unidentified contact bearing blah, blah, blah. PossibleChinese boomer"
"Flood tubes one and two..."
Etc.
Re:Gates needs it... (Score:2)
The australians tried it, their boat sank.
Dennis Connor tried it, but well, he lost.
Long live black magic.
And the visions of torpedoes abound (Score:3, Funny)
You sunk my battleship!!
Well, thank goodness for /that/ (Score:5, Funny)
I can't express how embarassing it is to be lounging around the marina, get challenged to a submarine drag-race, and lose to some other 100-foot submersible because I didn't hook up enough batteries. Finally, with the Phoenix 1000, I'll never have to endure their laughter again!
(Okay, okay, it's not funny... I'm just bored.)
Re:Well, thank goodness for /that/ (Score:2)
Wasn't this spammed everywhere? (Score:2)
Of course, the web site didn't say so in so many words, but at the time, not a single one had been built yet :)
Re:Wasn't this spammed everywhere? (Score:2)
Go search on google for `personal luxury submarine' and you'll find around 423 ads ...
Damn spammers!
About time (Score:5, Funny)
Re:About time (Score:4, Informative)
Sorry, no can do.
You need some serious hardware to reach that depth. The pressure is over a ton per square inch at a mile down. The specs on the website state 1000 feet for the main sub and 2000 feet for the mini-sub.
-
Re:About time (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, no can do.
It figures a fellow slashdotter doesn't understand the obvious reference to sexual conquest 20,000 leagues below sea level!
You need some serious hardware to reach that depth.
No pun intended?
Re:About time (Score:2, Informative)
Re: Sorry, no can do (Score:2)
Sorry, no can do.
You need some serious hardware to reach that depth. The pressure is over a ton per square inch at a mile down. The specs on the website state 1000 feet for the main sub and 2000 feet for the mini-sub.
Okay, so it is difficult, but under this argument it is still possible to do. You just need to invent the right equipment.
The REAL reason you can't be the founding member of the mile-low club is I already am
This is where I have to call Bullshit... (Score:2)
You need some serious hardware to reach that depth. The pressure is over a ton per square inch at a mile down. The specs on the website state 1000 feet for the main sub and 2000 feet for the mini-sub.
From the article: The significant volume, coupled with very large acrylic viewports...
Stop right there. Any idea what the external pressure on those "large acrylic viewports" is going to be??? At 1000 ft, we are looking at about 30 atmospheres! That's 30 times the normal atmospheric pressure of 14.7 psi! At over 400 psi (that's over 30 tons per square foot!) those "large acrylic viewports" are going to pop like giant bubblewrap!
Re:About time (Score:3, Funny)
Re:About time (Score:2)
Yes but that would mean you would have to have sex with a human female and...well...this IS Slashdot.
Steve Jobs (Score:3, Interesting)
Signifigant Transport Device? (Score:3, Insightful)
Besides say...oh...THE AIRPLANE?
The problem with this statement is actually 2 fold, there's no way a personal luxury sub is the most signifigant personal trasport device of the 20th century. On top of that fact, the thing hasn't been built yet, so it should be of the 21st century. And considering the 20th century brought us the modern automobile, the airplane, and the space shuttle, I highly doubt that anyone would call anything the most signifigant anything of the century...only 2 years into it.
Didn't want to compete with Dean Kamen (Score:2)
Re:Signifigant Transport Device? (Score:2)
By which you mean 19th.
Re:Signifigant Transport Device? (Score:2)
Interesting factoid. (Score:3, Informative)
is is the amount of time from the second
you fsck up to the moment it's too late
to save you. By that measure, subs are more
dangerous than the space shuttles.
Thought I'd share.
Re:Interesting factoid. (Score:3, Insightful)
I suppose you meant that once in orbit the space shuttle crew has more time from fuckup to fucked than does the crew of a submerged ocean-going vessel.
Re:Interesting factoid. (Score:2)
If a sub loses a bulkhead it means that the hull has failed and that you are either going to get crushed to death, suffocate because the sub will not reach the surface or freeze to death due to the lack of heat.
Below a very shallow depth, 180ft?, you have virtually no chance of surviving the ascent to the surface without the sub. There is no option to bail out. Before the 1950s I don't beleive there was a way top exit the submarine underwater, the pressure means all the hatches could be unlocked and would never open. Nowadays they flood the exit chamber to equalise presuure.
A fire in a sub uses all the oxygen you need to breathe, and there's no windows to let the smoke out. Plus heat will weaken the hull, not good at depth.
The real killer is as the original poster said the lack of time to react, a hull breach at depth will usually finish the sub in seconds. No chance to radio Houston and discuss your options.
I have always thought we rushed into space before we had explored our planet, I don't want to colonise Mars before we colonise the oceans.
My mistake (Score:2)
Re:Interesting factoid. (Score:2)
Re:Interesting factoid. (Score:2)
Of course if the hull goes your still dead, but it removes the need for tanks to trim bouancy.
Re:Interesting factoid. (Score:4, Interesting)
For instance, if 30 seconds after launch or so (when the shuttle passes Max-Q) the Hydrazine tank in the nose ruptures and begins to fill the shuttle with toxic fumes or fire, the crew would not be able to do anything until two minutes later when the SRBs seperated. During this time, they could die, even as they stared at flames burning towards them over a period of a minute or two.
Additionally, if one of the high pressure SSMEs (the main engines) ruptured explosively during boost, shearing the retaining frame that holds the orbiter to the external tank, the tank would detach improperly, potentially knocking the shuttle into the airstream where, like with the Challenger, the aerodynamic forces would tear it apart. This could happen within less then a second, so once again, your analogy is in error.
Re:Interesting factoid. (Score:2)
Huh. *ponders*
about that mini-sub (Score:2)
Err, actually, it comes with a place where you could dock another mini-sub. The mini-sub itself would be an after-market add-on.
Re:about that mini-sub (Score:2)
pheonix? (Score:3, Funny)
phoenix is a fiery bird... this is a _sub_
Re:pheonix? (Score:2)
Re:pheonix? (Score:2)
uhh (Score:2)
Deja vu all over again (Score:2, Informative)
Last update: January 9, 2002
Why does this seem like old news? Because it is!
Portholes (Score:2, Interesting)
Thats a lot for any transparent material, I don't have my engineering texts at work, anyone care to calculate what the stresses involved would be.
Re:Portholes (Score:2)
I'd also like to point out that the Trieste had a porthole, and it went to the bottom of the Marianas trench... Of course, it was a lot smaller porthole.
Re:Portholes (Not so bad) (Score:2)
I'm not sure the strength of their window material but Kevlar can be made clear and has a strength of around 250 kpsi.
I believe the portholes are intgegral to the hull (Score:2)
Oh great. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Oh great. (Score:2, Funny)
Hagbard Celine (Score:3, Funny)
Green apples not included.
- Serge
some problems (Score:5, Funny)
First off, there's a limited range where you could use it.
Second: You'd have to make sure you didn't collide with anything (I'm sure you'd hire a formet sub captain or something).
Third: it's not all that clear underwater. It's only clear in the shallow areas like tropical and what not. But in the deeper areas it's not all that clear and so you wouldn't see much.
Fourth: the upkeep on submarines runs millions a year, so the cost is gigantic.
Now the pros:
First: you can bring illicit drugs into the country and nobody is gonna stop you (how do you stop a submarine without blowing it up?) and if they do stop you, then you just flush the stuff down the drain.
Second: It's the mile deep club.
Finally: If the submarines a rocking don't come a knocking
Re:A S. American country was doing this (Score:2)
This was widely reported [cnn.com]. They didn't finish this one, but who knows what else they have?
Not primitive (Score:2)
vaporware submarines (Score:2)
I first came across this site several years ago, from a pointer at www.memepool.com
Re:vaporware submarines (Score:2)
Adobe PageMill Mac Edition: 40 dollars
Cost of Product they're trying to sell you: 78 Million dollars
Getting
Re:vaporware submarines (Score:2)
Will spooks buy these? (Score:2)
But... (Score:2)
Re:But... (Score:2)
and it's so sturdy... (Score:2)
sweet! (Score:2, Funny)
16 knots/hr? (Score:2, Interesting)
Quick! Somebody give Kentucky a call! (Score:5, Funny)
ROFLMAO! (Score:2)
Re:ROFLMAO! (Score:2)
What do you mean, "sense of humor?"
That bill is dead serious.
Too small (Score:2)
-me
That's nothing (Score:3, Interesting)
Comes complete with 5-inch/62 extended range guided munitions and 155mm Howitzers, land attack missiles and of course, Tactical Tomahawk missiles.
No need to worry about the wife catching you fishing with your buddies either as it use stealth technology to give it almost no radar signature.
By the way, this ship has a fully robotic mini-sub to allow scouting in unfriendly water ways.
With a price tag of $750 million, they are just as affordable as these silly luxury 'subs.' Besides, you know what they say about submarine people don't ya?
Inflation!! Used to be much less. (Score:2)
It's a Scam (Score:2, Interesting)
One clue to the scam is that there is no actual sub just "artist's conceptions". Another is that for someone seling a 78 million dollar product, their website design is amateurish.
Gotta love the internet though...the web of a million lies...
i think its real (Score:3, Interesting)
As far as the largest one it seem they have not made it yet.
The reason they kind of hide their picuters of submarines, is because the actual boats look kind of ugly.
They are made to look like an yacht when surfaced, but the part thats underwater looks like a tube and breaks the continuity.
When they draw pictures they cheat, so they draw the bottom to look like the bottom of an yacht with large windows.
Submarine Operation Rules/Standards (Score:2, Insightful)
Now I can become a James Bond arch-villian! (Score:2)
Re:Now I can become a James Bond arch-villian! (Score:2)
Kentucky's getting one (Score:2)
Having visions (Score:2)
This thing needs a pipe organ. I can just see James Mason playing Bach's "Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor" in the gallery.
Just need Kirk Douglas looking young again, and it'd be perfect.
Somebody tell Kentucky! They WANT one.. (Score:3, Funny)
You can see it at the Kentucky Legislature site [state.ky.us] HR 256 Maybe they can take the casino high rollers for rides in it after destroying the casino riverboats.
My favorite item from their FAQ page (Score:3, Interesting)
They have some Luxury Submarine FAQs [ussubs.com] that people may find interesting. My favorite:
What type of people buy luxury submarines?
Interested buyers tend to share one trait, they are all wealthy.
My comment: well, yeah, people living paycheck to paycheck generally don't buy $78 million dollar items.
a new tv show based on this (Score:2)
Have you heard about the Apple iSub? (Score:5, Funny)
Apple iSub. Sink different.
Does it come with an Instruction Manual? (Score:2)
** CREAK **
Wife: (Gathers Manual) Dear it says right here not to exceed 10,000 Feet or the...
Captain: That's just what they say, I know this baby can take a few more thousand feet, I paid 75+ Mill for this baby, besides it's pretty down here...
Wife: I can't see a thing...
Captain: Look harder... Anyway not to worry... remember Crimson Tide they went like 13,000
The only Warning labels people listen to is Dry Cleaning Only labels...
There ain't no one-upmanship in yachting... (Score:2)
Toy? definately not (Score:2)
nuclear war, flood, etc etc
I'd love to have a submarine just so that if there was a situation where we were at war with say, China, I can take me and my family into the submarine.
Think of it like a bomb shelter which can move around, not to mention submarines also allow you to travel, its like your own private jet just under water.
Last, submarines allow you to explore the ocean,
I'd love to have one
Doubt it (Score:2)
That is really slow. Why would anyone buy a bot that goes twice walking speed.
Re:Doubt it (Score:3, Informative)
That said, these boats have about the same speed as a dolphin or penguin.
http://www.seaworld.org/Physics/key.html
Re:Doubt it (Score:5, Insightful)
It costs serious bucks in fuel and maintenance costs to get a 200-odd foot object the size of a modest mansion up to, say, 30mph. There are a few that do it, but, again, costs are fantastic.
The 143' Octopussy is one of the more famous yachts capable of this kind of speed. According to this page [largeyachts.com], she has a cruising speed (optimal efficiency) of 22knots, which is about 25mph. At this dizzying speed, she burns up 343 US gallons of diesel per hour. So if you bought your diesel at the bulk rate of around $1/gallon, each hour of operation would cost $343. If you're going to cruise at that speed for a day, we're talking about $8,232 a day. Charter cost is $90,000 per week on season.
If you look at the picture on the link, you will note that the Octopussy is not level; it's actually moving over the surface of the water. This means a less comfortable ride, and it also means everything you own is pretty much continuously at an angle. Slower yachts glide through the water at lower speeds and are generally more comfortable.
I know someone who chartered his 120' yacht on an informal basis for $45,000 per week with all expenses included. If my memory serves, his yacht could go about 15 knots, or about the same as the submarine. That should give you an idea of how much speed costs, and why truly fast yachts are relatively rare.
You have to have - literally! - money to burn to run one of those things.
D
Drug dealers subs (Score:2, Funny)
Does that include all the submarines built by the drug dealers that people don't know about? I remember there was once an article about a bust of a drug ring building their own submarine, I think it may have been in Russia. Several have also been sold to drug dealers around the world. $78mil could be a worthwhile investment if I can manage to shift enough 'goods' without being picked up by the coast guard.
A significant personal transportation device? (Score:2)
Your Own Luxury Submarine! (Score:5, Funny)
Your Own Linux Submarine!
The Ultimate Yacht Tender (Score:2)
Damn! I just had it painted to look like Airwolf!!
Move along folks, nothing to see... (Score:2, Interesting)
Visibility underwater is such that you'd need to be very close to something to see it at all. Coral reefs with fish and stuff, and you'd want to be within 20 feet, more likely 10. There's simply no way you can manoever a 200 ft vessel to within an irregularly shaped reef. Not a surface ship, and certainly not a submarine.
For deeper stuff, you're going to need some seriously powerful white lights. Water filters out the higher frequency light first, so all your reds start disappearing after about 60 feet. For wrecks and stuff, you'll need a huge bank of lateral spotlights (not shown on artists impression because artist didn't take physics), and still be unable to get close enough to see anything.
With sufficient lighting, you may be able to go to depth and see some really nice mud.
Me - I'd buy 7 trips to orbit instead.
Oh, JAMES! (Score:2)
Honestly, whoever gets this one is a single step away from James Bond villany...
just some Marine FYI (Score:2, Informative)
First, there's the issue of bottom paint. An untreated hull in saltwater will be covered in drag-producing algae in a matter of weeks. Most bottom paints slow this considerably, but they still need to be re-painted at least once a year. More permanent paints are available outside the US, as they contain several environmentally detrimental chemicals. All this leaves me to imagine that those portals are going to be one royal pain in the ass to keep clear and clean.
Next, there's the issue of prolonged saltwater contact. Surface yachts must be sprayed down after every outing, or every week at the dock. Otherwise, the salt spray alone is enough to destroy any metalwork on the boat. As if salt spray wasn't enough, this boat will be saturated from all angles.
Now there's maintenance. Those outside the marine industry have no idea of the amount of work needed to keep boats running smoothly. You can't just leave it tied up at a dock - there is near-daily engine maintenance (markedly higher due to saltwater contact), external cleaning, interior maintenance, etc. Now, if this much effort is required to keep a much simpler surface yacht afloat and in shape, I can't imagine what this thing requires. Furthermore, the idea of a crew of only 3 on any yacht over 200' is absurd. It takes that many just to tie the damn thing up, nevermind who's driving it.
Finally, the price. I'm sure this will make a great novelty for some rich person, but that rich person could have bought over 1000 feet worth of brand new motoryachts or sportfishers with that kind of money.
uh oh (Score:2)
But my watch is only good to 100m. Damn you timex!
room for music I hope (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:2, Funny)
-J
Hey if i were a billionare (Score:2)
IF its a flood or any kinda bad situation, you have a way to escape.
Thats why a submarine would be cool, a submarine is alot more useful than a yacht and people waste their money on that
i think 70 million is too expensive for a submarine though.
Re:Hmmm... (Score:2)
we just got some "new" ones y'know, they're tied up at the halifax shipyard.
dont know how much they cost though, maybe $78mil is a bargain.
Re:As the saying goes.. (Score:2)
Re:web site? (Score:2)
Re:web site? (Score:2)
whoops.
Re:bath time (Score:2)
Oh yes, set the phasers on stun indeed!
::evil laugher::
Re:fox or cbs should buy this (Score:2)
No you idiot (Score:2)