Dive gear onboard

LadyInBed said:
Questions, questions!
What's a DSV ?
A camera on a stick won't actually DO the job!
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A DSV is a Diving Support Vessel.
A camera on a stick would give a good view of the situation underwater. Coupled with a knife, would it have been able to cut the pot away? I don't know, but it's always a cheaper, more swiftly implemented and safer option unless one's already 'suited & booted' in good conditions, and a tidal slack isn't it?
 
jamie N said:
Did you have a knife to cut it away? How long would it have taken to kit up and release the pot? How long would it have taken if there was a current running to do this? How able were you to ensure that any dive gear that you may have had was servicable? How able would you have been to to recover yourself to deck at the end of the task? How able would you have been to cut yourself free if your kit had become snagged on the pot line? How much help would you have had to hand if plan 'A' had failed? A camera on a stick isn't a DSV, but for most peoples capabilities, it's by far the safest option isn't it?
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We put a rope from one winch to the other, tied myself to the boat and pulled myself under. My natural buoyancy held me 'safely' against the hull and I 'rode' any minor swell. It felt surprisingly safe. I tried holding a knife but felt it to be very dangerous. It also only left one hand to pull myself under. The one attempt I made to cut the rope and bouy forced my body to twist and took away the protection of being held against the hull. We were not held on the seabed, I am guessing the pot marker had already been cut free by someone else as there was only a 3 foot tail.

So, I had to kit up anyway with the gear I had available ... wet suit, mask, foot protection. Putting on a weight belt and shrugging on the Mini B would add no more than a few minutes. Don't understand your point. You're still finding a stick! Great help.

How long would it have taken to do this if a current was running? How long to do what? Kit up ? The same. Go under even if the boat was held to the seabed? The same. Free the buoy? The same. Nope, you've lost me.

I didn't frickin HAVE serviceable dive gear! If I DID have dive gear it WOULD be serviced. Lost me again.

Recovery? I was tied to my boat.

Cut myself free from a piece of rope wrapped around my prop? Yeah ... right! You're getting a bit desperate now.

Help? The same amount of help having to surface for air every 20 seconds or so as I would have being down for 'an hour'. Lost me again.

Good luck with your stick. You'd still have a rope round the prop ... me? I did that typically un-British thing and sorted out my own problem.

The fact that we were out of VHF range was incidental .... now I await a lecture on .... oh, do you actually realise that I called Solent Coastguard from Gibralter once and had a perfect signal.
 
ean_p said:
i'd go with all of that Jamie..... until a couple of years ago I dived the wrecks of the North sea for more than 15 years for pleasure....... i wouldn't look forward to going under the stern of a small boat in any kind of sea to do a job of work!.... easy peasy in nice flat warm water....not the same game at all in as little as 1/2 to a meter of chop
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OK. What would you have done then having found your stick?
 
shannon9 said:
We put a rope from one winch to the other, tied myself to the boat and pulled myself under. My natural buoyancy held me 'safely' against the hull and I 'rode' any minor swell. It felt surprisingly safe. I tried holding a knife but felt it to be very dangerous. It also only left one hand to pull myself under. The one attempt I made to cut the rope and bouy forced my body to twist and took away the protection of being held against the hull. We were not held on the seabed, I am guessing the pot marker had already been cut free by someone else as there was only a 3 foot tail.

So, I had to kit up anyway with the gear I had available ... wet suit, mask, foot protection. Putting on a weight belt and shrugging on the Mini B would add no more than a few minutes. Don't understand your point. You're still finding a stick! Great help.

How long would it have taken to do this if a current was running? How long to do what? Kit up ? The same. Go under even if the boat was held to the seabed? The same. Free the buoy? The same. Nope, you've lost me.

I didn't frickin HAVE serviceable dive gear! If I DID have dive gear it WOULD be serviced. Lost me again.

Recovery? I was tied to my boat.

Cut myself free from a piece of rope wrapped around my prop? Yeah ... right! You're getting a bit desperate now.

Help? The same amount of help having to surface for air every 20 seconds or so as I would have being down for 'an hour'. Lost me again.

Good luck with your stick. You'd still have a rope round the prop ... me? I did that typically un-British thing and sorted out my own problem.

The fact that we were out of VHF range was incidental .... now I await a lecture on .... oh, do you actually realise that I called Solent Coastguard from Gibralter once and had a perfect signal.
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Calming down should be your next goal in life I'd say!
 
jamie N said:
Calming down should be your next goal in life I'd say!
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Very calm and very factual.

You on the other hand are trying to saw a rope off a prop with one hand whilst holding a camera with the other whilst holding on with,oh no, you've run out of hands.

One of us lives in the real world and at least answers the questions posed.

You seem to have side-stepped my answers.
 
ean_p said:
i'd go with all of that Jamie..... until a couple of years ago I dived the wrecks of the North sea for more than 15 years for pleasure....... i wouldn't look forward to going under the stern of a small boat in any kind of sea to do a job of work!.... easy peasy in nice flat warm water....not the same game at all in as little as 1/2 to a meter of chop
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I'm just guessing that you're still waiting for the lifeboat?????
 
shannon9 said:
Very calm and very factual.

You on the other hand are trying to saw a rope off a prop with one hand whilst holding a camera with the other whilst holding on with,oh no, you've run out of hands.

One of us lives in the real world and at least answers the questions posed.

You seem to have side-stepped my answers.
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I work in the underwater industry and have done since the 70's. Placing a man underwater is the last option that's currently taken as the engineering is focussed on removing any opportunity of this potential hazard to life. I've no idea of your fitness or your boat, how high the freeboard is or if you even have barnacles on the hull. However, with a camera and a knife attached to it (one-hand you see) is very useful tool which offshore has been used many times (knife attached to small ROV). I'm happy for you that you felt safe doing what you did after tying yourself on and that you continue to do so.
 
nigelmercier said:
The other reason is that they go up to 300 bar! I'm thinking of around 2 bar, just enough to open the DV at 2m.
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Most Demand Valves require 8-10 bar above ambient so you would need 11-13bar minimum at 2m

I dive at least one weekend a month in winter and many more times in summer and would recommend a course, PADI Open Water & Advanced Open Water & Rescue minimum or better still BSAC Ocean Diver & Sports Diver particularly as you will be diving solo and ideally you should know what you are doing and the risks involved. There are no requirements to be trained at all in the UK so you could just buy the kit and go diving, getting cylinders filled with air is no problem as long as they are in test; every 2 1/2 years for a visual and every 5 years for a hydro, you are very unlikely to be asked for proof of qualifications if all you want in them is air.

Ally cylinders are heavier out of the water as mentioned elsewhere as there is more metal in them, but lighter in the water due to more buoyancy.

A BCD, regulators, weightbelt, and 7litre aluminium cylinder would make a nice lightweight set with enough gas for boat work and 20 minute 20 metre dives after you've had some practice

One other thing to consider is that if you may need a diving medical if you want to take a refresher or course, I'm fat, old and unfit (direct quotes from my doc) and pass my diving medicals despite ticking half a dozen boxes on the form...

You may find that diving is very addictive, I did

Other choice is get qualified, get experienced, and buy a rebreather like the rEvo, http://www.revo-rebreathers.co.uk/ which is a much better setup, light and compact with cylinders that will last you ages, and much nicer to dive but fails the "reasonably priced" requirement a bit
 
jamie N said:
I've no idea of your fitness or your boat, how high the freeboard is or if you even have barnacles on the hull
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Well strangely enough I know the answers to those points.

I glad that you're happy for me :)
 
a bit more than you hanging on with both hands....' I tried holding a knife but felt it to be very dangerous. It also only left one hand to pull myself under. The one attempt I made to cut the rope and bouy forced my body to twist and took away the protection of being held against the hull'..... or maybe you unpicked the knot in the 3 foot of line (really only 3 foot?) with your teeth while giving the bottom a quick scrub and thanking providence for the pot and line and 'buoy' ( no pun intended) what what a lovely polish its given the prop eh!!!!
 
Personally I find the idea of working under the boat in a chop pretty scary; the one time when we caught a pot I used a knife on a stick to cut us free of the bottom and we then sailed to an anchorage before diving.

However sometimes there may be no option. I heard this story during a lecture on high latitude sailing given by one of the Pelaigic Australis skippers: another of the skippers was motoring singlehanded towards the Falklands from Patagonia in a calm and was about 1/2 way when he ran over some kelp. The engine gave a clunk and the boat gradually slowed - the prop had fallen off! There was a storm F11 forecast and he really didn't want to still be out when that arrived. So, single handed, in open southern ocean with the perpetual swell, he dived and changed the prop! Now that's self-reliance!
 
ean_p said:
a bit more than you hanging on with both hands....' I tried holding a knife but felt it to be very dangerous. It also only left one hand to pull myself under. The one attempt I made to cut the rope and bouy forced my body to twist and took away the protection of being held against the hull'..... or maybe you unpicked the knot in the 3 foot of line (really only 3 foot?) with your teeth while giving the bottom a quick scrub and thanking providence for the pot and line and 'buoy' ( no pun intended) what what a lovely polish its given the prop eh!!!!
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You're STILL waiting for the lifeboat I guess as you don't seem to have come up with a solution.

Not having a knife in my hand enabled me to pull myself down with both hands using my forearms to keep me ON the hull.

Once in position, as already stated, my natural buoyancy held me in position as I wasn't sawing at a rope.

I then unwound the rope, not easy but we had grabbed neutral as we heard the thud of the buoy on the hull.

What part of the rope only being 3 feet long don't you understand? Er, it was 3 feet long as already stated. I'm guessing someone else had already chopped it with their rope cutter.

Problem with that?

Anyway, over to you, is it a MayDay or a PanPan? How many RIBS and lifeboats would Sir like sent out? Helicopter in case you snag a nail?
 
nigelmercier said:
Sorry, I had already mentioned a "modified stage 2 regulator" in a previous post.

Please can we stop the bickering about cameras, knives etc. - none of it is helping the OP.
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yeah point taken Nigel!!

for my 2p have a look at the 'hookah's' mentioned above...... sound ideal for running maintenance on the boat, though if you want to venture further afield then the boat then a full basic kit from ebay in about 3 months time when a lot of this years wanna be's try open water for the first time and decide it's not for them and sell what was brand new last year
 
nigelmercier said:
Please can we stop the bickering about cameras, knives etc. - none of it is helping the OP.
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Totally agree but it very quickly went from 'a 10 litre tank will need refilling before my 1200 litre system' to basically 'don't go in the water'

My first response was to try to help the OP with his (apparently) pointless question.
 
Unfortunately I have several experiences of having to go over the back to cut the boat free of pot buoys :mad:
A thin (3mm) wetsuit, a 6mm hood, snorkel kit and a serrated blade knife is sufficient for the job, which is in two parts. Cutting the taught line that is tethering the boat, then cutting away the float and as much line as you can from around the prop shaft.
I have also managed to hook some stray net on one occasion, that is a totally different kettle of fish, very difficult to free. I had to admit defeat and get towed into Braye, Alderney. There was no wind and the current was setting me onto the Casquettes!
 
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