Quote:
Originally Posted by AllAbourdon
When i was a kid I watched a guy launch a homebuilt submarine at Thurstons.
This would have been some time early 80's.
It was constructed out of a big propane tank with a hatch welded onto the top / middle of it. Rocks hung beneath in a welded wire rack for ballast.
I dont think it actually went completely under water, it was powered by what I believe was a 4 cylinder automobile engine with a prop straight out the back. For cooling it had baseboard radiators run along the outside of the submarine.
It was the maiden voyage and I remember him commenting that he felt the prop and rudder were undersized for it and that it got really hot inside.
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I'd shared my drawings with a Lake Winnipesaukee neighbor for a submarine built out of rectangular pieces of welded steel plate. It didn't need to go very fast—but it had to be
affordable 
(Designed during high school hours, after we'd bought our lakefront home.)
It was to be powered by a small outboard that was mounted inside—and by using that engine as propulsion, would bring in fresh air through one of the two snorkels: the second snorkel was for exhaust. Water would be excluded using the snorkels
of those times, which had a ping-pong ball acting as a one-way valve.
The ballast was to be of rocks, stored beneath the floor. With that large amount of mass, it would have been cooler inside.
The paired diving planes were controlled by two handles, operating independently. Vision was by a centrally-located "sail", which was to made from two nested skylights, secured together with fiberglass resin. It would be hinged as a hatch for the Captain's entry—and especially—
his exit.
My
Mark-II model was similarly designed around a propane tank—like the above submersible.
Of course, it never got built.
But I still have the plans! 
One couple is currently living on their dreamboat: he is converting a genuine U.S. Navy submersible into his
personal submarine.
Why not bring it here? It could be "winterized" by leaving it
under the ice.
In recent years, it was purchased by a New York artist, who put it "at sea" for 58 days. This former U. S. Navy submersible was first on the scene of many submerged ships.
The website for the new owner:
http://www.ussdeepquest.kk5.org/
And featured in this 1˝ minute video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW0Qhj907Bk
...and elsewhere:
Quote:
John answered his cellphone on Monday and said, “Let me call you back later — I’m out on my submarine right now.”
Now, you don’t hear that very often — at least I don’t — and it seemed especially unusual here in cozy Stirling Harbor, a haven for yachts and luxury sailboats.
But there was John, sitting atop and skippering a steel vessel that looked like a big, black beached whale topped with a steering console. The thing had fins like a fish, an intimidating .50-caliber automatic weapon mounted on the front, and an American flag painted on the back along with the submarine’s name, Deep Quest. It looked ready to defend Greenport from the fancy flotilla here."
—Deep Quest
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