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Dolphin Inspired Mini-sub
What do you get the millionaire in your life who has everything? How about the Seabreacher mini-sub. Described as a dolphin-inspired cross between a jet ski and a submarine, the Seabreacher has a top speed of 45mph above the waves and 20mph below them. The two-man £30,000 craft is 15' long and its design makes it self-righting. Strangely, this doesn't come with a laser package.
The words: "Ouch, my spine." come to mind, though the follow up of "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt any more" are probably more worrying.
I'm gonna need a spec.
I thought dolphins came with explosive charges?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I'm waiting for the budget 'sea bass' version to come out. I think £30,000 is a bit steep for me.
Seems odd that they don't use an electric motor to avoid the problem of having to get air into the engine.
How exciting...
Much closer to a jet ski than to a sub... Another expensive and useless toy.
Those guys supposedly make proper mini subs (or real ones, although apparently nobody has taken them up on it).
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
So the snorkel provides air for the engine... what about the two people in the seats? Ahh... engine exhaust has some oxygen in it right?
What do you get the millionaire in your life who has everything?
Nothing like this. They would play with it a couple of times and then, I don't know.
It just so happens I have a couple of millionaires (self made) in my family. They're not into these very expensive luxury toys. They don't spend money on shit - especially over priced shit: cars, boats, Rolex Watches , etc...
One of them is really into bicycling and he does buy high quality equipment - used.
The other, she does spurge on here horses, but she actually competes in her retirement.
These types of toys are for the high salaried folks who still end up living paycheck to paycheck because they're spending all of their money on crap like this (doctors, lawyers, corporate business execs, star athletes etc...). "The Millionaire Next Door" explains much better. And yeah, those family members of mine, at lest one, are right out of that book.
"It can do 20mph below the water. If you go below snorkel depth you run out of air for the engine and you stay under for 20 seconds before the craft will automatically surface. But with the snorkel system in use you can stay under for longer."
Oh please oh please oh please... I promise I will clean my room and go to bed on time every day!
How many more years will slashdot have an off-by-one error on your Score in your profile?
Millionaire? This thing cost less than most modern Bass boats, decently equipped pontoons, and less than half what a common cruiser will run you. More than your average Seadoo PWC, but most people who buy them get at least two if not three or four (depending on wealth and the number of kids they have).
Then again, perhaps the millionaire aspect comes into play when it comes time to find someone to repair the craft, as anyone who spends a few hours on the water every week will tell you, anything boat/pwc related has a tendency to demonstrate it's willingness to break down in the worst possible ways at the worst possible times. It's almost as powerful enough of a force, I am beginning to suspect Murphy has a whole set of laws being enforced upon anyone who takes up marine recreation. Anyway, even the millionaires I've met who are into marine craft already know all this and still try to shop for designs which have been around for a few years and closer to the "proven technology" badge instead of pissing away money on completely new designs bound to have many flaws-- that's why they are millionaires and not scratching lottery tickets.
I'd also not really want to run that thing in most US waterways. More than once, I've cracked gel coats on thick fiberglass hulls ramming into surface debris at speeds below 50mph. The last thing I would want is to be sitting behind some plastic windshield and have a pointy chunk of tree collide with it at any speed. Not to mention the stump mazes just a few feet under many managed waterways. It'd be cool in some place like the Bahamas, though.
Tintin had this decades ago! ;) :)
http://www.sur-la-toile.com/images/articles/ben_1113361162.jpg
Once again Herge was visionary
...on a waverunner.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
My guess, reading between the lines and looking at the picture, is that the entire vessel is buoyant, and only stays submerged by moving forward and using its control surfaces to counteract its buoyancy. That would make this thing a "submarine" in the same way that a snorkeler is a "marine mammal": perhaps technically defensibly so, but not really what people mean. In any case, if that is true, then when the engine stalls, the vessel will simply float to the surface.
That's how I'd design something like this.
Making a "real" submarine takes a lot of engineering expertise. You can cheat any number of ways to make something sort of like a submarine. You can make a "wet" submarine, and avoid having to deal with a pressure hull. Unfortunately, that experience lacks something of the Captain Nemo drawing room atmosphere (namely the "atmospheric" part). Making a bouyant submarine that stays submerged using its control surfaces means you don't worry about ballast systems, and have a system that is intrinsically safer than one that requires pumping air and water around. But it means you can't go to deep, and you can't stop and admire the scenery.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Sure its for recreation but you could travel in it and you wouldn't get as wet as a jetski which seem to be pretty popular even though they're little more than a leisure vehicle. And unless that mini sub can do 20mph under the water (year right) it won't anything like as much of a buzz as this machine.
At least I could install the frickin' laser myself.
Task Mangler
My boring mate thinks this is a dull-fing...he can't see any porpoise to it at all!
Smivs on the intertubes!
Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have? Number Two: Sea Bass. Dr. Evil: [pause] Right. Number Two: They're mutated sea bass. Dr. Evil: Are they ill tempered? Number Two: Absolutely. Dr. Evil: Oh well, that's a start.
Go go Gadget Nailgun!
Well, if you want a real submersible instead of a 20-seconds-below-snorkle-depth, try DeepFlight: http://www.deepflight.com/
"Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
Go to 'Help and Preferences' at the top left of the main page, then where it says 'Your preferences' (right hand side), go to 'Sections'. There you can set what sections you want displayed and what priority you want them to have. The first option (crossed through circle) will remove a section completely. Hope this helps, Smivs.
Smivs on the intertubes!
Because we can all think of how to spend a million, but the rich ones only think of how to make a million.
But can you make a Beowulf cluster?
I saw this thing in a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog like 10 years ago! Surely there is more impressive tech to cover, even in Idle, than this.
PM
This is so old the dolphin has died of arthritis: http://fast-world.com/index.php/Interesting/Dolphin-Submarine.html
Why not show a few newer pictures: http://www.bionicdolphin.com/cms/
http://www.gizmag.com/go/4095/
Jeez, compared to the news this part of Slashdot is even more outrageous.
I remember something like this shown on "Beyond 2000", back in the late 1990s.
If you look at the photo closely I think you can see the couple in the craft actually making out.
Assuming he doesn't secretly build a PVC and duct tape weaponized exosuit and escape, kicking your ass in the process.
And in case you think it can't be done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1f4zrYzDz8
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel