With all the great underwater nature documentaries available in high definition these days, we have no real interest in actually getting out of our chairs to go exploring among sharks, fish, and seaweed, but it's nice to know that there will soon be a non-
self-powered personal submarine on the market in case we ever do decide to take the plunge. After three years of furious design, development, and testing, a Dutch company called U-Boat Worx is finally ready to release its battery-powered C-Quester 1 to aquatic enthusiasts worldwide, which will allow them to cruise down to depths of 50 meters at a maximum speed of 3 knots for up to two-and-a-half hours. The main advantage of this craft over traditional scuba diving is the fact that its cabin maintains a constant pressure of one atmosphere, meaning that you can surface immediately without having to sit through those boring decompression periods -- and if for some reason you can't surface, the on-board oxygen tanks and CO2 scrubbers will keep you alive for 36 hours or until help arrives, whichever comes first. Scheduled to ship sometime this month, the CQ1 is conspicuously missing a pricetag on the company's website; you have to call or write if you're interested, which probably means that pricing falls somewhere between a Sea-doo and a 7-series BMW.
[Thanks, Sytse S.]
posted Jul 11th 2006 5:50PM
"Scheduled to ship sometime this month" LOL! Yes, I know. I'm easily pleased.
The names ____ James ____ (fill in the blanks).
from their product info -
price: 55,000 euro excluding tax, transport and import duties.
Can you verify the price you mentioned here? Is it for which model? I'm looking to get a price on either CQ1 or CQ2 without upgrades, and if they're availabel in the US?
Thanks!
Margaret
If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
Or you could just build your own
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/06/26/build-your-own-one-man-submarine/
I'll take my chances with the one that has it's own air supply
But where are the sharks with frickin laser beams?
That piece on Cryo-kennels is obviously a joke, disguised as an advertisement, but I don't see the motive for running it. Is somebody just wondering how silly or gullible the public is? Suspended animation of a mammal isn't possible yet; if you freeze your dog or cat, they'll be dead. If it were possible, it would have been headline news all over the world.
it should named isubmarine
Wow, this thing looks great, because there's nothing I'd rather do than get out onto deep water and then have some sort of technical malfunction, causing me to crash to the bottom 300 meters below and imploding into a small pile of glass fibre laminate chunks and bloody gore... Yuk.
LOL - "whichever comes first"
It looks like they designed the thing in SolidWorks (CosmosMotion and CosmosFloWorks probably too) and tested it with CosmosWorks. Very cool, then again I'm a bit of a SolidWorks fanboy, so maybe its just me.
Didn't Johnny Quest have one of these?
"and if for some reason you can't surface, the on-board oxygen tanks and CO2 scrubbers will keep you alive for 36 hours or until help arrives, whichever comes first"
Maybe they could redirect some of that extra O2 into a ballast tank or airbag to get this thing to the surface in an emergency?
I'll pass on the #571 production build...
Meh. Google search the Bionic Dolphin. I'd do it myself, but I'm lazy. Really lazy. In any case, this thing ain't got shiznit on the Bionic Dolphin! Seriously. Check it out. You'll thank me.
Am I the only one that is put off by the fact that this DUTCH company is called "U-Boat" Worx?
Uh, pardon very much . . . but the company is called "U Boat Worx"? Hmmmm. U Boats. UUUUU Boats. Wonder where I've heard that name before . . .
Sweet! Miss Debbie Dupree and I can finally get back to the Sealab in style...
I agree with Brad. Probably not a good idea to name your company after World War II underwater Nazi death machines.
we wish to be your agent in china !
U-Boat Worx? How many torpedo tubes does this thing have, and how many reloads? Can you see surfacing alongside a cruise ship, popping the hatch and screaming "Avast, ye scurvy dogs!"