How to save every model vessel from the bottom of your pond.

[crash 101]

Well I'm new to the boating threads and I was looking at all the pictures of vessels crashed and vessels upside down some even with just their bow out of the water. Which I liked because it's the "O" crap factor. Then I came across a person had a picture of just water and no vessel. I felt really bad thinking that this person just lost their work of art. The thread went on about the water way was posted no boating and no swimming. With out breaking the law and receiving a ticket. How will this person retrieve their vessel without breaking any laws. This is when my motor started to run. Just how can you save every vessel on the water or under the water, well I have an idea.

Being a fisherman I use a buoy to mark island tops and other deep structure that I want to sit on top of and fish. I toss this buoy marker overboard when I find the area where I want to fish so I can easily stay on that one spot. This is when I came up with the idea. The buoy marker is "H" shaped and I have some 80lbs test braided fishing line tied to a lead sinker then I wrapped the braided line around the "H" middle section. When you toss this buoy overboard the sinker spins the "H" floatation device untill the sinker hits the bottom. Then the buoy sits on top of the water in plain view. Can you all see where I am going with this?

This is when the idea came to me. On your vessel you build, you build a strong brace and tie some strong braided line to the mount or brace. Then with your imagination on the top of your vessel build part of your boat with some floatation. Tie the braided line to the floatation device so when your vessel sinks the floatation device floats to the top of the water marking your vessels location. Let us just say with your cabin cruser you make that seat into the buoy. To hide the braided line you put a spool inside of the seat so when the vessel sinks the seat releases the line while the floatation seat floats to the top of the water. Tie on the amount of braided line you think you can use to safely retrieve your model.

Now let's say after spending hundreds of dollars and hours on building your vessel you add this "life preserver" okay boat retriever device to it. When your boat sinks this buoy floats to the top of the water attached to your vessel. You then toss a hook to your floating buoy reel in your buoy attached to braided line and start reeling in your sunken vessel. You don't need to even get your feet wet. Just make sure you have strong enough braided line and mount so the weight of the water, vessel and the resistance of the water doesn't break anything.

I am not sure if anyone else has come up with this idea. I hope this idea helps just one person's model from the deep "deaths" of our water ways.

So this said what can you modify, build or use as a vessel model preserver? Help others and post your ideas and drawing(s) of your idea of a vessel retriever.

Calm skies and smooth waters
John

[willhaney]

Great idea! The simple ones always seem to be the best ones.

Will

[red dwarf]

I use this old idea just for location. Just remender boats under water have less weight

[jerryj98501]

It sounds like a similar system on a friends coast guard utility boat with a motor box on the deck. He made the box from solid foam covered with plastic sheet. He compressed foam rubber beneath the box to form a spring effect and held the box in place with two water soluable tablets in slots in the deck. His theory was if the boat sank, the tablets would disolve and the foam rubber would expell the engine box with line attached to the surface. He didn't ever sink the boat but it did work when the boat was left on the table in a rain storm at a regatta and the box was laying on the deck so would have probably worked. It is usually good to have some form of flotation foam inside the boat cavity also. Jerry J

[LtDoc]

I like the idea of a leaky container of 'carbide' in the boat! On sinking, water mixes with the carbide. Produces gas which ~could~ then float your boat (pun intended). If for some reason the container leaked to quickly, or the boat weighs more than the container can float, it would eventually blow the boat up (pun not intended). Not much help retrieving the boat, but should make it biodegradable much faster?
Make that container 'leak' by sealing a calibrated hole with water soluble 'goo'.
- 'Doc

Oh, if your local sailing areas are frequented by the lake patrol or game wardens, I don't think I'd do that carbide thingy. There are game laws you know...

[green-boat]

The carbide thing is not a bad idea BUT carbide when exposed to moisture (humidity) will degrade. The reaction with water yields acetylene gas, very expolsive and limestone. If by the time you did need it in a boat, it would probably would have turned to dust. It is getting harder and harder to get calcium carbide anymore, they have put it on the hazards list after 9/11. Yes it can be found but it is gettting more and more expensive.

Take it from somebody who knows, I go thru about 2 pounds of it every 4'th of July in my cannon.

[flufy]

I had a system on my U47 sub, A small fishing float (painted to match the sub ) was placed into a hole in the conning tower and held in place via a small spring hooked to the bulk head on one end and to a polo mint ( the mint with the hole ) , this gave about 1/2 to 1 hour in fresh water befor it desolves and releases the float attached via some fishing line also to the bulk head. it worked great untill i took it off as my sub seamed quite reliable then :censored: out came the waders and off i went for a cold watery walk :mad:

[willhaney]

it worked great untill i took it off as my sub seamed quite reliable then...isn't that always the way... :mad:

[kap64]

That's sort of what I am planning on my CG-71, but instead of a buoy, I was planning on making the whole superstructure float to the surface while tied to a spool inside of the hull. I figure that all of the time and effort spent on the superstructure, maybe I could at least salvage that if the string breaks from the hull.

[Shaun Hendricks]

Please remember that the gas that Carbide generates is Actylene! If you are using a brushed motor and for some reason your motor turns over or has other sparks generated, and there happens to be some air in the compartment... well... BOOM! Carbide depth charge!

I actually looked at the carbide/water idea a while ago for doing depth charges so an RC destroyer could do actual DC runs... :D

I do believe the residual sludge is somewhat toxic as was pointed out.

[towboatjoe]

That's sort of what I am planning on my CG-71, but instead of a buoy, I was planning on making the whole superstructure float to the surface while tied to a spool inside of the hull. I figure that all of the time and effort spent on the superstructure, maybe I could at least salvage that if the string breaks from the hull.

I used to do that to my small towboats that couldn't hold enough foam to float them. If you use nylon thread it will pretty much lift a lot without breaking and won't rot.
By the way, real towboats carry marker bouys on deck that submerge whenver one sinks to mark where it is if it went down in a deep channel.

[crash 101]

I have another idea and it's a little more costly to purchase this item. I was looking through a fishing web site and found some inflatable rearming kits used on PFD (personal floatation devices). These devices will release a CO2 cartridge and inflate a PFD when it's submerge under water.

They have cheaper PFD's that will inflate without becoming submerged which have a different device that triggers the CO2 cartridge when moister or water is applied. Being a fisherman I've heard about several other fisherman's cheaper type of PFD's would inflate without any warning while just wearing or storing them. The higher cost cartridge is about twice as much but personally I would pay twice as much so the device wouldn't discharge untill my vessel was submerged.

With a large vessel you could possibly use the PFD with the CO2 cartridge and install this into the hull. Then when your vessel sank the device would trigger and inflate the PFD and your model vessel would then float to the surface.

A smaller size vessel might be able to use the rearming kit and modify some type of inflatable strong bladder/balloon that would sit ontop of the vessel hidden from sight. Again when the vessel would become submerged the rearming kit would trigger and inflate the bladder/balloon and float your vessel to the surface.

Here are some pictures to show these items. One picture is of the buoy I talked about before and the other two is of the PFD and the rearming kit. You can find all these items on a major fishing web site.

[RCheroske]

You can get something smaller than that for your keys. Somebody once posted a link for a marker that self activated if you dropped your keys overboard.

You should check with the submarine guys as they have come up with a LOT of ways to retreive your sub if you ever lose radio contact with your sub underwater.

[ThunderboltV12]

Why not just do like a lot of sub guys do and hook up airbrush air to a bladder that automatically inflates when radio contact is lost? Or actually, since you are staying above water, why not just inflate something from the very beginning so that it doesn't sink at all?