Vintage Double Hose

So I got a call last Thuirsday of a boat sunk in Sealing Cove. I met with my buddy Dave who has a boat with decent hydraulics, and set out to lift the 24ft. Tollycraft.

There was a bunch of ice in the harbor, luckily it wasn't too solid in most places and we blew it away with prop wash before I jumped in.





One of the engineering highlights of the Phoenix is I was able to inflate a lift bag with my tank, while still breathing off the reg. (I know you're not supposed to.) We had one corner of bulwarks we couldn't lift above sea level, so I used a big lift bag. I didn't have a pneumo-line to the surface, so I used my drysuit hose and ran straight from the Phoenix into the bag for a god 3-5 minutes. Enough to lift the starboard aft quarter.

I was runnning a lot of air into the bag in very cold water and had NO problems breathing from the Phoenix. That definately put a smile on my face.





After we got the boat above water, we realized the pump wasn't keeping up as much as it should. It turns out what sank the boat was fresh water freezing in the sea strainer and popping the top off. I sort of half doned my gear and went into the engine compartment to put the lid back on.



After floating the boat it was a short trip through the ice, which made towing a bit tricky, but we got her out and onto the trailer.



I felt bad for the boat owner. He and his wife had just repainted the interior, replaced the head, put in new linolium, and fixed the galley up. The boat looked spotless. Total bummer really. Not to mention it a 340 mopar in it.(not a 318 or 360)

I did end up chipping the paint on the front can of the Phoenix, but that's to be expected in ice and why I painted it instead of making it a show piece.

Hopefully our weather will calm down this week and I can get out of town for some sweat wreck dives in the sound. I need to get some port holes and maybe a nice wheel or two. I'll post some pics of the Phoenix while using the broco torch - I think those will look cool in black and white.

Now THAT'S a story! Cool photos of the PRAM in action!

Very cool in several different ways! Thanks for posting that.

You AK guys are hard-core for sure! That's some cool water to have your chin hanging out... Thanks for the post.

Regards,

Nice to know how tough the Phoenix is. Heavy duty air delivery PLUS reliable no freeze-up

From a cold stand point the Phoenix is about as ten feet tall and bullet proof as you can get. 10 degree windy surface air temp, 33 degree water, the Phoenix laughs while everything else free flows!

More proof that every diver needs a PRAM in their gearbag. All this and vintage too!

8dust wrote:You AK guys are hard-core for sure! That's some cool water to have your chin hanging out... Thanks for the post.

Thanks 8dust(and everyone else), but the truth is that it doesn't get that cold in SE Alaska. Being at sea level keeps our average winter temp around 32.

The folks diving the midwest are the true cold water experts. Whenever I meet someone from Wisconsin or Minnesota they've usually got much better cold weather stories than I do.

As far as the PRAM, what else is there to say? I actually ran the pheumo line for longer than I needed to and it didn't phase the Phoenix. The Phoenix is definately high quality. It isn't often I rave about a piece of machined metal, but this reg deserves it.