Yesterday (October 26th, 2003), Laminar and I took our newly constructed in-the-water DRUMS for her maiden sail at Sasamat Lake, BC, Canada. It was a night dive (we spent the whole day setting her up). We used the glow-in-the-dark 1/2" descent line for a ghostly maiden voyage.
We christened the DRUMS the 'FSS Golden-Angel'. FSS = Fattah-Scott ship. Golden Angel was chosen because this is a life-saving device, she is your guardian angel. We did several successfully dead-body recovery simulations from 30m, although the reel has a bit too much line on it (300lb line, 125m). The reel is a Penn 50VSW, two speed (1:1 and 3:1), with level drag. The operator floats under the base of the rod, with the rod basically touching the top of his head, as he listens to the 'clicking' noise of the diver peeling the reel during the descent. The rate of clicks gives an instant indication as to the diver's descent speed. We could easily tell when either of us had an equalization or hood-squeeze stop at depth. The platform is so stable it is virtually un-flippable. No amount of pull on the tip of the rod will destabilize the platform.
We believe this is the first in-the-water DRUMS yet made. We know that Sebastien thought of the idea, but to our knowledge his systems are all boat-based.
Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
We christened the DRUMS the 'FSS Golden-Angel'. FSS = Fattah-Scott ship. Golden Angel was chosen because this is a life-saving device, she is your guardian angel. We did several successfully dead-body recovery simulations from 30m, although the reel has a bit too much line on it (300lb line, 125m). The reel is a Penn 50VSW, two speed (1:1 and 3:1), with level drag. The operator floats under the base of the rod, with the rod basically touching the top of his head, as he listens to the 'clicking' noise of the diver peeling the reel during the descent. The rate of clicks gives an instant indication as to the diver's descent speed. We could easily tell when either of us had an equalization or hood-squeeze stop at depth. The platform is so stable it is virtually un-flippable. No amount of pull on the tip of the rod will destabilize the platform.
We believe this is the first in-the-water DRUMS yet made. We know that Sebastien thought of the idea, but to our knowledge his systems are all boat-based.
Eric Fattah
BC, Canada