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rfarb <rfarb@na*.ne*> wrote (Subject: Re: Spelling of a word):-
> ... the recently completed International Military Rebreather Swimoff
> Competition held in the Panama Canal. The U.S. team [defeated] the Brits by
> nearly five hours in the single coast-to-coast swim competition. ...
It likely depends on details of the set. There are many shapes of rebreather.
Likely 30 frogmen could be equipped each with a different set. There are many
variants of the UK naval rebreather: UBA (underwater breathing apparatus),
SCBA (swimmer-canoeists breathing apparatus), SCMBA (ditto + `mixture'), CDBA
(clearance divers' breathing apparatus), etc, all with the usual UK shape with
a breathing bag on the chest and a round canister in it and one wide breathing
tube. They often have the oxygen cylinder across the belly, making drag, worse
if there are 2 or 3 cylinders so placed, as in a photograph in a BSAC diving
manual. But in the SCBA the oxygen cylinders are lengthwise along the back out
of the way for clinbing in and out of boats wearing the set, and thus likely
making less drag. And consider the shape of the backpack weight-pocket that
those sets often have. And all trailing tubes and odds and ends.
If the diver wears a sport-diver-type weightbelt, that rear edges of the
weights can act as drag also. A loose drysuit that lies in wrinkles can have
some effect. To get ultimate speed, all sorts of petty drag causers can add up
amd need to be eliminated.
In such speed tests, how would fare modern backpack-box automatic mixture
rebreathers? The production Cis-Lunar and Phibian look well streamlined.
But for ultimate agility for a short dive (<= 30 or 40 minutes), give me
the
good old diving-and-industrial Siebe Gorman Salvus! (as below)
> And, in the men, singles, wounded-in-combat, continuous round-trip swim, the
> U.S. outpaced the Brits by seventeen hours. ...
How did they simulate woundedness? A restraint or orthopedic device (what
sort?), or was it a towing test? or how?
> In the team overall category, the U.S. finished first ...
To rfarb@na*.ne*: Any chance of you please mailing (on paper, not email)
me a photocopy of whatever article this news came from? It sounds interesting.
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\___/===\ \ A.Appleyard, E28d, UMIST, Manchester Univ\ \
\ \ UK. a.appleyard@fs*.mt*.um*.ac*.uk* \\
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