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Serrico Ltd., La Hache, 27450 St.Martin St.Firmin, (departement de l'Eure?), France make a sort of RIB that can transform into a submersible diver-rider and back. It is called Kraken 90. (It used to be made by Defence Boats in Hexham in England, when it was called Subskimmer (a name that I prefer, since (a) it is more descriptive, and (b) `Kraken' has other uses, e.g. for the insides of the Carmellan research automatic mixture rebreather).) It can plane deflated on the surface. It has a movable arm across its bows, with an auxiliary electric motor and propeller at each end, powered by a big nicad battery which is in a thick tube along its keel. It has big air cylinders on board, for the divers to breathe from to save their breathing sets' duration, and to reinflate the RIB's tubes on surfacing. It also has an air pump to reinflate itself as it goes. It can go to 20 knots on the surface, and 2.5 knots for 2 hours submerged. Its outboard motor can be sealed when underwater, to stop water from getting in. Thus the divers can take their boat and its load down with them, so it can't be stolen etc in their absence, and so if they get into a current they can surface and get away in it. But (when it was made in Hexham) it cost 100,000 pounds! If only something like that could be made for say as much as a small car, it would `go like hot cakes' to many sorts of diver. Does anyone have news of Serrico Ltd? Or their email address (if any)? Is anyone else making anything like Subskimmer?
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