Sub-Consciousness

...First All-Female Crews Compete in Two-Person Subs...

by John Hussey

BETHESDA, MD June 27, 1997 -- A streamlined submersible powered by a young Canadian ocean engineer streaked into the underwater spotlight this week, setting new world speed records in the 5th International Submarine Races( and pushing back the frontiers of human-powered vehicle performance.

The one-person sub "OMER 3", piloted by Francois Maisonneuve from the University of Quebec's Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Montreal, achieved a speed of 6.97 knots (8 MPH) in a 10-meter measured course, shattering the previous mark of 6.69 knots set in 1996 by Californian William Nicoloff. The Canadian team swept the subrace prize categories, winning the $1,000 Overall Performance Award, the Absolute Speed Award, the Fastest Speed, Propeller, one- and two-person divisions, the Best Design Outline and the Spirit of the Races Award. The team's two-person sub, "OMER 2", won its class with a performance of 6.36 knots, followed by second place "Cape Fear", Cape Fear Community College, Wilmington, NC, at 5.13 knots. Third and fourth were the University of Miami at 3.15 knots and Texas A&M at 3.14.

The University of Michigan's "Sea Wolf" a 15-foot-long vehicle made almost entirely of oven-baked ABS plastic and liquid quick-cast aluminum, was awarded the special prize for Best Use of Composite Materials. The awards for Innovation went to Florida Institute of Technology's "Sub-Variable" for its unique "stair step" propulsion process. Also cited for innovation were Don Burton's "Silver Bucket," propelled by a venturi turbine, and Cape Fear Community College's "Fearless One" for its forward propeller and retractable fins.

Tennessee Technological University's "Torpedo IV", the University of Veracruz, Mexico's "Arcangello II" and "Fearless One" from Cape Fear Community College, Wilmington, NC, tried to offer competition to the Canadian team in the new one-person category, but fell short. "Torpedo IV's" best 10-meter speed was 5.88 knots, more than a knot off the pace. "Arcangello II" had a best time of 1.70 knots, and "Fearless One" was unable to finish the course when it struck the wall, breaking its prop, in the final hours of racing Friday.

In the 10 years since the concept of human-powered submarine racing, two-person teams have been the norm -- a strong athlete to deliver leg power through a bicycle-type gearbox and a pilot to guide the vessel through the water. However, three teams came to the 1997 races with brand new one-person designs in addition to their previously raced two-person subs. These second generation vehicles immediately captured the imagination of other participants, officials, technical observers and the public audience. "We are absolutely amazed at the speeds attained by these one-person subs," said ISR Race Director, Jerry Rovner. "They have exceeded a threshold that many engineers thought could never be achieved through human power."

The 1997 ISR saw a number of other important "firsts". A 17-year-old senior from Winston Churchill High School of Potomac, MD, Micah Thorner, became the world's youngest female submarine pilot, guiding her team's "Bull Dog" successfully through the 100-meter course despite being slowed by a damaged drive unit. The team made repairs and came back to set a new world speed record in the high school division at 2.92 knots.

The first all-female crew in the nine-year history of the ISR piloted and powered "Mermaid" from the Annapolis, MD, Human-Powered Sub Club. Pilot Heather Powell, 26, and propulsor Christine Bridgman, 22, were the first team of women ever to finish the regulation course . Another female team, ocean engineering seniors Dana Teasdale and Stephanie Lee from the Florida Institute of Technology, also made a run in "Sub-Variable" but did not complete the 100-meter course due to navigation problems.

A submarine from the University of Miami's School of Mechanical Engineering, "Magnum (", lost its bearings on its initial run and smashed its acrylic nose cone on the concrete wall. True to the spirit of the race, the Miamians pitched in and by working through the night, they replaced the forward section and were ready for racing again the next morning. The sharing of tools, techniques and solutions was common throughout the five-day event. The Miami sub was one of many that hit the wall or scraped the bottom during early test runs. The necessity of maintaining a submarine's position in the mid-water column as it proceeds down the course is one of the challenges facing racing teams.

The races were held June 23-27 in the 3,200-foot-long, 22-foot-deep, 50-foot-wide David Taylor Model Basin test tank at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, Bethesda, Maryland. The races are a biennial event sponsored by the International Submarine Race( Organization, which staged the first submarine competition in 1989 with an in-the-ocean event off Singer Island, Florida. Subsequent ocean-based events were held in 1991 and 1993, with the action moving to the Navy's David Taylor Model Basin in 1995.

Among the design issues which separated the most speedy subs from everyone else was the effectiveness of propellers. Propulsion expert Dr. Patrick Poole, leader of the winning Naval Academy team in 1989 and a judge in the 1997 event, said that improvements in the successful conversion of leg power to propeller thrust in these vehicles has been remarkable. "Human power in endurance situations is equal to about one-quarter horsepower, but in sprints, some people can produce a full horsepower. Well-designed high-tech propellers that are long and lean relative to the diameter of the hull of their submarines are creating a lot of lift with very low drag, approaching an efficiency of 90 percent or better, developing the optimum conversion of human power to speed underwater," he said.

The timing system employed for the 1997 races left no room for error. Designed by Frank Lang of the Sarnoff Corporation, four underwater video cameras pinpointed the exact location of submarines passing down a course that had been laid out with precision by NSWC experts using laser measuring devices, providing both a 10-meter "sprint" time and a 100-meter report. The split-screen video was recorded to four decimal point accuracy.