going deep
From our pals at McConaghy, doing something really different…
McConaghy boats are renowned for building the some of the fastest yachts afloat. Now McConaghy construction skills have been used by film maker/explorer James Cameron – who has just entered the history books and became the first person to make a solo dive to the ocean’s deepest point.
The nearly 7-mile (10.9km) dive in the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep southwest of Guam this morning was made possible by the Deepsea Challenger, a specially-designed submersible nearly eight years in the making, with McConaghy heavily involved in the final eighteen months of construction in Sydney, building components for the hull, buoyancy and battery propulsion systems. The long, thin vehicle, which Cameron calls a "vertical torpedo," is fitted with lights, cameras, powerful thrusters and is oriented with the cramped pilot sphere at the bottom. It drops straight down sphere- first, rather than horizontally, like most deep-diving subs.
Several hours before launch, the support team dropped an unmanned vehicle about the size of a phone booth into the trench in an effort to attract whatever might be living down there. "I’m going to attempt to rendezvous with that vehicle so I can observe animals that are attracted to the chemical signature of its bait," Cameron told National Geographic. When he finally reached bottom, he sent the anxious crew on the support vessel Mermaid Sapphire the welcome message: "All systems OK."
McConaghy Boats have done it again. Leading edge, breaking records…congratulations to James Cameron and team, his vision, and willingness to partner with those that make the impossible possible. – Blue Robinson.
