Blog posts for SeaHawk personal submarine build and adventures.

USSVI members from Westport visiting Connecticut submarine build pose in front of the sail.

USSVI Westport Visits SubsCT Personal Submarine Build

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USSVI members from Westport visiting Connecticut submarine build pose in front of the sail.United States Submarine Veterans USSVI members from Westport, CT, visited my personal submarine build. It was great to share my project with Brothers of the Phin. From left are: Craig Megarle, Dave Rosenbluh, Stan Mathis, Sterling Redding, Bruce Linder and Paul Grammer. That’s me, John Kammerer, farthest starboard.

United States Submarine Veterans member from Westport Bruce Linder at the shower for SeaHawk.

USSVI member Bruce Linder examines shower installation.

Overview of the shop where Connecticut private submarine is being built. See more at SubsCT.com.

An overview of the Connecticut shop where I am building a personal submarine. It will eventually be christened SMV SeaHawk. At far left are some of the Westport USSVI members being raised on a forklift platform to get a topside view of the hull. In the foreground is the aft hemisphere. Under the blue tarp is the keel assembly. At far right is the tool room.

USSVI members from Westport visiting Connecticut submarine use a forklift platform for a topside view of the project to be christened SMV SeaHawk when completed.

This closer view shows me driving the forklift with USSVI Westport members checking out a topside view of the hull. On the forklift platform are Sterling Redding, Craig Megarle and Bruce Linder.

CAD drawing showing starboard and port views of private submarine build in Connecticut.

Taped to the toolroom wall are CAD renderings showing my personal submarine build with hull, keel and sail assembled. Figurines give a sense of scale. When completed, SMV SeaHawk will be 65 feet long with a beam of 6 feet 10 1/2 inches and 48 tons submerged displacement. Much of the design and CAD work I am doing myself, advised by experts to make sure everything is BZ.

USSVI members from Westport examining the keel for private submarine being built in Connecticut.

Veronica Redding and Dave Rosenbluh are shown looking at the combined keel and battery pod assembly. The blue tarp is part of a movable tent structure that allows me to isolate boat assemblies for activities like sandblasting and painting.

United States Submarine Veterans member from Westport, CT examining pilot compartment. In foreground is engine compartment of private submarine to be christened SeaHawk.

Looking through the machinery room passageway you see USSVI Westport member Stan Mathis in the pilot compartment. In the foreground you see the two John Deere 250-kilowatt diesel generators that will provide power. Propulsion will be diesel-electric direct.

USSVI Westport member Diane Megarle in the engine room of private submarine being built in Connecticut.

Walking out of the machinery room is Diane Megarle.

Pilot compartment of private submarine being built in Connecticut.

My Westport visitors shared some additional photos of my personal submarine build components that caught their attention. Here’s the pilot’s chair in front of a trim manifold I built myself.

Hatches for private submarine being built in Connecticut.

We built our own bulkhead doors.

Propeller blades for private submarine being built in Connecticut.

Twin 30 by 30-inch propellers will drive my completed personal submarine.

Visit other pages on my website SubsCT.com for lots more pictures and details as I turn a used propane tank into a personal submarine.

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My Steel Rubicon

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SeaHawk builder John Kammerer portrait photo

John Kammerer

By: John Kammerer

Momentum on this project really started when I located and purchased the used storage tank that would become my submarine pressure hull.

Up to this point, people literally hung up on me when I called on the phone to inquire about purchasing the parts and hiring the services required to build a personal submarine.

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Why?

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SeaHawk builder John Kammerer portrait photo

John Kammerer

By: John Kammerer

Why build a personal submarine? It is a fair question, to be sure. Perhaps the most simple answer is, “I’ve always wanted to and now I can.”

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. This is my first narrative devoted to my Project 765, building a personal submarine that will be christened SMV SeaHawk when completed.

Did you ever have an idea capture your imagination so firmly it lasted your whole life?

Senior year of high school, I was 18 years old. A couple of paperback books caught my eye at the local candy store: “Raiders of the Deep,” by Lowell Thomas and “Hunters and the Hunted,” by Jochen Brennecke. Both were collections of actual stories, first-hand accountings, of submarine warfare from WWI and WWII. I still have the books I bought so long ago, carefully preserved.

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