Background
--My
entire adult life has revolved around the water
in one aspect or another. Initially my interests
were in diving in the frigid waters of Puget Sound.
I was so intrigued by the mysterious undersea
life that I would snorkel for 30 minutes without
a wetsuit, warm up for half an hour and snorkel
for another 20 minutes. I eventually went to SCUBA
school, made myself a wetsuit. I was then able
to dive for an hour and not shiver afterwards.
Life was good.--
--After
high school I joined the Navy where I became a
diver on a submarine. Later I became a Saturation
Diver at the tail end of the SeaLab Program where
we made the world’s first 1,010 foot dive.
During my ten years in the Navy I took the opportunity
of learning anything anyone would teach me. I
went through various engineering programs and
even nuclear power school.--
--Just
before getting out of the Navy, Chris DeLucchi
and I started a company called Saturation Systems
Inc. It was founded initially to do the first
saturation dive for treasure, on the Andrea Doria,
in 1973. Unfortunately, we were unable to salvage
the treasure due to the extremely dangerous conditions
inside the ship wreck. If we would have had a
SeaBotix Little Benthic Vehicle (LBV) available,
we may have brought up the treasure. However,
we did get a lot of publicity, which allowed us
to start manufacturing diving systems mostly for
companies around the North Sea. Saturation Systems
Inc. prospered for 5 years before the North Sea
diving system manufacturers caught up technologically,
which meant for us to compete, we had to eat the
freight. Finally we had to shut the company down
and I moved my family to Aberdeen Scotland, where
all the serious diving action was taking place.--
--In
Aberdeen, I first set up the UK operations for,
Life Support Manufacturer, Kinergetics, after
that I helped, diving pioneer, Al Krasberg with
his "Return line diving system". Shortly
there-after I started Gas Services Offshore Limited
and developed the GasMizer Diver Gas Recovery
system. Our first operational dive was on the
HMS Edinburgh where the salvage team brought up
5 tons of Russian Gold from 807 feet of water.
I am very proud of the development of the GasMizer
Diver Gas Recovery System; by the fourth year
of operation we had reduced the North Sea Helium
consumption from over 300 million cubic feet per
year down to less than 70 million cubic feet per
year. Helium is a valuable, finite resource that
should be preserved for future generations.--
--The
success of Gas Services led to the formation of
the Pressure Products Group of companies, which
included Gas Services, Gas Supplies, Hyox Systems,
Hydrovision, BioMarine and several others. Today
many of these companies still exist such as Hydrovision,
now SMD Hydrovision and the Pressure Products
Group, now known as Divex. After I sold my remaining
interests in 1991, I semi-retired and went sailing
for a number of years.--
SeaBotix Inc.
--The
LBV is a concept that I began working on in the
early 90s after moving back from Scotland to Seattle.--
--The
LBV concept was primarily based on my experience
developing the Hydrovision Hyball ROV. I wanted
a much smaller ROV that is easy to operate, has
powerful thrusters, movement in all axis, full
of features, all at an affordable price.--
--The
challenge in building a compact ROV is making
it; very capable and affordable at the same time.
Reducing costs required significant investment
in production tooling as well as innovative engineering.--
--From
past experience we knew that a small ROV must
have a small diameter Umbilical otherwise you
end up with the Tail wagging the Dog syndrome
due to umbilical drag. We aggressively set the
design targets aiming for an unheard of 0.30 inch
(<8mm) diameter umbilical.--
--A
phase one prototype LBV was constructed and preliminary
testing carried out. But at this time I fell victim
to another passion, boating. The next several
years I spent traveling on my long range cruiser.
During long voyages at sea I would often take
out my sketch book and work further on the LBV
project. It was towards the end of the 90s that
my son Jesse agreed to help me develop SeaBotix
and we really focused on making LBV a reality.
An advanced prototype LBV was released to the
public at Underwater Intervention in 2001 where
it became an instant success.--
--There
have been many challenges since the conception
of LBV mostly revolving around the electronics.
Having weathered that storm we now have a well
seasoned, outstanding team producing an excellent
product. With more than 165 units in the field
now we have ironed out all of the major teething
issues.--
--SeaBotix
prides itself in selling based on the merits of
the LBV. I am convinced that LBV represents the
best VALUE of any small ROV in production today.
A bold statement I know, but when all systems
are compared, no other ROV offers the same features,
the same level of performance, the same level
of service, all at an incredible value.--
--We
have a team at SeaBotix that is extremely proactive
in development and product improvement. We are
continually enhancing the capability of our product
range with deeper systems, longer cable lengths,
increased power, more accessories, and other innovative
new enhancements.--
--SeaBotix
is a relatively new company with many ideas for
future development. We listen to our clients and
respond accordingly. User feedback has enabled
us to craft the LBV into a system that suits the
needs of many operators. You can expect to see
a lot more innovative LBV enhancements in the
future. We see continuous improvement as the key
to our future success.--
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