Your dream dive-deck set up?

Hi Scubaboarders...

I am in the process of redesigning the dive deck of a well known liveaboard and am interested to hear from the wealth of experience out there.

If you were designing, or remodeling, a liveaboard dive deck what would you design in? What natty little features have you seen or thought of that no dive deck should be without? What should we have two of and what should we forget about?

Looking forward to hearing your ideas, the practical, the impractical and the downright inane... its just for fun, but you never know!

I will kick off:

How about a warm air vent to dry your wetsuit between dives!

Wishing you warm waters and good vis...

Simon

Simon, we have a warm air vent on the dive deck, but only one person gets to use it for their gear. You will have to put in 16 such vents for each person to dry their suit, or else they will fight. The best change we ever made to the Spree was a massive deck head and shower. We designed it after spending time on the Paradise Sport in PNG. The only drawback is that the amount of fresh water usage went up almost triple after installing this head/shower. We changed our camera table from standard Agressor Fleet style to a three tiered table by adding a half-wide shelf above the other two. Folks can store hats, sunglasses, small cameras, tools, etc. there. If I made another change it would be to add 110V waterproof/GFI outlets out there for folks who want to charge things like scooter batteries.

Frank

Frank,

Shouldn't the location on your profile be updated?

Or can those of us in TX begin to book on the Spree again!?!?!

Pearldiver07:

Frank,

Shouldn't the location on your profile be updated?

Or can those of us in TX begin to book on the Spree again!?!?!

Click to expand...

Sorry, Steve, Key West is working for me. That doesn't mean you can't visit.

Look at the Aqua Cat. It seems to have everything, plenty of space & personal storage. A large camera table, charging station. It doesn't have hot air vents, but does have 2 showers where you can warm your wetsuit up with hot water.

I gotta say the big thing for me and hubby, besides the dry storage area and camera tables, is a bathroom and a changing area. I hate having to take off wetsuit and rinse off then dry off just to go pee in my room. Also, I hate it when there is a restroom and someone goes in there to just take off wetsuit or change clothes. Some liveaboards don't let any wet clothing into main salon area, so there ends up being a line at the one restroom on deck. Some of us try not to pee in our wetsuits! :blush:

...make sure the wetsuits are not hanging above/over the divers' gear stations...I really hate getting slapped in the face by a wet/used wetsuit while accessing my gear or gearing up !

...if possible, take advantage of the hot engine room 'air' being vented to 'dry' the area where the wetsuits are drip-drying.

...make sure the divers gear stations aren't crammed together too closely...it's nice to have a little elbow room.

...make sure the dive deck is well lit so divers can work/set up their gear easily at night in preparation for the next days diving.

...make sure there are enough lounge chairs/tables on the dive deck so all the divers have room to tan/warm up.

...make sure you've got plenty of Nitrox analyzers...I hate standing in line behind 20 other divers waiting to analyze my tank.

...make sure you go adequate wetsuit soaking tanks...camera soaking tanks...with regular water changes.

...make sure the dive deck is coated in a quality/durable high-grip/no-slip surface.....that doesn't tear up a diver's bare feet.

....maybe have a 'mechanic's corner' (a small table/shelf area) where a diver can do minor reg or other gear adjustments/repairs/hose swaps/battery swaps.

...make sure there is generous capacity/places for diver's to hang things to drip/air dry (like towels/swimsuits/T-shirts)

...make sure there is sufficient under-bench/under seat storage for divers to store fins/masks/lights.

...make sure the dive deck aisles are wide enough so divers aren't tripping/bumping into each other too much.

...make sure handrails are located in strategic areas.

...make sure there is abundent fresh water/paper cups so divers can easily stay hydrated.

...make sure you've got reasonable dive-deck fresh water shower heads (and heated too)...along with a small shelf/box where shampoo/soap for showers is stored.

...make sure the dry-board is big and easily visible for dive briefings...and if needed, maybe make sure the DM giving the briefing can use the deck PA system...as it's annoying to be standing at the back of a big dive group straining to see/hear the briefing.

...as previously mentioned, make sure to have a dive deck (wet) restroom....as it's VERY annoying to have to remove a wetsuit/dry off, and run to one's room to answer nature's call in a hurry!

.....offer larger capacity tanks...at least an an option for a reasonable upcharge.

We just lost a Nikon D70--it ended up in the bottom of a dip tank with other cameras jammed on top of it and the dome on the housing got knocked askew and it flooded, so I would suggest some sort of system to keep that from happening to other people.....

Plenty of storage space for gear

Fill whip for every diver at their gear station so gear doesn't have to be broken down every time, just take regs off and fill

Space between the gear stations

Some sort of freshwater rinse (the blackbeards trip I was on used the A/C condensate for rinsing)

Lots of space to hang wetsuits

Space to work on gear

On deck head

Shade

Easy access to entries and exits

H2O Gal:

We just lost a Nikon D70--it ended up in the bottom of a dip tank with other cameras jammed on top of it and the dome on the housing got knocked askew and it flooded, so I would suggest some sort of system to keep that from happening to other people.....

Click to expand...

We've had this happen twice on our boat. This is not necessarily the failure of boat crew or number of cameras onboard, it's the design of Ikelite dome ports. We will no longer put an Ikelite housing in the rinse tank. We will, however, ask the photographer what he/she wants us to do with it. When you get your new camera, make sure you tell the crew how you want your camera handled. Sorry for your loss.

Frank

Hijack over.