Dacor Nautilus

[AfterDark]

Does anyone remember the Dacor Nautilis? I have one. I haven't used it in years. The inflator is missing. This would have been the granddaddy of the wing. I cast a twenty lb lead ingot for the weight compartment. The thing wasn't half bad to dive as I remember. I used it with my jetsuit drysuit as it allowed me to take on ballast (water) instead of having a 40lb weight belt. Might be something to consider resorting has my knees get worst and I'll need to lighten the load!

 

[SteveAD]

Does anyone remember the Dacor Nautilis? I have one. I haven't used it in years. The inflator is missing. This would have been the granddaddy of the wing. I cast a twenty lb lead ingot for the weight compartment. The thing wasn't half bad to dive as I remember. I used it with my jetsuit drysuit as it allowed me to take on ballast (water) instead of having a 40lb weight belt. Might be something to consider resorting has my knees get worst and I'll need to lighten the load!

Sorry, but this is just wrong. Taking on water as ballast does not equate to adding weight. Lead weighs more than the volume of water it displaces and therefore adding lead to a diver makes him more negative. Water iswater and therefore has no effect on bouyancy. Submarine ballast tanks work because they are rigid and when the tanks are filled with air the sub is lighter than water and when they are filled with water the sub is heavier

 

[Fishpie]

If I remember correctly the Nautilus was a hard shell BC that automatically adjusted for neutral buoyancy.
Scubapro had something similar.

 

[Luis H]

Scubapro, US Divers, and At-Pack, all had hard shell tank packs, some had internal wing BC and others like the US Divers were mostly cosmetic to capitalize on the Cousteau pack looks. But no one else (that I am aware of) ever made a rigid ballast pack like the Dacor Nautilus.

It is by no means automatic in buoyancy compensation. The diver adjusts the amount of air volume (and water) in the hard shell ballast containers and the only automatic feature is that the air will be added or vented to compensate for pressure changes. It doesn’t compensate for buoyancy changes due to the diver wetsuit compression or the tank getting lighter.

I have dove one in the past and it is amusing, but in general not very practical. The only advantage is that if you overweight yourself (for what ever inexcusable reason) you can compensate for the extra weight and the gas volume will stay constant.

I guess it could be a bit handy if you had a lot of neoprene and you were diving at a fairly constant depth were the compression of the neoprene was fairly constant…

You not only have to use all the same lead weight to sink the buoyancy of your thermal protection, you are also carrying this small refrigerator size box on your back when you are out of the water and don’t forget to empty all the water before you get out.


I have one that I bought used. Some day I will rebuild the air source regulator and the dump valves. I would be amusing diving one again.


If you do a search on VintageScubaSupply.com you will find a lot of information about it... I am sure searat (John C. Ratliff) will post more about it later.

 

[AfterDark]

Sorry, but this is just wrong. Taking on water as ballast does not equate to adding weight. Lead weighs more than the volume of water it displaces and therefore adding lead to a diver makes him more negative. Water iswater and therefore has no effect on bouyancy. Submarine ballast tanks work because they are rigid and when the tanks are filled with air the sub is lighter than water and when they are filled with water the sub is heavier

If you had read the post you'd find that "I cast a twenty lb lead ingot for the weight compartment". I didn't state no lead I said I didn't need a 40lb weight belt. I didn't wear a weight belt at all. With a BC I needed a 40lbs weight belt to use my jetsuit a heavy neoprene drysuit that when inflated properly made a diver very positive. I don't think you know what a Nautlius was. It was similar to a ballast tank, a hard rigid plastic "tank". It worked the same way. A valve at the top allowed water to fill the tank compressed air forced it out a valve at the bottom. Would you like to buy it?

 

[AfterDark]

Scubapro, US Divers, and At-Pack, all had hard shell tank packs, some had internal wing BC and others like the US Divers were mostly cosmetic to capitalize on the Cousteau pack looks. But no one else (that I am aware of) ever made a rigid ballast pack like the Dacor Nautilus.

It is by no means automatic in buoyancy compensation. The diver adjusts the amount of air volume (and water) in the hard shell ballast containers and the only automatic feature is that the air will be added or vented to compensate for pressure changes. It doesn’t compensate for buoyancy changes due to the diver wetsuit compression or the tank getting lighter.

I have dove one in the past and it is amusing, but in general not very practical. The only advantage is that if you overweight yourself (for what ever inexcusable reason) you can compensate for the extra weight and the gas volume will stay constant.

I guess it could be a bit handy if you had a lot of neoprene and you were diving at a fairly constant depth were the compression of the neoprene was fairly constant…

You not only have to use all the same lead weight to sink the buoyancy of your thermal protection, you are also carrying this small refrigerator size box on your back when you are out of the water and don’t forget to empty all the water before you get out.


I have one that I bought used. Some day I will rebuild the air source regulator and the dump valves. I would be amusing diving one again.


If you do a search on VintageScubaSupply.com you will find a lot of information about it... I am sure searat (John C. Ratliff) will post more about it later.

Actually with the original inflator it was supposed to be automatic buoyancy control for slow or minor depths changes from deep to shallow. The inflator had a diaghram that was senstive to the ambient pressure changes. I think it would exple the water but the water had to be allowed into the tank manually. But I'm not positive its been awhile. +1 on the water left in the tank! As soon as you try to stand up your reminded!

 

[Mr.X]

Sorry, but this is just wrong. Taking on water as ballast does not equate to adding weight. Lead weighs more than the volume of water it displaces and therefore adding lead to a diver makes him more negative. Water iswater and therefore has no effect on bouyancy. Submarine ballast tanks work because they are rigid and when the tanks are filled with air the sub is lighter than water and when they are filled with water the sub is heavier

Sorry, but you are contradicting yourself. Adding water into the ballast tank of a submarine changes the "overall" density of the submarine. More dense = less water displaced by the fluid into which the object is immersed = sink. By adding water into the ballast of the Nautilus compensating device the unit/diver essentially becomes "heavier." In this case the mass of the object/volume is greater (heavier) than the surrounding seawater. Additionally, bouyancy is spelled "buoyancy."

The Dacor Nautilus was a concept ahead of the curve. When I first saw it as a kid I thought it was cool. I remember the At-Pac from the same era.

X

 

[INFIDELxx]

 

[WD8CDH]

On the few dives that I did with one what I noticed was you either had to weight your self very heavy and have not much water in the nautilus or you had to weigh your self more normally and have a lot of water in the unit. If you had a lot of water in the unit, you had to drain it out as you were getting out of the water or you had trouble getting up the ladder.

 

[AfterDark]

On the few dives that I did with one what I noticed was you either had to weight your self very heavy and have not much water in the nautilus or you had to weigh your self more normally and have a lot of water in the unit. If you had a lot of water in the unit, you had to drain it out as you were getting out of the water or you had trouble getting up the ladder.

Just have trouble getting up period!