New Wreck Coming

[Johnoly]

What’s their angle?

It will absolutely ( and already has) driven tourism to Okaloosa County. The economic benefit is huge from visitor spending and sales tax receipts cause tourist spend money. They have sunk several wrecks over the past several years and have the data to show it has increase county revenue. Just a quick google search has really put the county on the news wires and even more coverage to come. Combined with their beaches and realestate, it will pay off nicely. But it's a ton of work to get it done.

 

[SloopCamotop]

I read at least one funnel is coming off for the museum. It would make sense to remove both if it helps placement, along with radar mount, but I’m obviously about as uninformed about the nuances of this deal as one can be

Lots of time and decisions to be made between now and the day it is sunk, based on what I have read about the process for others. I presume there are many delays still to be encountered, and twists in the plot.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I read at least one funnel is coming off for the museum. It would make sense to remove both if it helps placement, along with radar mount, but I’m obviously about as uninformed about the nuances of this deal as one can be

Lots of time and decisions to be made between now and the day it is sunk, based on what I have read about the process for others. I presume there are many delays still to be encountered, and twists in the plot.

You mention NC which I think is a great reference. I don't believe any of the charter operators on the Panhandle have those large, very nice vessels like Discovery and Olympus have. I could be wrong and if so, I'd love to know if there are any. But that is what I meant when I said that I'm not sure there are currently any vessels in Destin that can make that +-20 mile run out and back with a large enough group of divers to make it profitable.

 

[Pi_grim]

I´m looking forward to diving it and, as mentioned above, I´ve heard they are going to lower the funnels to help recreational divers access the site. The panhandle of Florida would be a more attractive diving vacation destination but at more than $70 a tank (over $100 for the Oriskany) with no tanks, taxes, or gear included, these sites will be a one and done for me. Much more cost effective to spend the night in Pensacola and drive to the SE Florida area.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I´m looking forward to diving it and, as mentioned above, I´ve heard they are going to lower the funnels to help recreational divers access the site. The panhandle of Florida would be a more attractive diving vacation destination but at more than $70 a tank (over $100 for the Oriskany) with no tanks, taxes, or gear included, these sites will be a one and done for me. Much more cost effective to spend the night in Pensacola and drive to the SE Florida area.

It is definitely closer for many folks than South FL or the Keys. Florida is a LONG state. Even though I'm in state, I'm every bit of 9-10 hours from Destin/Pensacola. I can get to Pompano Beach in 2 hrs, Key Largo in 3 hrs and Key West in 6 hrs. When I want a "big boy wreck dive", I can hit the deeper wrecks off of Pompano, or the SG or the Vandenberg. I can't see myself driving up to the panhandle to dive the SSUS, although it does have the potential to be a very cool dive!

 

[oldschool45]

I lived in Pensacola for a few years (graduated from UWF). The only diving I did there was some of the stuff dropped in Pensacola Bay by the Naval Air Station and a little east to Vortex Spring. There really is no beach diving there and anything you see on the bottom that attracks marine life is stuff humans put there; old bridges, piers and ships. I was going to take my wife there this Spring for some practice before getting her AOW but Springtime on the Gulf is too dicy weather wise. Now in the future would I rather take a long weekend drive there for refresh dives or hit midwest quaries? Maybe.
I would like to dive the Oriskany probably a one and done as has been mentioned. But unless they find a way to sink the SSUS closer in and a bit shallower it will likely be a "one and done" too.

 

[SloopCamotop]

I was in Gulf Shores for an in-law family vacation 10 years ago or so. Oriskany seems more like a tech dive than anything else, so we didn't bother with visiting it just to tool around the upper bridges. Instead we visited an inshore pile of broken concrete that used to be a roadway bridge, in lime green water. Breathtaking. At that point we wrote the entire area off as a bogus dive destination and haven’t been back since.

Oh well. “Hello, Horizon? …..”

 

[NothingClever]

It is definitely closer for many folks than South FL or the Keys. Florida is a LONG state. Even though I'm in state, I'm every bit of 9-10 hours from Destin/Pensacola. I can get to Pompano Beach in 2 hrs, Key Largo in 3 hrs and Key West in 6 hrs. When I want a "big boy wreck dive", I can hit the deeper wrecks off of Pompano, or the SG or the Vandenberg. I can't see myself driving up to the panhandle to dive the SSUS, although it does have the potential to be a very cool dive!

You'd think in Tampa I have it made to scoot up to the Panhandle.

I planned three dives to the Oriskany with some heavyweights in the dive industry and all three times we were weathered out.

I can get on the Hydro Atlantic with Trimix and knock out a first class, technical wreck dive with DPV without any drama and be back home in Tampa to grill steaks in the evening.

Pensacola and the Orsikany? Not so much.

 

[LI-er]

All the time and money invested in this new wreck would have been better spent on sinking a few smaller wrecks that could have been placed closer to shore thus mitigating most of the problems mentioned on this thread.

Even better would be to sink them in line with the currents and create a wreck trek as was done elsewhere.

The inconvenient location in the panhandle, the long expensive boat ride and high possibility of getting canceled keeps it off my bucket list and it's fair to say my opinion is shared by countless divers.

 

[SloopCamotop]

I think I’m getting the point. This is nothing like the convenience of the keys and $38 a tank. I heard it’s like a 2 hr ride to get that far? I had no idea. What a bummer. A waste of a good ship, really.