Tow Boards or Dive Planes

[John C. Ratliff]

Believe it or not, this is one of those trivia facets of diving that has been lost to current divers. The book, dive, the complete book of scuba diving by Rick and Barbara Currier (1956) has a complete description of how to make a towed sled, and also boards, as I recall (I'm at work right now, and cannot look it up). I made one in my teens for search and rescue work (Explorer Scouts), and used one on a search for a helicopter off a small Ryuku Island in 1969. They work extremely well for covering large areas, but you have to watch out. We were towing one team of divers, when they came up over a coral head and almost planed directly into a large shark. They surfaced, gave the distress signal, then started hand-over-hand up the tow line to the boat to get out of the water. Afterwards, my good friend at the time deadpaned, "I don't like this. It's like trolling for sharks, and we're the bait." But seriously, it is a great way to cover large areas at about 2 knots. You can find that book at the Vintage Scuba Supply website, and I would highly recommend it as it has a lot of home-made items that we don't see anymore:

http://www.vintagescubasupply.com/books.html

SeaRat

 

[Nemrod]

I also made and used one. It was plywood with two paddles. You cannot go very fast, maybe three to five MPH max. If you think your going to zoom around at 20 MPH forget it. They have limited use, mostly bang you into everything. I suppose there is a place for everything, just never found one for a sled. Maximum useable depth --practical--is about 30 feet. The scope on the tow line needs to be about five to one. That means for 30 feet you need 150 feet of line out. Shorter line limits manuverability and makes the thing react faster too.

Yeah, this is what they make scooters for. N

 

[Nemrod]

I also made and used one. It was plywood with two paddles. You cannot go very fast, maybe three to five MPH max. If you think your going to zoom around at 20 MPH forget it. They have limited use, mostly bang you into everything. I suppose there is a place for everything, just never found one for a sled. Maximum useable depth --practical--is about 30 feet. The scope on the tow line needs to be about five to one. That means for 30 feet you need 150 feet of line out. Shorter line limits manuverability and makes the thing react faster too.

Yeah, this is what they make scooters for. N

 

[PalauDiver]

I have used one, both with and without scuba. The rapid depth changes that were possible worried me with scuba. Without scuba is was more fun to me, no extra drag from the tank and hoses, and a little extra speed, I was much more manuverable underwater, albeit for a minute at a time.

 

[bgr]

Sounds intriguing, but I have trouble visualizing the design. Any photos? It sounds like snorkeling could be more fun and safer if you just want to play around, change depths, breach, etc. I suspect you could stay down quite a while since you weren't doing much exertion.

 

[Gary D.]

Before the photo's went down I had one on there. We use it when we need it to search a large area. With my design if you have a 100' tow line you can get 100' of depth.

A word of caution with any tow sled. You can shoot to the surface like a rocket if your not careful.

Gary D.