Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Dive Boats category. Noteworthy entries are filed topmost.
Dive Eclipse - Castletown, Portland, Dorset
When Dive Eclipse moved from Selsey to Weymouth the boat changed too. Out went Eclipse, a fast RIB with ladders, benches and a hard wheelhouse, and in came what was Top Gun, of Breakwater Dive Centre. Given the competition amongst hardboats, and the generally high quality of boat in the Weymouth area, this was probably a good move.
What didn’t change was the skipper. Dave Applin runs Eclipse and as a diver himself knows what divers want. You always get a good safety briefing and a thorough dive site briefing when Dave is at the helm. You can also be sure that the shot is in the wreck and is staying there. One of his tenents is that you have paid to get on the wreck and he will put you on it. That means that the shot is always hard into wreckage, and if there is a current and you need to haul on the shot there is no fear that you will get to the bottom to find a bouncing shot and seabed.
Top Gun itself is fast, with benches for 12 and a diver lift. The benches themselves are noce and deep, but the layout is a little odd, although this doesn’t detract from the usage. Coffee or instant soup are provided post dive.
As with all of the boats out of Breakwater a logging sysem is used, with a max expected duration given and you are expected to stick to this. You also give a description of you gear so that you can be identified and you are logged into and out of the water. This little extra safety feature enhances the confidence you feel in the operation.
I don’t know what next year (2007) will bring in terms of boats or location for Eclipse, but I will be there to try it out, whatever it is!
X-Dream - Weymouth, Dorset
X-Dream, skippered by Paul Pike, is a typical south coast dive boat. It is a 38′ Evolution, with a diver lift to the rear, and benches each side. the benches are a cut above the rest, with a rear gap to stop unbooted twins sliding - but do be aware that if you dive an inverted rig a little block of wood may be needed to stop your valve cage catching.
Paul is a very quite, reserved, but extremely competent and helpful skipper. He also serves the best soups in Britain - perfect for the cold, windy SI’s. I would thoroughly recommend the mulligatawny.
The Evolutions do rock a bit, but they seem to make up for it with speed and X-Dream is no exception. A fast, if bumpy ride out to site is better than wallowing out for ages, for those of us with a dispotion to the mal-de-mer.
Loading is a bit of a pain - you need to park on the road by the Old Harbour, dump your kit and then move the car to the car park by the council offices. then transport your gear down the ramp and onto the pontoon on which X-Dream is berthed. It can take a bit of juggling to unlaod at the end of a weekend as 6 cars try ot get one of the few loading spots. It does mean that X-Dream is secure behind the locked harbour gates at night, however. Paul can also drop you right by Old Harbour Divers for a gas fill, if he needs fuel from the pontoon there. If he does stop off, be ready to get your cylinders off prpnto as he can only pause long enough to fill up. Buy an ice-cream from the dive shop whilst you are there too - they are great.
Cornish Pussy - St Keverne, Cornwall
Cornish Pussy is a new catamaran (launched 2006) run by Gary Fox of Dive Action. It runs around the Lizard, on the south coast of Cornwall, and has been designed from scratch as a dive vessel.
I booked it for a weekend’s diving for myself and a group of friends in August 2006. At that point it was still bedding in, but it was already showing it was a great dive platform. The benches are stainless tubing arranged either side of a cetnral spine with room elow for boxes or bags, and have a small gap down the back to ensure that bootless twinsets don’t slide forwards. there is enough room for 12 twinsetted divers, and spare seats that jut under the canopy for “dry” seating. At the moment there is only a short hard canopy, which covers some dry storage and camera shelving, and the tea & coffee making facility - hot water always on tap for a brew, lovely! Gary has plans to add soft cover to increase the dry area, or shade, for the varying climes of Cornwall.
The transom has two door cur into it. One leads onto the diver lift, which drops to a good depth below the waterline, and the other is free onto a small platform. This arrangement means buddy pairs can enter the water togehter - one from each door, and stops the unlucky second always having the longer swim for the shot, or risking landing on the first.
As a cat the rear deck space is plentiful, and the boat appeared to be nicely stable. As we dived in the calm waters in the lee of the Lizard it is difficult to tell how this translates in higher seas. We also didin’t get the opportunity to see how fast she went, but given that Gary is thinking of taking her on long weekend jaunts next season, I suspect she does have some “oomph”!
Gary is a great skipper. He dives the waters that he drops you in on and knows exactly what you will expect to see. Wrecks are his thing, but he will talk squidgy stuff with you if you demand it! His bluff Yorkshire style could offend the sensitive flowers, but don’t mistake it for rudeness - he is a gentleman….even if he wouldn’t admit it!
Plans for the future include onboard compressors - possibly even nitrox and trimix!