By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor
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Wednesday 5th December 2001 |
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Managing director, Dr Philip Mladenov, says the service was able to get underway after receiving a classification from the American Bureau of Shipping for its first deep-dive submarine, the Antipodes. The vessel has been classed as an A1 Tourist Submersible.
"This is a very exciting milestone for the company. We are extremely pleased the project, which has been three years in the planning, is now to become commercially operative," says Dr Mladenov.
"The Antipodes is one of just a handful of deep diving submarines in the world to be classed by ABS for tourism as well as research."
The Antipodes can carry four passengers per dive and the company plans to operate four dives daily in December, increasing to seven to meet expected demand in the New Year.
The dives will be to about 100 metres (330 feet), more than three times as deep as most scuba divers can go.
"There is strong demand for seats both locally and overseas. People are intrigued by the unique opportunity of experiencing a ride in a true deep diving submarine," says Dr Mladenov.
Submarines Australasia also has resource consents to operate submarines in Lake Wakatipu and that project is expected to be operating by 2003.
Dr Mladenov also says the company's Australasia's design programme for "next generation" deep dive submarines is well underway with a visit by its US-based consulting engineer planned for early next year.
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