Breakwater SCUBA Diving Team

 

Ed Sherman

Ted Sauvain

Blume

Keat Pruszenski

Any others?

 

WCSC volunteers never perform any sort of diving or underwater work after volunteering for a Breakwater workday. Only the certified dive team works underwater. Volunteers work on the surface in teams of fellow members. The following information is printed in case you are interested. 

 

The Breakwater must stay afloat to protect the harbor (see breakwater History on the Breakwater Project link).  Water depth reaches about forty feet beneath the walls of Michelin tires and the visibility shrinks to about two feet. The bottom composition is silt which is a mixture of sand, red mud and decayed organic matter (darkish brown) which feels like chocolate pudding. Colors are almost indistinguishable at forty feet in Hartwell. However, in the Caribbean, ocean water is crystal clear and the bottom and colors can be seen from eighty feet.

 

All the tires in each breakwater wall are banded together with 1/2" X 4" rubber conveyor belting in the same geometric formations to form sections. Each tire in each geometric section floats vertically on its own, buoyed by an air pocket in the crown and aided by sections of foam swim noodles which WCSC surface volunteers have stuffed into the crowns -- one by one. The geometric sections are banded together to form the great walls. There is a north wall, closest to the clubhouse, and a south wall outboard. Each wall is attached to a steel-frame floating on capsulated Styrofoam which was designed by Ronnie Ashmore, Breakwater Project Leader. Each frame is connected to a large mooring anchor on the bottom by more conveyor belting.

 

Sometimes a few tires begin to loose their air pocket or noodles and they begin to sink. The weight of the sunken, underwater tires begin to drag down the entire section and if surface maintenance (filling with air from a compressor) is not performed, the entire wall will sink. As a tire sinks below the surface, the deeper it goes the lower the volume of air in the crown (Boyles Law). When the entire wall sinks it twists and distorts until reaching the bottom in a massive wall of algae-covered rubber. 

 

The wall is resurrected by the WCSC Breakwater Divers who carry long, rubber hoses to the sunken tires. The rubber hoses are connected to a compressor on the work barge on the surface. Air is pumped from the compressor through the hose while diver inserts the hose in the crown of each tire until bubbles flow from the rim. The process takes hours as the divers move from tire to tire.

 

After hours of work, the sections seem to pulsate, containing an enormous buoyant energy and begin trying to ascend a millimeter at a time. As the tires start to rise the volume of air in the crowns begins to expand according to Boyles Law which states a given volume of air will increase as pressure (water depth) decreases. Therefore the higher the section rises, the greater volume of air in the crowns and the more it wants to pulsate and ascend, and the faster it wants to rise because of volume increases during  ascent until all the tires are on the surface once again. As the tires rise and the volume in the crowns increases, divers are given a show of many bubbles escaping the crowns via the rims. This is diver talk but we thought you may be interested.

 

As the wall reaches the surface, there are always a number of tires which have no air in the crowns and were dragged to the surface by the great buoyant energy of the entire wall. Once most of the wall is floating, WCSC surface volunteers use long, PVC pipes connected to the compressor to reach and inflate the stragglers by never having to get in the water.

 

Consider volunteering for a Breakwater workday because of Ronnie Ashmore’s sense of humor and and his leadership ability make the time fun and rewarding.

 

Your friendly Breakwater Divers

Certified SCUBA divers can recover anything dropped overboard from docks and boats. A SCUBA diver  can recover coins, jewelry, watches, anchors, fishing poles, tools, glasses, wallets, cell phones, sailboat parts, deck chairs, knives and the most frequently dropped item...car keys.

 

Don’t hesitate to round up a Breakwater diver at WCSC if you loose anything overboard. When something valuable is dropped, don’t panic. Remain clam and make a mental note of the exact spot the item entered the water. When the diver arrives, you will be asked to tie a brick to a small line and lower the brick exactly on top of the item. Good idea to mark the spot in this manner immediately after the drop so the diver has a reference.

 

The Breakwater is floating for the safety of your dock or mooring, your boat and for you. Please volunteer when the next Breakwater workday is announced.

 

Thank you.

Your WCSC Breakwater Dive Team