Second Dacor Nautilus

[SeaRat]

Charlie,

The diaphragm is about 1/16 inch, or 0.2 cm thick. It is a thick one. Looking at it, the indentations on the top seem to exactly match the cap (#26 above, the diaphragm retaine). It appears that this washer may not have been used, which is why I could not find it. Is that possible?

The purge button on the second stage doesn't have a decal, but instead has a "DACOR" logo imbedded into the plastic. May be an older model.

John

[cnotthoff]

The thin stainless steel diaphragm washer should work for you. I don't have any Dacor hp diaphragms left. Most 1st stage diaphragms should fit. Measurement is the thickness of the washer.

IMG_1354 by Charlie will, on Flickr

Good Dives,
Charlie

[SeaRat]

I have posted this before, but it was some years ago. This is the Dacor catalog advertisement for the Dacor Nautilus CVS:



John

[nikeajax]

'Kay John, you know the joke about that image right? It's the same picture that Fred Roberts used on his paper-back second of "Basic Scuba", an' anywon who has that knowz both the Nautilus and Olympic ain't in that book, not never an' absolutely huh-uh!

JB

[diverdon]

Thanks for posting that, John. Which washer do you suppose I'll need? Obtaining a diaphragm shouldn't be difficult if it needs it, so long as the old one is included so I could take measurements off of it.

DF

[SeaRat]

Don, after looking at the diaphragm, I new feel that this regulator never had that washer. It is interesting to follow, but the diaphragm has marks on it from that cap, and not from the diaphragm washer.

John

[nikeajax]

DD, it really shouldn't matter which one you get, that's why they're adjustable Do get one though: the original Olympics had a fiber backing on the outside that allowed the cap to turn smoothly around to tighten down... Why get the washer: so that you don't need to track down an OEM-diaphragm! Yeah I know, if you don't use OEM parts this will surely happen...



BTW the critical area is on the other side of the diaphragm, not the water side...

JB

[SeaRat]

I dove my Dacor Nautilus' today, both of them. I have a new friend, a fellow named Bobby L., who wanted to dive with me. I found out that his only diving was the PADI SEAL Team diving, plus four other dives, but he has never been certified. We did one snorkel dive a week or so ago, and today we get in the water with my Nautilus CVSs. I have two, one complete (which Bobby used), and one without the regulator (which I used). Our dive was about 26 minutes, with a deepest depth of about 8 feet. But we successfully dove both systems. Here's some photos from the dive:


We carried the Nautilus CVS/regulator system to the river, then went back up to the car to don our wetsuits.


Once down, we sorted out the straps (note the Nautilus CVS floating in the water)...


...then learned how to open the water inlet valve and overpressure relief valve to flood the Nautilus. The idea was to get it flooded enough to stand vertical in the water, so donning would be easy.


Then we flooded the Nautilus CVS all the way to submerge and start swimming upstream.


We found the normal critters...


Looked under rocks and found small fishes and this crawdad. At one point a larger bass swam by, but I didn't get a photo of it.


Bobby did a great job with the underwater swim.


At the end of the dive, some 26 minutes after entering, we blew ballast and swam on our backs with the Nautilus CVS lifting us easily out of the water.


Bobby is swimming toward shore. The most hazardous part of our dive was actually getting down to the river from the path above, then exiting the river on the slick rocks and regaining the path through a passage that's about 75 degrees of climbing for fifteen or so feet. That's the workout for this dive.


Once back to the road, we walked to the car with a feeling of accomplishment. Bobby thought he had broken the neck strap, as it had come loose. I told him that "No, that was by design, so in an emergency you can give it to someone else." He thought the hole I had punched into the neck strap was a tear, but that's what allows the Pacer mouthpiece to pull free easily.

We were both diving a single steel 72, with the tank boot removed so that the weights could fall free in an emergency (16 pounds, held in the back of the Nautilus CVS near the cylinder).

I later texted Bobby, "By the way, you are now one of the only about four people in the USA to use the Dacor Nautilus CVS." His response, "Your kidding?" I could name them (Don, Karl). It was a good dive, cut a bit short by my need to get going to pick up my wife from her work.

John

[SeaRat]

I needed to go to the Clackamas River again today for several reasons. Bobby L. left his battery charge in my car Friday, so I wanted to get it back to him. Also, on a dive over a month ago I found a rescue knife in the river. Bobby bugged me about getting it back to the lifeguards, and I did pn't have time on Friday, so today after giving Bobby his charger I went to the lifeguards and told them I was going diving again. I also showed them the knife, told them I had found it about a month and a half ago, and asked whether one of the lifeguards had lost one? They said that yes, one had been lost, and asked me what make the knife was. It was a Gerber river survival knife. They found the owner, a lifeguard named Russel, and while I was diving texted him. He appreciated getting it back. And I appreciated Bobby bugging me about it.

I did dive my Nautilus CVS again today. I am really enjoying how the Nautilus is set up, and that so that all I need to do is put it on, grab my fins and mask/snorkel, and walk to the dive site. I wore the Nautilus without the regulator (the Nautilus normally has its own dive regulator that equalizes pressure between the hard shell tanks and the outside, ambient pressure so that the hard shell doesn't collapse when descending with the water control valve closed). But because of that, I simply kept the water control valve (WCV) open until I reached depth, added air, then closed the WCV. That was the last adjustment I needed to make to this buoyancy control device (BCD).

My purpose for this dive was to burn the rest of my tank from Friday (1100 psi at the start), and pick up trash. I got four beer cans, a part of a raft oar, a piece of plastic, and what looked like a MJ pipe. That actually asn't bad, as I have seen a lot worse there (someone else must also have pulled trash recently). I got about 22 minutes out of the tank before I was at 400 psi, where I terminated the dive and went on my snorkel. I also swam on my back with the ballast blown for the Nautilus CVS. That was easy swimming.

For equipment, I used my AIR I regulator for the first time this summer, and it performed very well. On Friday I used my Dacor Pacer Aero, and Bobby used my Pacer XL. Both performed very well, but I had problems with the routing of my gauge, and Bobby's gauge had frosted over on the lens for the upper range (I'll have to look into that). Bobby talked about having "dry mouth" from it too, and I told him about a 1970s device to moisturizer the air, but that device was not a commercial success. Mounted on my AIR I regulator was my Scubapro SPG/Depth Guage combo, and it was easily seen today.

I also used Force Fins on both dives, and they actually are working quite well. They have a much different kick, but are very easy to get on and off. The kick needs to be hard downstroke, and easy upstroke. I had a knee injury (now pretty much healed) on vacation, and so have been using my Force Fins regularly since.

John

[SeaRat]

Bobby and I were going to dive again last Saturday, as it appeared to be the last dive of the season (weather is changing here). But Bobby had suffered a fall, and was hurting, so I dove solo and then we had lunch together.

I dove my twin 45s, with my Hydro-Twin regulator. No Dacor CVS this dive, although I had it along in case Bobby could dive. I think we are out of the envelope for diving again this year, so that was the last opportunity for him to dive with me, unless the conditions change (I never say never).

My overall impression of the Dacor Nautilus CVS is that it actually is a pretty neat diving system, combining the scuba with a hard shell, and allowing us to be on the surface with about 50 pounds of positive buoyancy. Even a relative novice can swim on his back with his mouth out of the water. Because of a number of factors, we stayed in relatively calm, shallow water.



What we (Don and I, at least) have with the Dacor CVS is a system that is independent of an inflatable bladder, which provides buoyancy compensation that doesn't have to be fiddled with while ascending or descending as the buoyancy of the system doesn't change, and which frees up the front of the diver so that there is nothing there to hinder the dive. It is also relatively streamlined (the hard shell actually provides less resistance to the water than a back-mounted wing).

The down-side is that the weight system is a bit touchy (I've inadvertently dumped weights twice with this system), and the weight along the spine actually is a bit weird for CG (center-of-gravity) when rolling, which I must do often when diving in current. It takes a bit of "getting used to" experience, which is why Dacor required some two hours of pool training whenever they sold a unit.

John

[SeaRat]

Finally, finally we got wet, and had a successful dive, only my fourth attempt to dive this spring/summer. We, Marion and me, dove at High Rocks on the Clackamas River, my favorite dive spot. Marion dove a single HP rank and Aqualung single hose regulator, with a dry suit and modern BCD. I dove my Dacor Nautilus CVS, a wet suit, 1980s Force Fins and the SeawiscopeEY on my mask. I also had a AL80 on the Nautilus CVS, as that is what it was designed for. I had no snorkel for this dive, and usually want one but it was on my helmet, which I left home. I had it hydroed last winter, exp citing a lot of diving this summer. Well, the dives didn't happen.

As this dive started, I told Marion to wait just a minute because I needed to flood the unit. With the unit flooded, we headed toward the bottom. I needed to purge a bit more air out of the unit, as we were in shallow water 8-10 feet deep. I had the dive float too. Marion pointed out the green freshwater sponge, and a few minutes later I found a crack in the bottom with a number of lead sinkers. I recovered the,pm, first just by picking them up and then there were two more I needed to pry out with my knife.

I paid close attention to my dive float line, ensuring I had enough line out to the surface, but not too much line as I didn't want us to get tangled in the line. Then, Marion got my attention and pointed up; I had drifted with the current under a log, and of course the float was above. So I swam hard against the current and gathered the line so we could swim over the submerge log.

Then we swam to the high rocks area where people cliff jump about 20 feet into the river. Ther was another, new tree in the water, creating a jump hazard. There were also a lot of small fish, Chinook salmon smolt, I think. Just before, we had seen a School of larger shad, I think.

As we drifted in the current, Marion found a bracelet and a beautiful device (which he later lost) which was a marijuana pipe. Then I foumpnd a $5 bill floating over the bottom. We passed under the pedestrian/bicycle bridge,mthen headed toward the shore to our right, with the drift of the current, when we hit the river bank we were near our takeout point. Upon surfacing, we interrupted two families picnicking on the beach. They had questions about what we were seeing and finding, and we got to the rocky shore.

Exiting is always a challenge, as the rocks are very slippery. We took our time, and got out. I had to "blow npballast" out of the Nautilus CVS to get lighter, and stood up. Walking up the rocky embankment was the main workout of the day, and we got back to our wars with a rather long walk in full gear. Total dive time was 38 minutes, with a greatest depth of 25 feet. The Nautilus CVS unit worked very well, and I enjoyed drifting along with neutral buoyancy (coincidentally the name of a book I'm reading).

Great dive!!! Finally, finally, we got wet with an enjoyable dive.

John

IMG_1622 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
Marion, after the dive, is getting out of his dry suit.

IMG_1627 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
Me, after the dive, getting out of my gear.

IMG_1628 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
My Dacor Nautilus CVS in the back of my Honda Pilot. Note the "new" twin 72s beside the Nautilus CVS.

[SeaRat]

Sometimes it pays to clean up the garage. Today, I was not only sweeping the garage floor, but decided to get rid of some real junk. So I began pulling thing away from under the window, which had become a storage area for some of my old diving gear, and I looked in the back and guess what? I saw a familiar grey metal object that I thought I had lost--the weight mold for my Dacor Nautilus CVS! I now have it, and so can mold some more weights for my second Nautilus, the one without the regulator. I've been using old weight belt weights for that one for a while.

IMG_2796 by John Ratliff, on Flickr

John