SADKO - Tourist Submarine

Frequently Asked Question On The Underwater Tours

What is a tourist submarine?
Is it safe?
What are the factors influencing safety?
How deeply can the submarine dives?
What is the air pressure inside the cabin?
Why the ticket is relatively expensive?
How does the air inside the submarine stay fresh during the excursion?
How does the submarine sail?

1. What is a tourist submarine?

A tourist submarine is one atmosphere undersea vessel that is designed to take passengers on underwater excursions. For this observation purposes, tourist submarines have transparent portholes for external viewing. The term "one atmosphere" means that the pressure inside the submarine never varies from sea level regardless of operating depth. Typically, dives on a tourist submarine are not more than one hour in duration and operating depths vary between 20 to 80 m.

2. Is it safe?

The answer, in a word, is "very". Today, you can take a trip on one of over 40 tourist submarines in the world. This fleet of tourist submersibles has carried over 6 million people around the globe during almost thirty years of its history, all in superior comfort and safety. The result - the tourist submarine industry has a perfect safety record, without a single serious injury to any passenger.

3. What are the factors influencing safety?

Assurance of submersible safety begins with the design process. Literally thousands of labour hours are required and hundreds of drawings are generated. Detailed calculations are required in any area of the design. All materials to be used during construction must be certified and specified beforehand. When the design is finally complete it will be exhaustively analyzed by the engineers of the regulatory agency and classification society, and those plans that are satisfactory will be approved. Once all plans have been authorized, construction may commence. Society surveyors are on hand for the construction process. They assure the quality of the materials and the construction techniques. They monitor and witness all the production process. Inspectors also verify the installation and testing of mechanical and electrical systems, check safety devices and examine critical dimensions. The submarines are equipped with several pumps, fire fighting systems and advanced life support system. The craft is in constant contact with the surface support vessel via the underwater sonar communication system, or when surfaced, with a VHF radio. In a brief article it is impossible to describe all the safety features in a contemporary passenger submarine. But the main point is that the industry has a perfect safety record and so, classified passenger submarines are statistically the safest form of transportation in the world today.

4. How deeply can the submarine dives?

Our submarine is approved to dive in up to 40 meters. This is the optimum depth, which allows perfect undersea viewing. On another hand, the depths around Zenobia shipwreck are about 40 meters. So that is no chance to test the sea deeper at the intended dive site.

5. What is the air pressure inside the cabin?

During a dive, the air inside the pressure hull remains at the standard atmospheric surface pressure, regardless of the submarine's depth. So unlike a Scuba diver, who must be concerned about pressure forced physiological effects, a submarine passenger can dive deeper, and stay submerged for as long as possible.

6. Why the ticket is relatively expensive?

The design and construction of the tourist submarines, which might cost a few million U.S. dollars, is relatively complex, so this attraction becomes comparatively expensive. But apart from the Scuba diving with the cost of a course up to three hundred dollars and at least one week of hard training this is relatively inexpensive and easy approach to underwater world, not to mention the fact that a submarine dive is the only one chance for children or for people in years and disabled individuals. Price for the ticket to sub excursion varies for different destinations in the world but mainly ranges between 65 to 100 U.S. dollars. Click here to see our prices.

7. How does the air inside the submarine stay fresh during the excursion?

The submarine has a sophisticated central air conditioning and life support system. Since the typical undersea excursion lasts for one hour, the air supply is enough for all the 43 people on board. The air is also dehumidified and cooled if needed by air conditioning system. There is also an instrument on board, which controls a quality of the air inside the cabin. For the safety reasons the submarine is extra equipped with the air scrubbing system - "oxygen generator". So the carbon dioxide respired during breathing might be scrubbed if it is necessary out of the air by the special granular chemical contained in the main scrubbing system.

8. How does the submarine sail?

While surfaced, the submarine acts very much like a normal boat, although the submarine is heavier and has a lower profile. Cruising speed is approximately 3-4 knots on the surface. When the submarine is surfaced, the captain controls the vessel from inside the cabin in the superstructure (deck house). From here, he has an excellent view and access to all the necessary instrumentation for control, navigation and VHF radio communication. When it is time to dive, the pilots closes the hutches and takes necessary pre-checks. Then, they go below to the pilot's compartment located in the bow of the submarine in front of the main lounge. From there pilots have an excellent view of the underwater environment through a wide front porthole. Cruising speed submerged is about 0.5 knot usually. The submarine is always accompanied by a surface escort boat, which maintains constant contact with the submarine during the dive via underwater sonar communication system (underwater telephone). During undersea operations a surface officer aboard escort vessel tracks the submarine location and makes sure that there are no vessel traffic conflicts when the submarine surfaces.