Dive, don't drive: State firm selling personal submarines

It used to be that submarines were the exclusive province of military superpowers, James Bond and Jacques Cousteau.

Now comes a company in Shelton, Mason County, that is marketing the sleek steel structures to superrich civilians, figuring that if private rocket flights to outer space that won't launch for years are already being booked at $98,000 a seat, some adventurous souls will spring for their own submarines.

And yes, they come in yellow.

In fact, Olympic Submarine Technologies will paint your personal submarine any color you want - if you've got $300,000 for a basic sub or more than $14 million for the 105-foot luxury model that's all tricked out with leather seats, stereo sound and a wet bar.

So far, the few buyers to show interest have been extremely rich men - Middle East oil magnates and the like - and no one has committed to purchasing.

But the company said it expects to close a deal soon with a man it would identify only as an American businessman.

At this point, Olympic's subs exist only in computer images and drawings.

Assembly would begin only once a deal is sealed.

"The market is there," said Olympic's marketing director, Jim Carnahan, though he conceded research shows it's small, only about 100,000 extremely wealthy folk on a planet of more than 6 billion.

A subsidiary of the larger Shelton-based Olympic Tool and Engineering, Olympic Submarine is not the first to enter the private-submarine market.

Several U.S. companies already build large tourist submarines used in places such as Hawaii and Puerto Rico. They and other companies have tried, with limited success, to sell luxury submarines to individuals.

But Andrew Boutin, an industry consultant who works for Olympic Submarine, said Olympic is well-positioned to build and deliver the products, assuming it can find buyers.

"As far as submarines go, they're a start-up," Boutin said.

"But they've assembled an engineering staff that has decades of experience in the submersible industry. And I think their strongest point is their manufacturing capabilities," he said.

Olympic Tool and Engineering - whose 50,000-square-foot fabrication facility and 12,000-square-foot machine shop would be used to manufacture the subs - has manufactured nuclear-waste-containment vessels for Hanford, parts for Navy submarines and components of airplanes.

Now, with personal submarines, it is trying to branch out.

"We had been looking around for our own product line," said Mike Laffey, sales manager for Olympic Tool and Engineering.

"You know, you got your machines, you got welding and fabrication, all you need is a product."

As for selling the superexpensive vessels, Olympic knows there are people who can be persuaded to spend money on such luxuries.

Virginia-based Space Adventures has managed to make a product out of pricey seats on its still-hypothetical flights to outer space. Though the flights won't launch for three to five years, more than 100 seats have been sold.

The designs for Olympic's subs were created by a Florida-based company that Olympic is acquiring.

They include a 20-foot model, a 40-foot model and a deluxe 105-foot model, stocked with sonar, radar, leather seats and all the modern accouterments needed to probe ocean depths or to simply experience The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" dream: sailing up to the sun, finding the sea of green, living beneath the waves.

"On Earth today, there is no place you can stand where someone has not already stood," a baritone-voiced man intones on Olympic's promotional video for the 105-foot model. "There is no vista you can consider that has not already been studied by another."

Then he adds: "But, beneath the sea there are countless such places, places upon which no human eye has ever gazed."

It's this type of pitch that Carnahan thinks will win over the superwealthy.

Launching a personal sub would be simpler than paying for it. There's little regulatory red-tape regarding personal submarines.

"There's no FAA, for instance," said Carnahan.

So what do you do once you've got one?

"Here's what you would do with it," said Carnahan. "With the Deep Ranger, you would tow it behind or on top of your yacht."

That's a reference to the 20-foot sub, which could hold three people, descend 200 feet below the surface, reach a top speed of about 5 mph and cruise 10 miles before its electric-propulsion system needed to be recharged.

So you steer your sub-toting yacht into an auspicious area, Carnahan said, "put (the sub) in the water, climb in, go down, and look around a bit."

It steers just like an airplane.

"You just fly around down there and go look at whatever you want to look at," Carnahan said.

Then there is the 105-footer - the Olympic 105 - whose interior design is "a delightful cross between the cabin of the space shuttle and an old English gentlemen's club," according to Olympic's promotional video.

It has exterior lights to brighten up the murky depths of, say, Puget Sound. It has staterooms, a bathroom, a diver lock-out chamber for those who want the equivalent of an undersea spacewalk. And it has a forward viewing area with three large windows.

"You'll sit looking out of those things with really comfortable, deep plush leather chairs," Carnahan said. And of course there will be air-conditioning, a stereo system and the wet bar.

The Coast Guard doesn't have rules regarding the operation of private submarines, said Jackie Stagliano, chief of operations for the Coast Guard marine safety office, Puget Sound.

"It's absolutely too new," she said.

The Coast Guard inspects submarines used by tour companies "top to bottom," Stagliano said. But those are mostly in tropical-vacation lands.

All of Olympic's subs would be inspected and certified by the American Bureau of Shipping, Carnahan said. They would come with reserve oxygen supplies, radio equipment and radar buoys that rescuers could spot in an emergency. And included in the price of a sub is an in-depth training course.

"This company has already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in this project," Carnahan said. "We are very close to closing on about four or five deals of all sizes. This is extremely serious. There's an incredible number of wealthy individuals in the world."

Eli Sanders' phone message number is 206-748-5815. His e-mail address is esanders@seattletimes.com