FOR SUB HOBBYISTS, SMUGGLERS' CRAFT IS MERELY SUBPAR

A Drug Bust Near Costa Rica Captivates Underworld of Garage Tinkerers

This month, the Coast Guard detained four men who were allegedly
trying to smuggle 3.5 tons of cocaine meant for the U.S. News
accounts of the Nov. 16 bust, about 90 miles southwest of Costa Rica,
described their unusual vessel as a 50-foot homemade fiberglass submarine.

That caught the attention of a busy netherworld of hobbyists who
build submarines in their garages.

"The captured drug-sub appears to be amateurish in construction and
not nearly as seaworthy as the subs we have seen, designed and
built," said Jon Wallace, a software engineer for Hewlett-Packard in
Weare, N.H. In 1996 he cofounded the Personal Submersibles
Organization, which now counts about 13,000 visitors per month to its
Web site, psubs.org.

"Semi-submersible at best," sniffed another critic in a posting on
the group's site.

After reading reports and seeing photographs of the captured vessel,
hobbyists concluded that the gray drug craft was crudely constructed
and not a serious attempt at building a submarine. Some said it was
more a boat meant to blend into the water, skim just below the
surface, travel long distances and avoid radar detection. A giveaway
was that it was made of fiberglass -- which is generally not a good
material for building a submersible vessel, they say. It also had a
squarish design rather than the cylindrical shape required to
withstand pressure and stress.

Law-enforcement agencies from Colombia to California are increasingly
worried about drug-stuffed submarines slinking along beneath the
seas. "We are out there actively searching for these," says Capt.
Thomas Cullen, chief of response for the U.S. Coast Guard 11th
District based in Alameda, Calif., which oversaw the boarding and
seizing of the vessel off Costa Rica. It was the first manned
sub-like vehicle seized by the U.S., according to Capt. Cullen.
Authorities in Colombia have seized a couple of homemade subs in the
past two years.

Costa Rican authorities say that the vessel seized this month was
gasoline-powered, and that it traveled just below the surface with
the crew using snorkel-type tubes to breathe. "Certainly these guys
are not PSUBS regulars. Gasoline engines in a submersible are
no-nos," wrote Ray Keefer, 45 years old, a computer test engineer in
Gaston, Ore., and co-founder of the group. Gasoline engines would be
dangerous in a submarine. The Coast Guard says its reports indicate
the seized craft had a diesel engine.

Mr. Keefer and others believe the captured vessel should more
accurately be called a "David boat," a type of torpedo boat used
during the Civil War that operated mostly underwater with only its
smokestack and a few inches of hull visible above the surface.
"Mostly underwater but not a submersible," he wrote.

James Huffman, 28, a warehouse laborer in Tacoma, Wash., and
submarine history buff who first got interested in submarines while
playing the "Up Periscope!" computer game in eighth grade, says the
craft reminded him of the gasoline- and battery-powered USS Holland
from around 1900, the U.S. Navy's first commissioned submarine.

Man's fascination with exploring the underwater world dates back at
least to Alexander the Great, who according to legend descended
beneath the waves in some kind of glass globe. Experimentation with
underwater craft continued in the 1500s through the 1700s.

In more recent history, sub-like craft were first used militarily in
the U.S. during the Revolutionary War. Modern diesel and
battery-powered designs appeared during the two World Wars, and in
1954, the era of true submarines that can stay submerged for long
periods emerged with the nuclear-powered USS Nautilus.

Hobbyists have been building homemade subs for years with the help of
plans in magazines like Popular Mechanics and designs from men like
former naval submarine captain George Kittredge, whom some hobbyists
consider the founder of the homemade-sub craft. The advent of the
Internet brought sub fans together and let them share designs and tips.

Enthusiasts liken their submarine-building work, which can cost
$15,000 or more and take many years, to building an airplane or a
boat from scratch. While it is possible to buy design plans, no
catalogs exist for parts. Builders have to cook them up at home. For
prices ranging from about $70,000 to $1 million or more, companies
like U.S. Submarines Inc. and Netherlands-based U-Boat Worx offer
ready-made submarines that are popular with yacht owners looking for
another toy.

Some sub enthusiasts question why smugglers would use a submarine in
the first place since subs are slow and must surface. "I could see
somebody towing a submersible below a cargo ship," wrote one on the
psubs.org Web site and electronic mailing list. George Slaterpryce,
28, a software engineer in Ocala, Fla., suggested that "a true
smuggling submarine" would "have to be something that cruises at 60
feet or so (just deep enough not to be easily noticed)," be
constructed of lightweight materials and powered by a relatively
silent motor and have enough air for days of submersion.

Members of the Personal Submersibles Organization recognize that the
submersibles they build are not technically submarines, according to
some definitions. Most homemade-sub hobbyists build one- and
two-passenger steel subs that resemble 10-foot-to 15-foot-long
propane tanks in shape with view ports. These subs are called 1ATMs,
or 1 atmosphere subs, because they, like military subs, maintain
basically the same air pressure inside as at sea level. Depending on
the design, 1ATMs can descend 350 feet or more, travel at speeds up
to about five miles an hour and stay underwater for at least an hour.

Alec Smyth, 42, of Alexandria, Va., a director of client services at
software company Compuware Corp., has two subs of his own, one that
descends to 250 feet and the other, still in construction, to 700
feet. He says sub hobbyists have one thing in common: "We all watched
way too many Cousteau movies as kids."