Euronaut; The Homemade Submarine

Every now and then we are amazed by the commitment some people show and by how much they are dedicated to their line of work. For what may seem boring and of no use to others may very well be something that certain people take pleasure in doing. Let’s just dive into the topic of the day; a homemade submarine. This one qualifies to be one of the largest and well, most, sophisticated homemade submarine on earth. The submarine is known as ‘Euronaut’ and has been built by a team which comprises of engineers and technicians who worked with Carsten Standfuss, a German Naval Architect. Moving onto specifications of this submarine; it is 16 meters in length and has a surfaced displacement of about 60 tons. Euronaut has a working depth of 250 meters. This next set of information will do justice to our opening lines; the design alone of this project took a span of twelve years to complete and the next twelve years were spent executing it mostly on weekends and holidays during leisure time.

The key idea behind the construction of this homemade submarine was to use it for wreck diving and investigations that are carried out underground. The project was developed as a research vessel and diver support on a non-commercial basis. The submarine requires a crew of three to six persons and is equipped with a diving chamber while allowing staying under water for about a week. Euronaut is diesel electric submarine with a 192 Hp diesel engine coupled with a 55 Hp electric motor which has a lead battery that weighs 4 tons. All this assembly has made possible for Euronaut to travel at an amazing speed of 8 knots when it is surfaced and 5 knots when it is submerged. For a journey of 250 nautical miles, the submarine carries about 250 gallons of diesel oil which is equivalent to 1,000 liters. Given that comparatively speaking, the submarine is smaller but what it lacks in volume it makes up when it comes to the features which it has to offer; an optronic mast, multi-beam sonar, side scan, air filters, compressors and satellite navigation. The construction was carried out near Bremen in Germany and the site was very close to the designer’s house. The sea trials of this submarine are taking place at the Baltic Sea, Rostock, Germany.

Let’s take a break from Euronaut and talk about The Architect here; Carsten Standfuss. The guy is not new to submarine construction, he holds a Guinness Book of Records’ record of smallest fully functional manned submersible in the world. This submarine, Sgt. Peppers, weighed just about half a ton and was completed by him at the age of 19. The completion of Euronaut has led our architect to fulfilling his childhood dream of owning a research vessel as well!