Going Deep in NB
By OCinSite At-Large on April 07, 2011 12:31 PM | Comments (0)
By Roger Bloom | Newport Beach Independent
It was an unusual Tuesday morning at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club as Sir Richard Branson and a huge contingent of press pulled in for the announcement that Newport Beach’s Chris Welsh will be taking a Branson-sponsored submersible to the bottom of the Marianas Trench.
The Marianas dive will be the first in an effort to reach the deepest points in all five of the world’s oceans over a two-year period. The Five Dives Expedition, as it is called, will be undertaken by the new Virgin Oceanic unit of Branson’s Virgin Group.
Welsh is a well-known local businessman and adventurer, and the owner of the racing yacht Ragtime.
The one-person submersible is designed by Graham Hawkes and made of 8,000 pounds of carbon fiber material and titanium. It will be tested in the waters off Newport Beach in the coming weeks and, if all goes well, it will make the Marianas dive later this year.
The sub’s “mother ship” is the former PlayStation, now the Virgin Oceanic, a 125-foot catamaran that held the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by a sailing vessel.
Virgin is working with several other sponsors and partners on the project, including Google – which will use data collected by the sub to help construct a comprehensive virtual globe – the Scripps Institute, Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Ocean Research and Conservation Association and the British Broadcasting Corp.
