[BITList] Pedal powered Sub.

[Michael Feltham]

Two men launch pedal-powered submarine voyage across Channel

Two men have embarked on a week long underwater voyage across the Channel in a submarine - using pedal power.

French engineers Antoine Delafargue, 33, and Michael De Lagarde, 36, have now been bolted into a homemade sub and departed on their 155-mile voyage. The brave adventurers, who have known each other for 15 years, set off for the week-long adventure from Plymouth to the French port of Saint-Malo on Friday. Their specially-designed autonomous sub is powered by its two pilots taking shifts pedalling - with both burning as many calories as completing a stage of the Tour de France every day. Speaking just before their departure, Antoine, from Brittany, said: "This submarine is very particular, it is pedal-powered. "The whole thing has been built for the last two-and-a-half years. "I funded this project at a cost of about £100,000, as I'd always wanted to build a submarine since I was a kid. "I suddenly thought 'Wow, now I have the skills as an engineer; maybe I can just go about it and build it?' "The first historical submarines were all human powered because there was no electricity at the time, so it's like coming back to the first submarines actually. "I don't want to screw up by forgetting about something, so it's getting a bit more intense now." The two engineers brought the submarine over in a ferry and re-assembled it at the Queen Anne's Battery marina in Plymouth. The 10ft by 3ft sub has to contain all their supplies, including food, water and oxygen as well as navigational and sonar instruments. They are expected to travel at a speed of around 1-2mph. Antoine has been working on the idea and design for the submarine since about 2008, and it has taken a lot of work and a lot of patience to get where he is now. He said: "I'm a little bit stressed, but very excited. "We will have two boats following us the whole way. They will be around tracking us in case something bad happens under the surface, and they can tow us to safety. "We have a list of all the things we need to do before leaving, but on a small sub like this every small thing takes time. "We need to make sure everything is tightened because in a hull like this there's probably 20 or so holes with screws inside, so we need to make sure they are all tightened because else it will sink. "It will also be quite cold on board, about 16C. Other than that we will be fine." Antoine, who has a wife and four children, said they will follow the sea bed without surfacing, across a variety of underwater landscapes including the deep and remote valley at mid-way. He added: "We might also uncover some shipwrecks, of which there are dozens lying there waiting to be identified." Source :Herald Express 
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