New on my wish list

The latest entry on my "I gotta get me one of these" category is a submersible speedboat. Popular Science reports,

Nautical engineers have long dreamed of a craft that could race across wave tops like a speedboat and seconds later dive beneath them like a submarine. But crossing the two breeds presents a catch-22: Subs need heft to sink, but speedboats need to be lightweight to go fast. With an investment of nearly $2 million and years of research, former auto-shop owner Reynolds Marion of Lake City, Florida, has finally hit on a solution, a machine he’s dubbed the Hyper-Submersible Powerboat. When complete, it will reach speeds of up to 45 mph and dive down to 1,200 feet.

1,200 feet! As comparison, naval historian Barrett Tillman reported in Clash of The Carriers: The True Story of the Marianas Turkey Shoot of World War II that the safe depth for American submarines in World War II was only 300 feet, and that diving deeper was done only in extreme emergencies.

The sub-speedboat is not the first civilian sub by any means. Luxury submarine yachts have been on the market for years.

Ah, wouldn't it be nice?

(The 300-foot diving depth was for US Gato-class subs. USS Pampanito(SS-383), commissioned in late 1943, was designed to dive safely to 400 feet, although some of its class successfully operated deeper. Herbert Werner, a German U-boat captain in WW2, reported that no one really knew the maximum depth for their submarines, since the only way to find out meant that your hull got crushed immediately afterward. Looking at the picture of the speedboat-sub above, I personally would not want to test its claimed ability to make 1,200 feet below the surface. What might happen at 1,201?)