Jutland Trip, 4 Places available

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Geoff Mellard has organised a 90th Anniversary Jutland Expedition, complete with attendance by the German and British Navy. He has organised the event to be professionally filmed, and this has caused 5 people to drop out because the film rights have to be held by the film team (there are only 8 divers) .

It is the first time the British and German Navies have met on the site since the battle, and the next time will not be before the 100th anniversary of the battle.

Geof has asked me to help in try and find people to take up the spare spaces. It is a week liveaboard, starting 28th May, leaving W. Denmark. Price Euro 1400 per person, all inclusive. He is hiring the boat shown on http://www.havgus.dk/.

We did some Jutland Expeditions a few years ago before we sold our boat/sub, and they were fantastic. Pictures on http://www.extremetechnical.org/jut_gallery.html

Geoff's contact details are:
Luise-Montag-Gasse 1/ 5/1
A-1110 Vienna
Austria
Tel/fax 0043 (0)1 264 2598
Mob 0043 (0)699 111 40810
E-mail geoff.mellard@chello.at
visit: www.titanic-diving.com

On hearing about this trip, I decided to take up one space (when Geoff rang, he had 5 spaces), but most of my mates are prebooked at that time. This means there are four more spaces to fill.

As regards price, it cost us UKP 14,000 to run each Jutland Expedition, though we sailed from Orkney but this did not include anything for the cost of the boat. This means Euro 1400 for a trip with just 8 people, and avoiding the sailing through the North Sea, is good value.

The four other people Geoff has coming are nice gentlemen. It looks like being a really good trip.

Cheers

Alex

Incidentally, if you are new to diving and do not know Geoff, Geoff Mellard worked for Immersed Technical Dive Magazine in the UK for 10 years, then joined Wreck Diving Magazine and Beyond the Blue. He is a very nice chap, and in his usual style of trying to do something good in diving, has organised what looks like a great trip.

Johnny Christensen

I'm sorry as there must be some misunderstanding. M.S Havgus is not going to the Battle of Jutland site on this date. Due to a fire onboard last October where a battery canister for a Typhoon electrical divers vest exploded, we have held off any bookings before the ship was rebuild. That major overhaul has only been completed 3 days ago and the new charter season starts this comming weekend, the 21.st of April, with the first weekend trips.
The 25.th to 28.th of May the ship is booked for a trip in the northern Kattegat.

Regards
Johnny Christensen
On behalf of M.S. Havgus

Andy M

Ouch, this sounds rather catastrophic! Was the diver wearing the vest at the time, and does anyone on here have one of these? I certainly wont be buying one if it can wreck a ship!

__________________
Know your PO2 at all times

Johnny Christensen

Hi Andy

The battery pack was left for charging overnight in the boat when things went terribly wrong. The batteries exploded, spraying the interiour of the cabin with a kind of burning "gel". This set the wooden pannels and some paperwork on fire, and things escalated therefrom.
There was no people onboard, so the fire raged for about 20-25 minutes before it was discovered. Fourtunatly it was in the fall, so all vents and hatches was closed as the ship is heated during the fall and winter. The lack of fresh airsupply, caused the fire to die out by itself. But the damage was rather expencive to fix again.
The lesson that we have learned, never permit that any electrical devices to be charged outside the designated steel cabinet. If it starts burning in there, it will quickly die out, as the cabinet is sealed airtight.

Regards
Johnny

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www.johnnychristensen.com
Wreckdiving images from Scandinavia

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Geoff has just emailed me. He has a new boat, so trip is still on.

Cheers,

Alex