Looking beneath the water surface?

Have Boat – Do Travel

- A 30 year history of The Wright View -

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1976 - Designed and built first DPV (70 lb.).
1983 - Helped other divers design their DPV’s (112 lb.).
1990 - Designed and built prototype DPV. Twin variable speed pulse drive motors. Variable buoyancy. A 140 lb. work horse.

1991 - First mounted video camera – JVC in Ikelite housing.
1992 - First pool tests – 4 divers, 2 DPV’s, 1 JVC camera.
1993 - First DPV with controlled ascent – 2 minutes from 60’.

1994 - Testing new style props for DPV to handle 2 divers and large video camera housings. High speed motors, special props, electrical controls and wiring diagrams sent to a dive partner. New style custom DPV (114 lb.).
1995 - Second pool test – 8 divers, 3 DPV's.
Above water – 2 video and two 35mm cameras.
Below water – 4 large housing video cameras and 2 new custom designed and built CCD cameras.
Deck support crew watching live bottom video.

1996 - Designed and built 2 new live CCD video cameras good for 300’
Three video cameras mounted on DPV. Live 180-degree view.
Designed and built first remote controlled floating television transmitter.
1997 - DPV upgraded with beacon sonar. Floating R.C. transmitter, now also televising divers GPS location.

1998 - Designed and built new underwater camera. Three CCD video cams in a single housing. Camera being towed by boat.
Boat receives forward-looking 140-degree view.
Televised live video on Florida dive trip.
Recorded live video while diving a Florida cave.

1999 - Purchased and pulled 18’ boat from Maryland to Michigan.
Four months to prep boat for video service.
Boat, dive gear, and video equipment have traveled 8 states.
2000 - Second phase of 18’ boat upgrade. Installed a stack of VCR’s into fan cooled cutty cabin that sleeps two.
Traveled 4 states while adding items to dash.

2001 - Third phase of 18’ boat upgrade: installed a stern platform with a winch to deploy and retrieve 140 lb. DPV.
Second 3-head video housing is now online. Receiving video from 6 stern cameras. Two 140-degree forward-looking views, plus 3 live cams from DPV via floating TV transmitter that includes divers GPS location.
Dash equipment now includes 9 live video screens.
Boat was towed 3000 miles this year.
Video cams used in lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior.

2002 - Video searching lakes Huron and Michigan. / Search video clips add to web site.

2003 - Video searching Lake Huron from Alpena Michigan. Finding items for Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve. Exibited search video equipment and tapes at the "Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival."

2004 - Discovery of anchor and other smaller parts at the reported sinking location of D.M. Wilson. Verified that a charted wreck in Thunder Bay did not exisit at site. Documentated Schooner Barge in Thunder Bay.


2005 - Located lost Fishing gear off of Middle Island. Exhibited search video equipment and tapes at Thunder Bay Shipwreck Festival

2006
April-Oct
I built a new low light tri head search camera. No lights needed to video 1854 wreck at 180 ft. until 8pm
Searching for Grand Traverse Underwater Preserve Council and Elk Rapids Historical Society
Searching Lake Superior for other projects
Searching Lake Huron from Alpena
Nov
Water time in Florida after DEMA show
2007
Assist Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary with documentating regional underwater robotics contest.
Video searching from Elk Rapids, Michigan using tri head camera over wreck of A.J. Rogers.
3 years of video searching in Lake Huron turns up the hull of the 1894 wreck of the D.M. Wilson. Thunder Bay Underwater Preserve Committee provided with copies of tri-head search video.
Boat towed 6000 miles this year.

2008
March - Two booths at the Alpena Sportsmen's Show.
April - Two booths at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival.
May - 4 camera floating TV transmitter upgraded with new 2.4 gig remote controller.
June - With six video cameras running a charter captain's $1000 prop is located in Lake Huron.
July - Video cameras locate the remains of a small schooner one mile from the shore of Lake Huron.
August - Underwater night search in the Elk Rapids River yields couple's custom made platinum wedding band.
October - 12 hours of search video taken over new wreck site in Lake Huron.

Boat towed 7000 miles this year.

2009
January - Built and tested twin lasers to measure items being videoed underwater with tri head cameras.
February - I had Two booths at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival.
March - I had two display booths at the Alpena Sportsman Show.
April - I helped NOAA at it's MATE ROV competition in Alpena, MI. I used my underwater cameras to send live video to the surface. Four large screen monitors let everyone watch all 13 teams. At the same time I was filming close-up views of each team.
May - Prepping my equipment for video searching the Great Lakes.
June - I located and video recorded a 200' three mast schooner. I made a short DVD for Tec divers headed to the Lake Huron wreck.


July - I built a new electrical charging system for my 140 HP outboard. The new system deliveres over 6 times more power than when it was new.
August/Spetember - I used twin lasers while filming underwater in Lake Huron and Superior. I used a small airplane, zoom video camera, and a GPS while flying over Lake Huron to help locate new underwater search sites.
October - The Gales of November came early. I had more time for land projects.
November - I went to the DEMA trade show in Orlando, Florida
December - I placed my boat and equipment into storage for the winter. Now I can start analyzing this years search videos

Boat towed 8000 miles this year.

“You cannot discover new oceans
unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”