OUR STORY

Three years ago my wife and I were touring the east shore of Lake Tahoe in our boat when a gust blew her leather hat off into the water. As we turned the boat around we could see the hat sinking (Tahoe clarity is getting back to 80′) so I dropped and anchor line trying to hook it with no success. We watched as the hat sank in est. 300′-400′ depth level. We were very upset to lose this hat as we have always tried to make sure no items were put in the lake and it remains the jewel it is for future generations.

RESEARCHING EQUIPMENT

After researching equipment and processes we came to the conclusion that the fishing industry was the closest industry to the equipment we needed.

  1. Selected a boat as the recovery platform a Hewescraft.
  2. Looked at propulsion systems and selected a 150HP outboard that would only operate 5% of the time. Then selected and electric engine a Torqeedo with a lithium Ion battery that can power the boat for up to 8 hours.
  3. Researched retrieval systems. Selected a davit system 3/4 horsepower with a 1,640′ capability that can retrieve line at 134′ per minute that will have a recovery basket attached for loading at depth.
  4. Researched ROV systems that will be doing the reconnaissance, underwater mapping and retrieval. Starting with a 300 meter ROV which can all of the lakes except deepest parts of Tahoe which is a little more that 500 meters 1,645′ deep. BlueROV2 Heavy 300 meter capable with a 4k camera, on board sonar, temperature monitoring and a retrieval arm.
  5. Selected a Garmin GPSMAP 942xs, Chartplotter/Sonar Combo with U.S. Blue Chart g3 HD and LakeVu HD charts.