Many years ago, a gentleman by the name of Roger Flaherty bought one of the first Resolution kits from R & R. The kit was duly assembled and went on to provide Roger with years of successful and enjoyable sailing, until one fateful day in Chatham Docks.
Roger was sailing in the Chatham Dockyard (which is salt water) when for some reason, he suffered a loss of radio signal. With no fail safe installed, the boat entered into the dreaded terminal dive and refused to surface. Despite the best efforts of a couple of scuba divers, the boat was never discovered, and sadly seemed to be lost.
18 months later the dock was drained for maintenance, and stuck in an inlet pipe was Roger's boat, covered in seaweed and encrusted with barnacles, and looking very sorry for itself. Roger recovered the boat, took it home, and began the long process of stripping the boat down.
Despite the long time the boat spent submerged, the boat was deemed to be in a recoverable condition. Very little cosmetic damage was found to the hull and deck, one rear dive plane was missing, and surprisingly less than two inches of water was found in the watertight box, but the radio gear, the *SALCON*, batteries and most of the electrics were a total loss after their long exposure to salt water.
Over a period of a few months, Roger totally refurbished the boat, and she still sails perfectly to this day. Needless to say, Roger installed an electronic fail safe during the rebuild to ensure that a repeat of the sinking couldn't happen again.
This story must surely be a real testimony to the original design of the Resolution kit, and also to Roger's skills as the builder.
(*SALCON...Submarine Automatic Level Control*)
