Wind and Water boat and diving show

Last weekend was the weekend of Wind and Water Boat Show - the biggest Polish water sports fair, and that's why we have spent a major part of Saturday at Warsaw Expo Center where it took place. More than 230 companies from sailing, motor yachting, windsurfing, kayaking and diving industry presented their products. Unfortunately diving industry had the smallest representation. This was made up for by several extremely interensting presentations and exhibitions related to diving.

There was a team from the Polish Navy who gave a very interesting presentation on discovery and indentiication of Graf Zeppelin. Graf Zeppelin was Germany's only aircraft carrier. She was launched in 1938, however she was never fully equipped nor used because the aircraft carrier project was aborted. During the war Graf Zeppelin served as a warehouse and infantry barracks. She was sunk by the Soviet Navy in mid 1947, probably during explosion resistance testing. The wreck has been discovered by Petrobaltic (a Polish oil&gas company) 30 miles north of Polish port of Władysławowo, resting at about 85 meters. Immediately it was closed for divers.

A model of Graf Zeppelin

In October 2007 Polish Navy conducted a series of exploration dives on the wreck in order to confirm its identity. During the presentation a number of images were shown, including images from a side scan sonar survey conducted just after the discovery of the wreck, photos and films from the Polish Navy innovative 3D underwater vision system mounted on an ROV. The main purpose of the dives was to identify the wreck and gather some seafloor samples to check wheter the wreck contains dangerous items such as ammunition or chemicals. Despite these threat the divers considered the dive a recreational one. That tells much about how their regular dives look like...

Another exciting exhibitior was the Military Aquanaut Group "Błotniak" and their reconstruction of a miniature submarine Błotniak. Błotniak, (Polish for Harrier (the bird, not the Harrier Jump Jet :)), was a code name for a project which aimed at developing a one man submarine for conducting underwater reconnaissance and transport of diversion divers or explosives. The outcome was a wet-cabin craft that could be deployed from a helicopter. Błotniak was designed in Poland and was considered very innovative due to technologies and solutions it used. However only 5 prototypes were built, the last one in 1983.

Me leaning against the rear side of Błotniak

You can read more on Błotniak on wikipedia or on Military Aquanaut Group "Błotniak" site.