U260

elcowboyspace

Im planning on making a trip to Cork for a few dives on the u260 early next year. I've developed an interest in uboats since first diving some of donegals wrecks.

Can anyone recommend a club/dive shop/charter that goes out to this wreck? Or even recommend or disuade me from this wreck itself... I doubt the latter, from video footage and stills it looks to be quite an interesting dive.

Much appreciated.

Benny-c

Try;

http://www.baltimorediving.com/

or

http://www.aquaventures.ie/

They are both based in Baltimore & Dive in the area (U260 included). I suggest giving them a buzz.
I personlly have only dived it once & the vis was muck & it was dived 2 weeks later & the vis was excellent, pot luck I suppose-enjoyed it nonetheless & hope to dive it again. More info here;

http://www.irishwrecksonline.net/details/U260-948a.htm

Benny

locum-motion

I've done it three times.
It's a bit hit and miss weather-wise, you need to hit it pretty close to low slack water on a fairly calm day.
Jerry from Aquaventures usually drops the shotline within a meter of the conning tower. Make sure you go down the shotline without pulling yourself down. I know one group that descended beside the line, and drifted off it a bit, and all they saw in their 9 mins @43m was a crab! On another occasion when there was a bit if current, some of our group pulled themselves down the line, and it dragged away from the sub. Believe me, there is nothing to see there other than a flat sandy bottom and the sub, so you don't want to miss it!
I've never dived with the other crowd, so can't comment on them.
Assuming you get to it, it's a great dive.
Enjoy.

scubakid

Very good dive, if it was the last dive you were ever going to do I would suggest it.
As locum-motion said, you have to get the tides right as it's in the middle of nowhere, no shelter at all out there. Let us know how you get on if you go ahead with it.
By the way, are you diving it on open circuit or CCR?

SK

victor11

locum-motion wrote: »

I've done it three times.
It's a bit hit and miss weather-wise, you need to hit it pretty close to low slack water on a fairly calm day.
Jerry from Aquaventures usually drops the shotline within a meter of the conning tower. Make sure you go down the shotline without pulling yourself down. I know one group that descended beside the line, and drifted off it a bit, and all they saw in their 9 mins @43m was a crab! On another occasion when there was a bit if current, some of our group pulled themselves down the line, and it dragged away from the sub. Believe me, there is nothing to see there other than a flat sandy bottom and the sub, so you don't want to miss it!
I've never dived with the other crowd, so can't comment on them.
Assuming you get to it, it's a great dive.
Enjoy.

Agree with all this....
Jerry & his missus (Ryianne i think) run a great show in Aquaventures & the Stone House B&B on the same plo. THey run a great boat although dive briefings arent the best - although if you're diving the U260 u need to know your stuff and be well dived up - Jerry assumes you've plenty of experience if your going out there..... Mx bottom depth i got there was 44.7 at the prop...I've dived it 6 times - got it every time... although vis can be tough. Get down the shot line first if you can... if you cant see the sub follow the trail the shot leaves in the sand right to the conning tower. Need to be good at midwater safety stops with no visual reference. Great dive all the same.... One minus is the long haul (about 50 mins) out for a 7 min bottom time! ... Oh yeah & it has to be dived on a slack tide and they usaully do that early in the AM... SO it could be a 6am boat!!
Good luck & Enjoy

elcowboyspace

Cheers for the replies. I'll check those outfits and see when best to head over.

As far as tides and current are concerned I wasn't really expecting to find a sub wreck around Ireland that doesn't throw currents at you. But thanks for the heads up anyway. There will be some stops on the ascent.

Whats the deal with the shot line drifting? Not using Heavy enough weight or is there a serious run on this dive?

And as for OCR or CCR we'll be diving OCR. I'd say we'll be looking for a bottom time of about 20 minutes or so. Just enough to get a half decent scan along the length and if possible pick a more focused point of interest for a second dive.

locum-motion

elcowboyspace wrote: »

Whats the deal with the shot line drifting? Not using Heavy enough weight or is there a serious run on this dive?

The weight Jerry uses is fcuking heavy! But if there's a run on and a couple of divers who have a bit of air trapped in their suits trying to pull themselves down...

elcowboyspace

I see. Well I think We'll be doing this off peak so hopefully there wont be a gang down. Theres only 3 of us looking at diving it at present anyway.

I was also looking at that 78 rock site. Looks interesting in its own way.

locum-motion

elcowboyspace wrote: »

I see. Well I think We'll be doing this off peak so hopefully there wont be a gang down. Theres only 3 of us looking at diving it at present anyway.

I was also looking at that 78 rock site. Looks interesting in its own way.

The theory is that it was the 78 rock that the U260 hit, and not a mine as the official reports suggest. Haven't done the rock myself, as after going all that way I'd rather dive the sub!