The View From Below

Nation's Business, Sept, 1998 by Carla Goodman

Jim Mayfield and brothers Patrick and Michael Stafford have more interest than most Americans in the Titanic. They're not big history buffs, but they're very serious students of how ocean vessels should be built.

The trio owns Sub Sea Systems, Inc., in Sacramento, Calif., one of the nation's few manufacturers of semi-submersible pleasure craft-boats that submerge partially and allow passengers to view the underwater world,

Their made-to-order boats are purchased by tour operators in places such as the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Indonesia, and Guam. Landing a sale for their latest design-a $1.5 million, 100-ton, 80foot boat for a South Korean resort operator-was a real coup since South Korea is one of the world's largest shipbuilding countries.

Sub Sea Systems has its origin in Dymetics, a Sacramento industrial-equipment firm owned by the Mayfield family. In the 1980s, Patrick Stafford managed and had a financial interest in a joint venture of Dymetics in South Africa. When the South African partner bought out the venture in 1985, Stafford and Mayfield looked for ways to invest their share of the proceeds.

Returning from South Africa, Stafford stopped in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where a friend told him the petroleum industry needed unmanned submarines to help with offshore drilling.

Stafford was intrigued. He and Mayfield attended a San Francisco marineindustry trade show, saw a model of a submarine, and decided to build their own. Stanford's twin brother, Michael, a former restaurant owner in Lake Tahoe, Calif., joined the project. They launched Sub Sea systems in 1985. But after they poured $500,000 into research and development, he project came to a halt. "We couldn't raise the money to finish it," says Mayfield 40, vice president of Sub Sea Systems. In 1989, the three decided that building semi-submersible vessels for the tourism industry was a better bet. "Disney had bull semi-submersible subs years ago and created the illusion of an underwater ride, says Patrick Stafford, 50, Sub Sea Systems chairman and CEO. "We could do it better We'd design a vessel that wouldn't run on track, but in the real ocean. We'd then hire marine architects to do the engineering."

Launching the new idea was anything but smooth sailing. The owners designed their first semi-submersible boat on speculation and mortgaged their homes to pay the expenses.

They also faced the formidable task of securing U.S. Coast Guard approval of the boat's design specifications. "The Coast Guard had rules for boats above water and for submarines but nothing in between," explains Mayfield. "Ours was the first semi-submersible approved by the Coast Guard. The process took 1.8 months."

Before the first boat was completed in 1991, Sub Sea Systems had signed contracts to design and build two more.

"Sub Sea is very user-friendly," says Joseph Caliva, vice president of sightseeing operations for Santa Catalina Island Co., a California resort operator that has two Sub Sea vessels. He says that Sub Sea staff members listened carefully to "design and build the vessels to our specific needs."

The work takes place in an old maintenance building at the former Mather Air Force Base. The firm's 20 employees work nine months to transform an aluminum shell into a high-tech boat with air conditioning, television monitors, entertainment systems, underwater lighting systems, exterior speakers, and bathrooms.

Although the beats submerge only 6 feet, passengers get the impression that they're much deeper because the windows are angled downward. 'This way we create the illusion of a submarine ride," Mayfield says.

Carving a niche for Sub Sea Systems, which last year grossed $2 million, has required its owners to adjust to the tourism industry's changing demands. The trend now is toward bigger boats with multiple features. Sub Sea Systems' latest vessel seats 138 passengers, three times more than its first design. It also converts into a sit-down restaurant for 60 people.

Capitalizing on their expertise in the underwater world, Sub Sea Systems' owners also own and operate Snuba International, a company that offers an underwater sport combining scuba diving and snorkeling (divers are linked by hoses to air tanks, which float on a raft).

"We like to say we're going under every day and loving it," says Mayfield.