Rags II

08/05/2022

Thank you all very, very much for all your wonderful comments, posts, videos and photos about Rags II and its crew. It’s a truly great feeling to realise that it all had meant so much to so many people. Reading now through all this brought back so many memories - quite overwhelming and saddening that it is truly all over now.
We’ll keep Rags II’s page online so you can keep posting your pictures, videos etc on it….or just if you feel to reminisce a bit on a rainy day….We know we will quite often.

01/05/2022

Dear Friends of Rags II

We sadly have to announce that our beloved Rags II is no more. After almost 17 years she had to be decommissioned. About two years ago she went for her last voyage to a tiny island in Cebu which is also our home and now her final resting place. In her lifetime she had sailed safely through countless storms and heavy seas and never let us down. Unfortunately she was beyond repair now and we had to take her apart.
We are very glad that so many people enjoyed to travel with her to the remotest spots in the Philippines and to have a good time while doing so.
There are countless people to thank for making all this possible - way too many to mention here, so please forgive us if we only pick out a few:

Frank Doyle for building probably the best little dive boat in the Philippines. The guys from Lalaguna Beach Club remained some of our most loyal customers afterwards and even turned it into a yearly pilgrimage called Ougachaka organised by Bad Dave and Papa Mark. Some legendary parties and dives happened during those trips…. Special congratulations to all the winners of Ougachaka Award during the years. All very well deserved!:-)

Brian King and Bob Claridge for purchasing her from Frank in 2009 and keeping her afloat for so many years. Best bosses one could wish for ever! Some really cool trips with the Dubai crowd over the years as well!

John, Gallup and Ting for taking over during her final years and keeping the dream alive before the pandemic put an end to it all. Gallup has trained heaps of students in cave and wreck diving on the boat and loved her so much that he finally became one of her owners. Many students came back several times to put their gained knowledge and skills into practice in the wrecks of Coron and Paglugaban Cave

Tony Exall to film hours after hours of underwater and topside videos on the boat showing pretty much every dive destination we have to offer in stunning quality and who was finally convinced that wreck and cave diving is a pretty cool thing. His Rags II videos can be found on YouTube still.

Hitoshi Yamaguchi who brought so many divers from Japan onto the boat over the years and who managed to convince us to open new routes to the Visayas and even all the way down to Southern Leyte. Miho holds one of the spots as our most regular customers with ten trips under her belt.

Dave Ross and Tech Asia for all the technical support and also as organizers of several serious tech trips. Couldn't have done it without you.

Andrey Galitsky for opening the part of our business to the Eastern Europeans and for some truly remarkable trips.

Aaron Gillespie who always brought a great crowd with him onboard and who had the most patience and positive spirit when the boat broke down not once but twice just at the start of his trips. You have summed it all up in your post about Rags II: We tried to be always “easy like Sunday morning” on the boat. Now we rather feel heavy like Monday morning, but life goes on and hopefully the spirit of Rags II will live on on another boat one day. Until then all the best to all of you and thank you all for being part of the best part of our life.

Ralph and Divina

03/02/2020

Dear customers and followers of our Facebook site: We have decided to suspend the services of our liveaboard Rags II. We are in the process of designing a new vessel and will gladly inform you once operations start It has been an amazing 11 years. Thank you all so much and especially all our repeat customers who have been so loyal over all these years.

10/09/2019

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fchng.it%2FYqSQn52wW6%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2WunKzmMB4F68ZMgrwpLIWp7l1wTR2I-ZZ_yEp_B1EYTl86gIfZiABQJQ&h=AT2VGXuAmS0uwiE77nQYdfTVJBeaw0hO1YLji5jsXjUeWhsgUrjZjD_5z1Q9mzRBri0cKvaQcTCbNvseRuCrbAvAEgRKpYU8_sv3bDWqtNIu-86qCe0T5fgiwktPurSxTfgrKqfMgdot4kI

201 signatures are still needed! Appeal to the MARINA regarding additional restrictive boat rules for the tourism industry

01/06/2017

Documentary on Chinese Television about a technical diving trip with Rags II and some brilliant Coron wreck footage. From minute 5 to 19 it's all about us!

本期节目主要内容： 沉船潜水，这是世界上死亡率最高的极限运动之一，刺激、危险，却又令人迷恋。游弋深海之地，在斑驳的钢铁残骸间聆听探索，体验它的神秘、壮观或悲凉

24/12/2015

Rags II and all of our crew - would like to wish all our customers, past, present, and future - a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !
We hope every one of you have a healthy and prosperous 2016 - with as much diving as you could wish for...!

02/12/2015

A great video from our last trips organized by Chia-hung Lee.

2015.11.18~23 Apo reef diving trip with Rags II My FB: https://www.facebook.com/chiahung.lee.31 My Blog: http://leechiahung.pixnet.net/blog Rags II website: ...

21/08/2015

Don't miss this tonight and tomorrow if you are around!

Join us for four short talks spread over two evenings and hear about some fascinating explorations that are taking place both worldwide and locally.
Casey McKinley, Project Director of the legendary Woodville Karst Plan Project, will overview 25 years of the organisations accomplishments which culminated in the connection of the Wakulla Springs and Leon Sinks cave systems with over 30 miles/50 km of underwater passage, much of it in excess of 80m deep.
Casey and Steve Cox will also discuss and illustrate their dives in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Tulum, Mexico, which is being explored under a special permit issued to the MCEP - Mexico Cave Exploration Project.
Thirdly, back in Florida we have Chips Hole, extensively explored by the late Sheck Exley - a true cave diving pioneer. More recently under the WKPP it has become the the project for which Steve Cox and his buddy Blake Wilson have taken the lead, and have stretched this difficult cave out to around 16,000 ft or 5,000m in their quest to connect it to Wakulla. Steve will talk about the cave and the logistics involved.
Finally we turn to home shores. Steve and Dave Ross will deliver a short history of the events and discoveries of our own Asian Karst Exploration Project, operating in Samar, Philippines, where after several years of effort we believe we have discovered some of the most significant underwater caves in all of SE Asia...
Friday and Saturday evenings starting at 7.30 for about an hour each evening, everyone welcome but we do need to know rough numbers if you're coming. Message to Dave will do it...

13/08/2015

Join us for four short talks spread over two evenings and hear about some fascinating explorations that are taking place both worldwide and locally.
Casey McKinley, Project Director of the legendary Woodville Karst Plan Project, will overview 25 years of the organisations accomplishments which culminated in the connection of the Wakulla Springs and Leon Sinks cave systems with over 30 miles/50 km of underwater passage, much of it in excess of 80m deep.
Casey and Steve Cox will also discuss and illustrate their dives in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Tulum, Mexico, which is being explored under a special permit issued to the MCEP - Mexico Cave Exploration Project.
Thirdly, back in Florida we have Chips Hole, extensively explored by the late Sheck Exley - a true cave diving pioneer. More recently under the WKPP it has become the the project for which Steve Cox and his buddy Blake Wilson have taken the lead, and have stretched this difficult cave out to around 16,000 ft or 5,000m in their quest to connect it to Wakulla. Steve will talk about the cave and the logistics involved.
Finally we turn to home shores. Steve and Dave Ross will deliver a short history of the events and discoveries of our own Asian Karst Exploration Project, operating in Samar, Philippines, where after several years of effort we believe we have discovered some of the most significant underwater caves in all of SE Asia...
Friday and Saturday evenings starting at 7.30 for about an hour each evening, everyone welcome but we do need to know rough numbers if you're coming. Message to Dave will do it...

28/07/2015

We highly recommend this event! Cutting edge diving!

Tech Asia is happy to announce we will be hosting a Suex - Fast Lane Divers event August 21-23, 2015. Suex designs and manufactures some of the world's finest underwater diver propulsion vehicles and this event is an opportunity for people to get hands-on experience with the most popular recreational and technical diving scooters in the Suex DPV line.

Casey McKinlay, Suex's Director of Global Business Development, and Steve Cox will be on hand to give orientation courses, basic maintenance techniques, and tips for getting the most out of your scooter diving. Both Casey and Steve have been using Suex scooters for recreation and exploration for more than 6 years. Casey is the Project Director of the WKPP ( Woodville Karst Plains Project ) http://www.wkpp.org/ . Steve is a lead mixed gas diver with the WKPP, member of MCEP ( Mexico Cave Exploration Project ), and lead diver of the AKEP ( Asian Karst Exploration Project ) which is active here in the Philippines. Assisting with the event will also be our Philippine Suex Distributor Miko Zulueta.

The weekend will allow for fun dives so divers can try out the various models and there will be a competition held to determine the fastest team to navigate around an obstacle course. Friday and Saturday evenings are reserved for presentations focusing on cave exploration projects Casey, Steve, and Dave are involved in around the world.

There will be no charge for the scooter use during the event but all other dive related expenses will need to be covered by each diver. It expects to be a fun and educational weekend with some great diving to be had. Please put it on your calendar and send Dave an email or a message if you expect to be attending.

10/04/2015

We just got aware of this trip report the Sydney Sub Aqua Club has posted on their website in 2012. Gives a nice overview about our Coron/Apo Reef trips with a trimix dive on the MV Coral Island as a final highlight. Thanks Gary Meakin and Tech Asia for organizing the trip and all members that have contributed to fun times and a great write up!

http://www.sydneysubaquaclub.com/trip_reports/coron_bay_the_philippines_19th_28th_april_2012_04_28

SSAC is a Sydney dive club offering members SCUBA diving and social activities in the friendly environment of a BSAC branch.

13/03/2015

The booth is all set up in OZtec - call in over the weekend if you're in Sydney...