Duh. Okay, so I saved, then took the boat to 229m without incident.
For some reason the crew was not very enthusiastic about this 'dive test'.
So I answered the first part of my question ... the boat can slightly exceed its maximum. (I did not go until we crushed ... for some reason I just couldn't do it. I think maybe it would have given me bad dreams or something :rotfl: )
But the second part of my question remains. Is it worth spending the renown on the later model type VIIs, or do they really have the same dive characteristics of the VII-c?