Ran a 300 foot umbilical wrong for 3 seasons until a deckhand pointed it out

Always rigged my umbilical over the transom and clipped it to the port side. Thought it was fine. Last month on a job off Port Fourchon, this young deckhand asked why I was fighting the current every dive. Said my hose was dragging against the anchor line. Switched to running it off the bow quarter and the pull basically vanished. Felt like an idiot for 3 years of extra effort. Anyone else have a tiny rigging detail that took forever to click?

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1 Comment

williamw7516d ago

Fighting the current every dive" has me scratching my head a little. I get that the anchor line drag can pull your hose, but I've run over the transom for years and the current was always the current, not the hose. Maybe your stern setup was different, or your boat was sitting different in the water. I'm not saying the kid's wrong if it worked, but I've seen guys blame the rig for what was really a tide swing. Some days the water just pulls harder, no matter where you clip it. If three seasons really felt that bad, maybe the problem was your weight or how much hose you were paying out, not the side of the boat. Just saying, sometimes the fix is in your head more than the deck.