Got called out for my sloppy umbilical management on a Seattle job

We were working on a pier inspection up there last month, and the dive supervisor pulled me aside after the shift. He said, 'Your hose bundle looks like a plate of spaghetti down there, it's a trip hazard for the tender.' I realized I was just coiling it on deck without any real system. Now I use a simple figure-eight pattern on the deck before sending it down, which keeps everything neat and untangled. Anyone have a better method for umbilical stowage on a small boat?

3 comments

3 Comments

foster.mary11d ago

Figure-eight is a solid upgrade from spaghetti. I once had a hose bundle so bad the tender threatened to use it as a fishing net.

elliot_johnson11d ago

Come on, a little mess is just fine. That supervisor sounds like a neat freak. A trip hazard? On a boat deck? Everything moves anyway. My old crew just dropped the hose in loose coils and we never had a real problem. All that fancy figure-eight stuff just eats up time you could be using to get in the water. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

west.wendy9d ago

The 2018 Coast Guard report said bad hose storage caused 12% of dive boat injuries.