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The Roat Deal
Each month John Roat will furnish this page with a new column. Feel free to email him with your questions,
comments, or accusations. This guy's the real deal and he definitely has his very own groove.

Born 11/16/42. I am currently a working diver, surface air/gas and a saturation supervisor. I was a member of Underwater Demolition Teams 21, UDT 11 and SEAL Team 1. I went to work for Taylor Diving and Salvage the end of 1969 as a tender and broke out at Taylor Diving in 1970. I have also worked for Sub Sea, Comex, J. Ray McDermott, Tennessee Valley Authority, Global, Martech, Offshore Petroleum Divers, Cal Dive and too many small companies, some of them very good, to name. Taught rigging, open tanks, harbor and burning for one year at the College of Oceaneering. I authored “Oxy-Arc Underwater Burning Class”, a 90-minute training video and manual, for Oceans Technology.

If I were evaluating myself in this business it would be: good divers, that will leave the next diver well, burn with the best of them. I am proudest of having never bent or injured a diver. I have been running dive’s from 1969, when the tender did the job. I have been supervising since 1977.

I do believe there are more then one good way to do things.
The following are a couple of my opinions, let me know what you think:

First I want to THANK Matt Knowlson for keeping this article work informative and interesting this month.. What I have to say is not going to be interesting to some of you. The ones that get it will do a lot better in the business. I’ll save my stuff , DEALING with the OFFICE, for the end.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE FOR DIVERS
(BY THE MILLER MAN, MATT KNOWLSON)

Below is not the only way to do things in the water, but is some good tips that might help you! If you have any tricks of the trade you would like to add, you can contact me at (504)487-3483 or E-mail to millerman0022000@yahoo.com If used, your name will be added by your trick!

Burning Anything – If you can’t vent it, don’t burn it! Any pipeline or riser must first be cold cut before it is burned into. Remember on VD’s & horizontals the pressure differential when venting and make sure all tools & hoses are clear of vent area.

Burning VD’s – Rig two part sling, one sling shorter than the other, as even as possible to the VD, vent VD at highest point, clean & cut at angles so the bottom is wider than the top. This prevents the VD from springing upward toward the divers face & allows it to fall out the bottom freely, without having to cut out wedges. Swing the crane away from the platform & get a slight tension. When the last cut is made the VD will fall out & swing away from the diver. (Know where your dive hose slack is first & always.)

Burning Jacket w/ Grout – Clean jacket well, punch vent holes about six inches above cut area, make top cut of window first to prevent O2 blow back and hydrogen build up from grout falling out, drag rods & don’t push, stand to the side of cut to stay out of blow back area, if O2 blow back occurs put pneumo in cut to flush out O2 & hydrogen, flush w/ water if diving with a hot water unit since air still has 21% oxygen.

Burning Bottom Horizontals – If bottom horizontal is ½ buried, cut a 10” wide window on top at the twelve O’clock position & as far around as you can go. Then cut the rest of the horizontal from the inside, leaving the last cut on the side at 3 or 9 O’clock. Burn last cut on the outside. You don’t want your hands inside when it springs free.

Burning Horizontals – Since you can’t vent a high side, burn a nice fist size hole at the twelve O’clock position, then start your angled cut around. This gives you a larger area for the O2 & hydrogen to escape.

Hand Jetting - Tie a piece of ½” rope, about 1’ longer than the nozzle, just above the swivel on the jet nozzle w/ a couple of knots in the end. When pulling jet hose slack, stick the rope in front of the jet stream and hold on, it will pull the nozzle and slack for you. If the nozzle is held vertically w/ rope in the reverse stream, the nozzle will float. This is good when jetting under pipelines or jetting spoolpieces down. When not in use the rope will float out of your way.

Flange-ups – After the bolts are in / or started and the O-ring is captured, tighten bolts with the impact & your hand on the back nuts instead of the hammer wrench for speed. Always take (2) long bolts, (2) drift pins, (1) hammer, & at least (4) regulation bolts with you to do a flange-up. You don’t want to waste your bottom time waiting for tools to come down the down-line that you should already have with you!

Flange Breaking – (The Magic Bolt Trick orig. from Cal Preston in the Flange pages ) Remove fully the twelve O’clock bolt from the flange & put it on top of its holes w/ the nuts, hand tight, against the outside of the flange faces. The tension of the flange will be held by the “magic bolt” as you loosen the other bolts, starting from the bottom - up. After all of the bolts have been removed, take your hammer, standing on the riser side of the flange and tap the magic bolt off. The flange will spring open and you will have done in one dive what would have taken 2 or 3 additional dives to perform, not to mention wearing your ass out to.

Tracing Out Pipelines – When tracing out pipelines near a platform, always take (30’) of ¼” rope with you, tied ten feet back in your dive hose. If you (the diver) run across a large piece of trash or 3&1 bags, tie one end of your rope (5’) back on the pipeline and then cross over the obstacle & search again for the pipeline. When found, tie the other end of the rope (5’) down the P/L as tight as possible. Cross back over the obstacle & look or feel if the rope is in line. Untie the rope, cross back over the obstacle, and continue following the P/L out. 99% of the time you are back on the correct pipeline you need to follow out, but this practice is NOT recommended if you are abandoning a P/L and are going to be making a cut of any kind. The rope can also be used if your dive hose becomes fowled on bottom, by tying one end of the rope to the P/L and then walking your hose back to the fouled spot. You still have a direct line back to the pipeline where you left off.

Rigging Riser Clamps – When rigging big riser clamps for a single caisson or platform leg, weld (2) pad-eyes to the outside of the clamp at the 9:30 & 2:30 position, standing at the hinge side. Burn holes through the two top gussets, for rigging, at the opening side of the clamp. Attach a 20’ sling to each of the pad-eyes & a 10’ sling w/ a wire com-a-long to the back hinge, all coming together into one big shackle. If you stop there and try to raise the clamp & open it up you will notice, even after you balance the clamp out, that if you open it up all the way it will fall down in the back and spread out. To stop this from happening take a piece of ½” rope and tie it to one of the 20’ slings about 5’ up from the pad-eye & then over to the hole you burned in the gusset, on that same side. When you raise the clamp off the deck and balance it out, the rope will not allow the hinge side to sag, keeping the clamp level.

Installing Big Riser Clamps – After rigging your clamp you can put it in the water in the closed position if you are using the crane & two tuggers to set it. When you get at the site of the clamp installment and have the clamp at the proper depth, slack off your tuggers to the opposite side of the leg from your clamp. Just above the site look for anything to rig off of that you can wrap the tugger cables, criss-cross, around and over to the burn holes in the gussets on the clamp. After you shackle the cables to the gussets, start coming up on both tuggers at the same time. When the clamp is pulled over to the leg the cables will automatically open and wrap the clamp around the leg on its own. Once around start putting your bolts in and don’t worry if it still needs to be spun around to line up, you can derig one of the tuggers and spin it after your bolts are in but keep the bolts loose.


Proper Way to Identify Clamps on Video - Riser Side 1. (# of bolts) cap & saddle or hinged clamp, 2. All bolts (single or double nutted), 3.All hardware is present and tight or # of bolts missing / loose 4. (Is or isn’t) rubber in clamp.   Leg Side 1. Original weld on or clamped, 2. (# of bolts) cap & saddle or hinged clamp, 3. All bolts (single or double nutted), 4. All hardware is present and tight or # of bolts missing / loose.

DEALING with the OFFICE
By
John Carl Roat

If I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it a thousands, "Every Nut and Bolt in this Company is Paid for off a Divers Back” Yes it is true but with that said there are a few things that the successful divers and tenders keep in mind. To keep it simple NO OFFICE and SHOP, NO JOB. It takes equipment up and ready, sales to get the work, operations and project mangers to put it together and us to do the work. That’s leaving out accounting and payroll that collect the money and get us paid.

The point I’m trying to make here is: I’m not the only offshore person the office has to deal with. To many of us act like we should be all the office has to worry about. The guys that not only do good work offshore, but make themselves easy to deal with, do better in the business. I’m not tell you to be a kiss ass! I am tell you to be polite and a little forgiving of mistakes.

When nothing is going on find out what it takes to run a diving company. You know the shop foreman will love you, if gear you take out ,comes back properly tagged as to the equipment condition. Most of us have spent time working in the shop, so we should understand the shop foreman problems. Take the time to find out what a project manager has to do. Attend a pre-job meeting and find out what his problems are. Find out what gets done will all the offshore paperwork and the problems it causes if the paperwork is a mess. Clean up your act (dress nice) and go on a call with a salesman. All of these things are a part of the business that can make or brake a company. The more you know the more useful employee you are. At the very least always be Polite.

R E S P O N S E:

Posted 5/25/2004
John, I don't agree with the idea of putting my hands on a nut while I am impacting the other side.

In a perfect world, with all of the nuts run up and down before they leave the surface and with NO chance of the threads getting dinged, maybe. But as you and I know, shit happens and I don't want my fingers anywhere near the bolts that I am impacting on. Instead, always have your backup wrench on the impact, and you will never have to worry about it.

Thanks,

Jerry Bowers

What do you think?

click here to email Roat

Sincerely,
John Carl Roat

I will do my best to answer any response to the things I say. That is, if you put your name and e-mail address with it. If there is no name and e-mail address, I won’t post your e-mail and I won’t respond. If you just want to let everyone know how you fell about what I say, without putting your name on it, post it on the discussion board.

John's previous columns are archived here:

Roat 1 Roat 2 Roat 3 Roat 4

John has also authored a book on his experiences in SEAL training.
Click on the cover image to read reviews and order the book .

Real Deal SEAL Team website: <http://sealstrike.com