9. During field tests the towing cable chafed against the towing assembly 

 because the shackle used to hold the cable to the assembly was too small 

 to allow sufficient clearance. A larger shackle would prevent this 

 problem. 



10. Warping of the bulkhead assembly, which occurred during fabrication, 

 was caused by the use of continuous filet welds to join the female con- 

 nector to the aluminum angle section. The use of staggered filet welds 

 would prevent warping. 



RECOMMENDATIONS 



1. The boom end connectors, towing assembly, and bulkhead -attachment 

 assembly, modified as recommended below, should be procured and used 

 as part of the Navy's oil-spill-containment program. An effort should 

 be made to extend the use of this hardware to other Federal agencies 

 and possible commercial users to reduce procurement costs and to prevent 

 the occurrence of equipment incompatibilities in the future when these 

 agencies join forces to combat an oil spill. A patent application which 

 covers the end connectors, towing assembly, and bulkhead attachment has 

 been filed and should be processed by the appropriate Navy agencies. 



2. Alternative pier mounting configurations should be developed for 

 the bulkhead-attachment assembly. The configuration used in the tests 

 permitted the assembly to jut out from the piling where it could poten- 

 tially cause damage to small craft and ships that came in contact with 

 it. 



3. Field activities that use these connectors should be instructed 



to take several sets of unmounted male and female connectors and bolt 

 two male or female connectors together back to back. Situations will 

 occur during field use where identical and therefore incompatible con- 

 nectors must be joined together. (These extra sets of connectors (both 

 male if the incompatible connectors are female, or vice versa) can be 

 used to join the incompatible connectors together.) 



4. The drawing modifications recommended in No. 2 through 7 above have 

 been incorporated into the final fabrication drawings (Figures 5, 8, 

 and 10) used for the procurement of the hardware as part of the Fiscal 

 Year 1974 oil-boom procurement program. 



a. The number 3/8-24NF nuts and bolts used in the tests to 

 attach the oil boom to the connectors should be changed to 

 number 3/8-16NC nuts and bolts, and these parts should be 

 coated x^th an antisieze compound to prevent galling and 

 siezing. 



