maintain the boom centered on the PAU and four men to pull the boom and 

 fake it on the pier. This test was conducted twice: during the first 

 test the time required to retrieve and fake the 900 feet of boom was 10 .£ 

 minutes , and upon repeating the test, the time was reduced to 9.9 

 minutes . The extra minute required during the first test may be ascribed 

 to normal differences among tests of this kind. A few of the longer 

 (48-inch) boom connectors required manual assistance in getting through 

 the retaining bars of the PAU, which required varying amounts of time. 



Towing Storage Bag 



In addition to carrying and deploying the boom and the mooring 

 system, and providing a work platform to operate the small skimmer 

 system, the FTB may also be used to tow the towable storage bag (TSB) 

 carrying the oil-water mixture from the spill site to the pier for 

 transferring into a shore-based storage container. The FTB was tested 

 to determine its effectiveness in towing the 30-ft long Kepner Sea 

 Container. Details of this TSB are given in reference 9. 



It was felt that the testing of the FTB in this test program should 

 be limited to those applications which did not require structural 

 changes in the design of the FTB. Such changes would have required a 

 major design effort which (1) was clearly outside the scope of the 

 present test program, and (2) should be carried out only if and when 

 the specific application of the FTB has been accepted by the Navy as 

 desirable. 



Two methods of towing the TSB were considered: astern and 

 alongside the FTB. The towing of TSB alongside the port or starboard 

 was rejected for a number of reasons: (1) a safe way to tie the TSB to 

 the FTB could not be found, (2) the TSB was longer than the FTB and it 

 was considered unsafe to tow the TSB alongside for possible damage to or 

 from the propeller during maneuvering the FTB, (3) holding the TSB a 

 safe distance away from the FTB would have required major structural 

 changes in the FTB, and (4) the drag forces created by the full TSB 

 could have caused significant maneuvering and towing problems for the . 

 FTB. 



To permit towing the TSB astern the FTB, a bridle assembly was used 

 around the two boom- retaining posts on the FTB, and another bridle 

 assembly was used at the larger end of the TSB. A towing length of 

 approximately 50 ft was used. Prior to the test runs, the bag was 

 filled with a mixture of 50 percent fresh and 50 percent seawater. 



During towing, the TSB was maneuvered very well. The line slid 

 around the FTB's boom- retaining posts well during turning. The TSB was 

 very stable; neither fishtailing nor porpoising were observed, Figure 

 17. A crew of two men was found to be adequate for this application. 



The maximum speed run was carried out over a measured distance of 

 0.367 nautical miles. Running north, the run was completed in 4.78 

 minutes whereas it took only 3.74 minutes going south. The winds and 



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