The Dark side of ROV’s aka trenching

What’s ‘dark’ about trenching? It’s a huge section of the offshore industry and never seasonal as with some field work.

Personally I find it labour intensive but if you can hack a trenching system then when you go on any workclass sub it’s like being on holiday 😆

Piloting is a different kettle of fish as there’s no TMS so tether management is different. You are on the seabed so only have to think 2D. A lot of the time there’s zero vis so you need to be able to interpret all the info on the screens in the control van not just camera as many freefly people do (seen guys not using sonar or gyro and getting in a right mess as they only use cameras – weird but hey…..)

My policy is to work on many types of sub, as a contractor this makes me more employable and gives me the opportunity to keep apace of new kit. Some guys prefer to stick to one type of sub. Everyone to their own.

At the end of the day you should give it a go, if you don’t like it then no big deal. At least you made your own decisions.

Stay Safe

K2

I agree Savante, there is a good deal of satisfaction ..eventually getting the beast to perform to the best of her abilities….just been trenching for Modus and we have the additional hindrance of an external high flow water supply for the vehicle delivered down a very floaty hose in an area plagued by high currents ,consequently developing an RSI from having to alter the heading every other nanosecond! The seabed alternates between gloop and flint impregnated cement which destroys track drive motors, Of course that wouldn’t be a problem if the spare motor that was just rushed to the vessel , wasnt the same track drive motor that had been backloaded two weeks ago for repair /refurbishment……neither of which had occured!

what fun we had……
🙄