Plumb Bob Broke Off my Sounding Tape

I was sounding a ballast tank the other day and my plumb bob broke off of the end of my tape about a third of the way up… I believe the bob is still somewhat upright. There is about 6.5 meters of water in the tank. The sounding tube is 19 meters deep. My question is:

How do I retrieve the plumb bob without entering the tank?

Anyone had success with this? Please share!!!

[QUOTE=Pikuptruk;168263]I was sounding a ballast tank the other day and my plumb bob broke off of the end of my tape about a third of the way up… I believe the bob is still somewhat upright. There is about 6.5 meters of water in the tank. The sounding tube is 19 meters deep. My question is:

How do I retrieve the plumb bob without entering the tank?

Anyone had success with this? Please share!!![/QUOTE]

If you have a drain snake, try expanding the coil at the end, and send it down till you feel slight resistance, then rotate the snake until you feel it bind slightly. May take a few tries but this should work.

Use a small treble hook and fish for it. This may sound stupid but it works.

Grab a mushroom and jump down the warp pipe Taylor! You could also adjust every sounding for the 6"

Saw this on Facebook earlier today and there were actually several good suggestions. People come up with some shit when they have to.

You’ll be able to get it next shipyard.

Use the fish hook or bent clothes hangers like a hook. It works.

The kicker with this one if it is the same guy, is that the ship is brand spanking new! Going to be a little while before its required to be inspected.

[QUOTE=Pikuptruk;168263]I was sounding a ballast tank the other day and my plumb bob broke off of the end of my tape about a third of the way up… I believe the bob is still somewhat upright. There is about 6.5 meters of water in the tank. The sounding tube is 19 meters deep. My question is:

How do I retrieve the plumb bob without entering the tank?

Anyone had success with this? Please share!!![/QUOTE]

Is it a plopper bob for ullages or a pointy bob for innages? I lost an innage bob in a sump sounding tube and was able to get it out without too much trouble. I found a washer that had a hole in the center that was slightly smaller than the bob. I cut a 90° wedge out of it, then welded it to the end of a piece of 1" angle iron. The sounding tube was about 12’ deep. I lowered the washer end down the tube until I hit the top of the bob. A little jimmying up and down got the washer to slide past the bob, then a little more jimmying got the pointy end to go through the notch and rest on the washer. Worked like a charm and took less than five minutes once I’d gotten the washer welded up. I figured I’d try out the same method with a shorter piece of angle iron that had a hole drilled in it so that I could lower it down with a sounding tape should I ever lose a bob down a long sounding tube.

It’s not like sounding pipes are inspected during Class Surveys or COI Inspections. That said, it just should be removed for operational reasons. All of the above are workable solutions.