Wreck Tie In

[WannaBaCEO]

OK, I've been diving for about five years and have made about 40 or so wreck dives. In all of those dives I have never once "tied in". I have always waited for the styrofoam cup to surface then swam around for a while until it was time for someone else to free us from the wreck I've never paid much attention to this necessary and potentially dangerous activity before, but I have just purchased a boat and plan on diving from it this summer and would like to learn more about it. I plan on heading down and watching/assisting with a few before I do it myself, but would like to learn how to do it. I'm not sure if techniques differ, but I'm talking about NE diving in under 150 fsw - I have looked online and have found very few pictures/descriptions, or what equipment is necessary. Please let me know your thoughts. thanks...

 

[edjohnson66]

Most people learn the way I learned going in with a dive master and learning from them

 

[matt_unique]

All the most popular wrecks in your area will have good moorings. Just make sure you grab the right buoy, and tie off. The local shops who pay for and service these moorings should be extended a courtesy of course. If they arrive when you're there back away and allow them to tie off. Then ask to tie off to their boat.

For wrecks without moorings, drop a flag with line and weight right on the GPS coordinates. Allow your divers to drop in then back away until they surface.

Never dive from your boat with no one aboard.

--Matt

 

[Gilldiver]

All the most popular wrecks in your area will have good moorings. Just make sure you grab the right buoy, and tie off. The local shops who pay for and service these moorings should be extended a courtesy of course. If they arrive when you're there back away and allow them to tie off. Then ask to tie off to their boat.

Dive shops that pay for a mooring? Where, where are they. The dive boats put the moorings on all the wrecks I get to.

Never trust any mooring, always take a second line down and tie in securly in another area.

 

[waterpirate]

Tie in procedures not for the faint of heart, or experience. This task is and should be considered task loading, and potentialy hazzardous. I have only seen mooring balls in fla. and never in the o.c. md area. Wreck numbers here are to valuble to put "balls on them".
My advice to you is to dive a small boat the size of the one you are going to be involved with, with some experienced divers who can show you the "ropes" tying in and learn from them. Everyone has a different system for doing it based on the experiences they have had.
PM. me if you want the know the way I do it.
Eric

 

[Biggen]

I learned to "tie in" on my own. Didn't have a divemaster teaching me the ropes. But I had been diving for a couple years before I attempted it so I felt I could handle it. If you feel comfortable diving alone for the brief period that it takes to hook onto the wreck and you're comfortable with your buoyancy skills you may be up for it. Only you can determine if you feel comfortable trying new skills. I will say that if I had to do it over again I would have much rather had someone showing me the basics of how to tie onto the wreck. Would have saved me frustration, anxiety, and time...

When I do it I have a pony bottle hooked to my main tank. That way I have total redundancy underwater (two 1st stages, two 2second stages, two tanks). I simply take the chain and very large carbiner down with me and typically look for the highest spot on the wreck to tie off to. Wrap it around about 4 times, hook the carabiner, sit there for about a minute surveying the site, and then head up to report back to the divers on top. The guy driving the boat is pretty experienced and makes sure he puts me in up current of the wreck, that way as I float down the wreck is typically right under me. There is nothing that pisses me off more than missing the wreck and hitting the empty gulf floor. Luckily, this rarely happens anymore...

 

[flw]

Don't see any reason to tie into any wreck, particularly if there's a tide running on it. Just use a combination of gps/medes and a sounder. Throw in a heavy shotline so that the weight lands just to one side of the wreck ( or end, but that's harder to do), which means it's easy to pull up afterwards. Don't tie into anything, that way if anyone misses the line and drifts off, or surfaces in trouble the boat can reach them mre quickly

 

[RJP]

All the most popular wrecks in your area will have good moorings. Just make sure you grab the right buoy, and tie off. The local shops who pay for and service these moorings should be extended a courtesy of course. If they arrive when you're there back away and allow them to tie off. Then ask to tie off to their boat.

For wrecks without moorings, drop a flag with line and weight right on the GPS coordinates. Allow your divers to drop in then back away until they surface.

Never dive from your boat with no one aboard.

--Matt

There's not a single wreck off NJ with a mooring, and you'll never get a boat captain to willingly give up the GPS coordinates to anything good.

 

[RJP]

Don't see any reason to tie into any wreck, particularly if there's a tide running on it. Just use a combination of gps/medes and a sounder. Throw in a heavy shotline so that the weight lands just to one side of the wreck ( or end, but that's harder to do), which means it's easy to pull up afterwards. Don't tie into anything, that way if anyone misses the line and drifts off, or surfaces in trouble the boat can reach them mre quickly

Come to NJ some time. If the line isn't attached to the wreck, chances are pretty good that you won't find the wreck when you go down the line even on a day with good vis and no current. When the current is ripping, if you're not tied in to the wreck the boat will for-sure be gone when the dive is done.

As to your point about missing he line on the way back up: chances of doing that are much lower if the line is attached to the wreck you're diving on.

 

[Charlie99]

Come to NJ some time. If the line isn't attached to the wreck, chances are pretty good that you won't find the wreck when you go down the line even on a day with good vis and no current. When the current is ripping, if you're not tied in to the wreck the boat will for-sure be gone when the dive is done.

Different regions have developed their own methods, which have their advantages and disadvantages. I doubt that you will convince UK divers such as flw that you have to be tied into a wreck and that shot lines don't work, since they routinely successfully dive with live boats and shot lines.

If you have a boat with many divers on it, picking up multiple drifting divers can be difficult, so there is an advantage to being tied in. OTOH, if you have high currents, it is much easier to do ascents and stops while drifting. It appears that UK diving is quite often done from smaller boats, such as RIBs, with fewer divers to pick up. Different tradeoffs.