🔍 Key Concepts

• Damaged stability on a column-stabilized drilling unit • How weight removal from specific ballast tanks affects trim and list • Reading the Sample Load Form #4 (Drilling) tank plan to locate tank numbers and sides (port/starboard, fore/aft, center)

💭 Think About

• Look at the damage location: starboard center column below the waterline. How will this damage tend to affect the unit’s list and draft at that column? • On the Sample Load Form #4, identify where each answer-choice tank (2P, C1S, 9P, 9S) is located. Which of these, if pumped out, most directly helps the unit’s stability in way of the damaged starboard center column? • Think about whether you are trying to lighten the damaged side near the damage or add weight to the opposite side. Which approach is normally taken first to relieve a damaged column?

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify which tanks are port (P) and which are starboard (S), and which are near the center column versus the end columns. • Check the vertical and longitudinal position of each tank on the form: is it high/low, forward/aft, and how would pumping it affect heel and trim? • Confirm from the Sample Load Form which tank(s) are actually located in or closest to the starboard center column region; one of those is the better candidate to pump.