A fender bender in Halliburton Slip yesterday?

[QUOTE=labitmc;125722]We are having safety standown fleet wide …heard it was head on collision. anyone have further details?[/QUOTE]

A head on seems to be more than just a fender bender…

Ive been thinking about doing a blog post to the subject that this thread has really brought to light in my opinion. With the rapid expansion of the industry and the amount of traffic in the port, the rapid increase in the size of vessels, and the rapid influx of people lacking in experience and or the so called right stuff, we have been on a course to see more and more incidents like this. I say this too as a guy with only two years in OSVs and DP work. My experience before hand was mostly as a tugboat deckhand doing various smaller hawser towing and construction work, and a fair amount of wheel time on a variety of passenger boats. I did however grow up on and around boats in the yacht industry and gained that right stuff boat handling wise at a much younger age. All it took coming to a 240 foot zdrive OSV was a little time figuring out zdrives and getting a feel for the vessels size and blind spots. I work with some guys though who have only ever driven big boats, and still don’t get it. Guys with a lot more time in the wheelhouse than myself. These are the guys that due to the rapid expansion of the industry and need for personnel have been thrust into positions they aren’t and may never be ready for.
I don’t want this to come off as a self serving tooting my own horn post at all, I just have thought since I got into the industry and have watched it take off again that we would start to see more and more of this kind of thing. The boats are bigger, the average crew experience is lower, and fourchon is only getting more crowded.

We need unlimited tonnage masters to come run a boat handling clinic down here.

Unfortunately I think the problem will get worse before it gets better. Traitors previous post summed the Fourchon problem right up. The infrastructure in Fourchon was never built for vessels 300+ feet. The inexperience of officers driving these news boats is starting to show up more and more. There are several spots in Fourchon were you should not attempt to meet other vessels but people don’t seem to understand this now. What used to work on a 250 foot boat 5 years ago will not work on 320 foot boat today. Officers are getting turned loose on the wheel before they are even remotely close to being ready. Also crew boats over 200 feet should not be allowed to stern up to the dock.

I’ve only got 2 speeds. Off and on.

[QUOTE=“Fraqrat;125730”]We need unlimited tonnage masters to come run a boat handling clinic down here.[/QUOTE]

I would be happy to do it, but I don’t come cheap.

[QUOTE=ElCapitan;125732]Also crew boats over 200 feet should not be allowed to stern up to the dock.[/QUOTE]
And the occasional liftboat with a helipad.

There are a lot of places that are getting congested: floatation entrance is one of them now that supply boats are tying to the dolphins

Part of the problem too are the overly aggressive crew boat operators. A lot of these guys don’t know their port from stbd and insist on coming around you at the most inopportune times.

This might be a dumb question…but, are there passing arrangements being made while underway and in port?

[QUOTE=RubberRhib888;125746]This might be a dumb question…but, are there passing arrangements being made while underway and in port?[/QUOTE]

yeah, however as it has been said with some crew boats being very aggressive, I have definitely had guys not know the difference between the one and the two whistle while overtaking.

I know I get made fun of occasionally for being too patient and not being assertive with getting in and out of places. However patience is exactly what most of fourchon needs.

Patience and common sense would help greatly.

Traitor Yankee which crewboat are you talking about? The oil company you work for only has one correct?

Aggressive crewboat operators have nothing to do with the congestion problem in Fourchon. Most of the time what you call aggressive, is a good crewboat operator trying to stay out of the way of the supply boats. They are not ran like supply boats because the aren’t supply boats.

Inexperience is the problem period. From crewboats all the way to large OSVs, personnel managers are filling spots with credentials not with qualified people. It seems that this is especially happening at a couple of the large companies that are aggressively building boats right now.

Are the pool rigs the problem or is the way people deal with the traffic that meets there? Once they move it will be two or three wide with boats there anyway.

Lol, go to NY and the KVK/AK, light tugs “scrape paint” with barges and ships to stay out of their way and get to jobs. It’s not aggressive there it’s just how ya do it. Do these crewboats roll by making 25-30 Knots up inside or do they pull it back well before berths etc?

Careful about complaining too much, the gummint may have to step in and they always do a great job.

Who’s talking about congestion? I’m taking about operators that sneak around supply boats when they are making turns in places such as Floatation or Halliburton. Especially, if two supply boats are meeting in tight quarters. They can start a chain reaction that might lead to a collision, allision, or grounding.

I saw two tugs once trying to get an ocean going barge to north dock at CP1 once in high winds and ebbing tide. Thick black smoke pouring from their stacks. While they were topping around, two crewboats pushed their way through between the barge and the dock. One asshole had the nerve to turn around and head back cause he got new orders. “Oh just let me sneak on through Cap. Just take a sec.” You gotta be kidding me, right?!?

[QUOTE=coldduck;125758]Traitor Yankee which crewboat are you talking about? The oil company you work for only has one correct?[/QUOTE]

I should correct that, they had two on contract until recently. They are down to just the Harvey Sailor right now. They had had the Fast Skipper for years and replaced it with the Adri Lab while the DD1 was out towards florida because the Skipper didn’t have DP and the production platforms and DD1 didn’t want them because of that. Of course they replaced it with a boat that they swore up and down had DP, and doesn’t.

I would also say crew boats are not the big problem, however I have seen some bonehead moves by a few crew boat operators that have cause several big boats to slam on the brakes and get closer to each other than they would like.

That being said it is inexperience and the lack of a learned level of judgment that says, yeah I can hold up here for a minute or sixty, that is the real problem.

[QUOTE=“coldduck;125761”]

Are the pool rigs the problem or is the way people deal with the traffic that meets there? Once they move it will be two or three wide with boats there anyway.[/QUOTE]

Yea got to love when you’re outbound and another large OSV can’t wait outside the slip, so they hang out by the turn at Stone… JUST WAIT! It would make life much easier.

[QUOTE=coldduck;125761]Are the pool rigs the problem or is the way people deal with the traffic that meets there? Once they move it will be two or three wide with boats there anyway.[/QUOTE]

I would much rather touch tires on a tied up supply boat there than catch my bridge wing on the pool rigs life boats…