I don’t think there’s a mariner alive who doesn’t appreciate a 3 watch system…
I’m partial to rolling watch schedules myself, that is any schedule that doesn’t work out to 24 hours, such as 7.5 / 15, since it shares the burden of the dog watch. It really shines during extended periods at sea, such as loitering or long passages. I’ve had a few opportunities to implement it, and people seemed happy enough. The only downside is that it isn’t as easy to remember when you go on, so it necessitates a watch schedule posted in the mess.
Surprised? Consider what this forum has taught us about Swedes
It’s a 4 man boat. It probably has a Subchapter M COI specifying 4 men. So yes, 6/6 watch schedule.
If I had to guess, I’d say the deckhand/engineer may have been in the galley cleaning up after breakfast, or getting started for the day in the engineroom.
Who is at fault?
The USCG is at fault for authorizing a tugboat to operate with only 4 men. This 4 man COI insanity needs to stop.
About half of the companies are doing this 4 man crew nonsense because it saves a few dollars a day on operating costs, and most importantly, the USCG allows it.
It’s 100% the USCG’s fault. You can’t blame an owner for operating with what the USCG says is “safe” when they have to bid against other companies doing it.
The Swedish watch system works with any number of people greater than 1. It is for crews split into two watches that otherwise would do 4/4 or 6/6 or whatever.
When I started sailing offshore 4/4 was the norm and I really hated it. It seemed like as soon as you were sound asleep someone was poking you to get up and out of their bunk and you always had the same watch in a 24 hour period, i.e. you had the dog watch forever.
The Swedish system gives you one 6 hour watch and one 6 hour off watch per 24 hours and it is a rolling schedule, if you got 2200-0200 one night you are off watch 2200-0200 the next night. I think anyone used to a three-watch system would still hate it, 4/8 would give you much better rest than any two watch system.
A 4 man tug going out for any long trip would seem IMHO to have things happen that need the off-watch crew to be doing something, so they probably slowly get more and more sleep deprived.
I wonder how long land based workers would tolerate 6 on 6 off. Why in the world mariners health and well being is less valuable than a factory worker always amazed me. Especially considering the havoc a tired mariner can bring.
Knowing that run, and that it happened on a Monday morning, for all you sea-lawyers out there, likely they were on the boat only about 6-8 hours. Spent time with the wife and kids over the weekend. . .
So the watch schedule for long periods didn’t really enter into the situation.
More than likely, as it isn’t required yet on that class boat, no BNWAS
Thirty three years ago I remember the skipper of a particular fish tender ran aground in Bellingham Channel. Almost the exact same deal. Stopped a few yards short of someone’s beach house. Same reaction from the wife, according to the papers at the time. Skipper said he fell asleep (the boat had left Bellingham a couple of hours before, after a couple of days layover).
He was drunk as a skunk. The crew knew he was drunk. Only people that didn’t know were the USCG. (No testing back then).
He is probably the only known skipper to run aground while drunk. Has never happened since. Anywhere.
A 4 man crew is pretty much the standard. Most small boats only have 4 bunks and having a 6-8 man crew wouldn’t even be possible because there would simply not be enough room. 6/6 is a mind numbing routine but for some boats that’s the only option.
A lot of boats have them but don’t turn them on. We’ve had more accidental activations (got to the dock and the Mate isn’t supposed to know how to deactivate it) than anything else. Many have a window of 3-12 minutes of no motion before it goes off in the wheelhouse, in restricted waters even 3 minutes isn’t enough.
Right…and being i am not familiar with the area is why i said ‘too little too late’…
I know a guy on a past boat i worked on, at least a couple times a hitch he would forget about it when he went into the doghouse to make and break, and it would go off in the galley and wake the off watch crew up.
Everytime I see a four man Cajun boat pull up to shackle in, I simultaneously wince and shake my head. We run 5 with engineer usually running swing 6/6 and by the end of the second week, he’s tired. No accidents yet but feels far from safe…
There’s no excuse for not setting a watch alarm. Even if the vessel is not equipped with one, everyone has a smart phone and those work perfectly fine absent a heart attack/stroke.
Using it as a reminder to check certain things as opposed to an if you fall asleep device is ideal, because lots of people don’t really believe they can fall asleep.
The Pacific Northwest fishing boats all have watch alarms. Insurance usually requires it. A decent watch alarm is only a few hundred dollars. Every tug should have one.
Never understood why a big ship carrying a box of rocks across an empty ocean in a straight line for weeks needs 3 watches but an oil barge in someone’s backyard can run 6/6
