If I’m crazy they need to pay me $1,200,000 for it. And someone needs to contact the UN for human rights violations.
I rest my case!
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I’d forgotten about that feature, it’s great! Completely hide a user who insists on posting off-topic personal complaints. Much easier to avoid the desire to make a fruitless reply.
I don’t know. I went through one or two GOM downsizing crunches. If you’re a solid worker you might make it through. Not always, but I fought where I could to cut deadwood and keep the good ones. I wouldn’t let the threat of industry cycles keep a competent worker from hiring on in the gulf and making some good money while available.
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Go away.
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While I was never laid off & acknowledge your use of the word, “might”, I seen too much nonsense to agree with you, at least on the OSV side. I seen people who were employed longer than me with my former company who had more experience with larger licenses be let go just because they were at home while I wasn’t. I seen people laid off because they couldn’t get to the office fast enough on short notice. I suspected the company would call 2 or 3 people for the same position to lay off the 2 who came in 2nd & 3rd? I seen great workers be laid off/fired for minor infractions while lazy scumbags had the sense to not demonstrate work to be fired for. Not even 2 years ago there were only 1 working drill ship in the GoM & a couple dozen working OSV’s? Where did all the mariners go from the previous oil booms then?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying don’t go to the GoM but I am saying only the foolished & ill informed will go expecting to have a job there in 2 or 3 years. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Only way I would return would be for temp positions or for quick cash after I retire when I wouldn’t depend on the income.
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It’s the patriarchy…man. 
I think most mariners don’t want to work their way up the hawsepipe and men included, even when you give them all the tools for success and tell them you’ll teach them anything they want to know most still don’t assert themselves to climb the pipe, it’s really quite sad.
I think the academy is where women commonly come from in the industry due to it being easier to get through…if not more costly.
Women being less inclined to work a physically demanding and dirty job at times would seem, quite obvious to most reasonable folks.
Can’t draw that conclusion though I guess.
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I’m speaking from Brazilian Offshore fields. There are a lot of ECO PSV’s and AHTS here too. I’ve been onboard an ECO vessel but people usually said that even minor maintenance are done at Port by 3rd party companies. But it’s not the common, companies like DOF, Subsea7 and Technip the Engineers, Qmed’s they do all preventive and corrective maintenance onboard, it’s pretty normal to overhaul equipments and so on.
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Which they aren’t obviously
Fair enough. I’m not so arrogant as to deny that timing and luck contributed to my rise when I transitioned into the GOM. But for what it’s worth, as an engineer, if you care about technology and the latest and greatest, that’s where you’ll get the exposure. That’s what drew me in. You can work a pre-position or MSC or a union box boat or tanker, but the future in any industry is tech. I sincerely hope the future in US offshore is anchored in offshore wind, and the tech principles from the GOM oil patch should and will be germane to that development.
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I agree with this, without a doubt. Last year I posted about the technology I seen on the Space Shuttle Atlantis compared to technology on a fully automated DP3 construction vessel. The space shuttle was all toggle, open-close circuitry. If it had any PLC’s, mod, profibus, Cat6 cables or eithernet I didn’t see it. The construction vessels that I contracted on were generations more advanced. The space shuttle tech was like caveman stuff compared to it. Dummies can’t make it on those vessels for sure. I can see that appeal.
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Not so sure how this thread turned into anti-hawsepipe, but we can break down why there’s fewer hawsepipers becoming engineers. If you would, just go to the NMC’s website and look at the schooling required to go from QMED to 3rd Assistant or Chief OSV. In order to get the required training for the STCW endorsement, there’s 7 or 8 classes needed above what’s required for QMED. Some of these classes are 3-4 weeks long and at a cost of approx $25k. Working a 6/3 or 3/3 schedule makes it extremely difficult, add a family life and expenses on their income, and it’s almost impossible.
As far as judging hawsepipers’ abillities……can’t say in 27 years that I can make a definite opinion as to who is better as there are good and bad engineers from schools and the pipe. I can say that I haven’t seen an academy grad yet not having to follow behind a good QMED on rounds, to learn the operational side.
On working in the GOM…by now anyone who comes to work down here should expect a downturn eventually. Use it for what it’s worth. Make a large chunk of money, advance in licensing and have a solid place to land when they do layoffs and/or cut wages in half. Keep your expenses as low as possible.
The benefits, Hornbeck is behind Chouest and Tidewater in pay. They offer a “discretionary” contribution to 401k and you start accumulating a percentage at 20% of that a year after year two (sucks). The medical is sub par but better than what’s offered through the Obamacare market (Marry a nurse and get on her benefits lol). They also have vision, dental, life insurance, fsa,short and long term disability. They also have a quarterly safety bonus which is quite nice. Training - they use the grant money from Louisiana and you request training to get approved for a school. You have to sign a promissory note to stay two years or you pay it back. Travel - they give a stipend depending how far from the office you live, but after that it gets complicated. Getting to Fourchon from New Orleans is a bit of a chore as they don’t have a company van. You will be fortunate if someone is getting off the boat and headed back to the airport, where you can rent a car and your relief return it. That poses liability issues in itself. Otherwise it’s Uber or a cab at close to $200.
Jumping back was a no brainer for me. I needed time as a 1st Assistant to upgrade to Chief Unlimited, the Vice President of my previous company was retiring, and I want to buy a bit of land.
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It’s not off topic because everyone is talking about it.
I heard about it before I started there but didn’t know the extent of how bad it was.
The only respectable person I met was an ETO. They gave him shit too because he wasn’t a moron (you have to be a moron to get on there) but he worked with a chief that had his back. The other people I met were only nice in the beginning to gauge weather I would be willing to sleep with them or not. When not we’ll then they just take the side of the the dumb cavemen because that’s how it is there.
Against all my instincts here goes my story of making it through my 2nd oil patch crunch.
My 207ft OSV was being stacked after the 9/11 attacks & all crew laid off. All crew were hawspipe & mixed races. The crew onboard which included me was to demobe the vessel & take to a boneyard outside of Houma to be tied to trees along the bank. The crew at home was shit out of luck. After we tied to a few trees we waited 3 days for a launch & carryall to come pick us up. 2 guys on board who lived local flagged down passing fishing boats for rides on day 1. They were permanently laid off too with only 3 remaining on board. After 3 days, us 3 were picked up, drove to the office to get our vehicles to look for new jobs. Amazingly we got to the guard shack & a coordinator was there who said he needed people to make a delivery to Nigeria. 1 guy declined & was officially laid off. The other guy & myself accepted. The delivery crew dragged our feet the whole way & pulled another 2+ months out of it. After that I went on vacation for 6 weeks. The dumb office laid off too many people & after my 6 weeks off I was CE on one of the newest vessels in the fleet. No whiteness, academy ring or penis needed, 100% pure dumb luck that time. I stayed with that company, mostly overseas, for the next 5 years.
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I’m not trying to be Captain obvious but there still was not a female engineer 
What a stupid way to run a business. I’d get caught once with a $200 cab ride and never come back.
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All academy grads or hawespipers have to learn from their peer snothing new there.
That companies think they are being competitive because they offer more than the affordable care act AKA Obama care is funny. The Affordable Care Act was designed for people with no jobs and unable to get medical coverage from their empoyers
[quote=“Wasforkandblade, post:81, topic:64298”]
They also have a quarterly safety bonus which is quite nice. Training - they use the grant money from Louisiana and you request training to get approved for a school. You have to sign a promissory note to stay two years or you pay it back. Travel - they give a stipend depending how far from the office you live, but after that it gets complicated. Getting to Fourchon from New Orleans is a bit of a chore as they don’t have a company van. You will be fortunate if someone is getting off the boat and headed back to the airport, where you can rent a car and your relief return it. That poses liability issues in itself. Otherwise it’s Uber or a cab at close to $200.
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Nothing has changed in 40 years apparently in the GOM. No job security, poor benefits nothing promised but pay for the day.
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HOS is as good an option as any for someone within driving distance of south Louisiana. The folks that have to fly, you are using every penny of that travel stipend if not more…and your stipend is getting taxed let’s not forget. Sure, you can get on a steady boat with a good Capt that takes interest in working logistics of the crew change out, and that will help save some bucks, but if you don’t have those two things, crew change can be expensive. In addition to cab/Uber/rental cars, just think about a hotel at least on one end of your crew change.
I’ll say this though about HOS, if your crew change gets fuckered up by the client, they will at least cover the difference if you have to change your plane ticket.
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The stipend thing is bullshit, but that is sort of ok.
The fact that they make you get yourself from MSY to Fourchon is asinine.
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Oh I agree…that’s why I said if you live in driving distance, not an issue.
And we all know when things take a dive, the travel stipend will be the first thing to get cut or go away completely.
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