I’m confused. Is it their lack of knowledge of the route (pilotage) or ability to handle the boat? I’m a blue water guy and wouldn’t know the first thing about driving a tractor tug and would let you know that up front. If I had the pilotage for NY harbor, I may have the necessary trips by the letter of the law and have successfully drawn the chart but probably not as many trips as a harbor tug mate.
I’m fairly confidemt that given a certain amount of time I would have sufficient local knowledge to do the job and do it well. Every job requires on the job training and some amount of patience from the trainer. I get new chief Mates who have decades of experience but they still need to get up to speed on our particular ship and company. I don’t view it as comedy. I view it as business as usual.
I’m a blue water guy too. One of my first experiences on tugs was getting thrown into the hot seat pushing a loaded barge running through the East River - I was the live comedy show. It took me a gooood while to be able to pull my own watch running through the the Gate.
The thread is “pilotage” and should be about route knowledge. And I’ve met plenty of tug guys that couldn’t pilot their way out of a paper bag, so it can go both ways.