Manning Levels on ATB and Tankers

[cmakin]

@OneEighteen

… and I am probably being unfair to the owners. The system of evading rules and regulations is a race to the bottom. Responsible owners who would like to do the right thing are penalized by a system that rewards the lowest cost operators. If one operator reduces crews from 8 to 6 everyone is obliged to follow suit to stay competitive. If operators are allowed to build “tugs” without towing gear, eventually all such vessels will be without proper winches.

One of the proper and necessary functions of government is to level the playing field so responsible owners are rewarded for building and operating first class vessels.

Hard to argue with that. I will say that my experience with an early ATB, even operated by a ship management company was a bit different. After a time, we actually increased the size of the crew to the point where we were sailing with three engineers, a Master and two mates, a cook, two tankermen, two ABs and and OS. Still less than a comparable ship, but more than subsequent operators placed onboard. We had the odd incident, and it was very hard work, but I don’t believe that any of the incidents were related to fatigue.