[QUOTE=tengineer;49922]Please don’t say it’s the damn training, or the building standards - neither hold any water once you start digging into which each one really means.
You lost me there. What are you speaking of? Building standards I can discuss how they have been relaxed for the OSVs especially regarding watertight integrity and boundries. The tonnage calculation for OSVs is a joke as you well know.
Training? There are a lot of improvements that could be made. What would you suggest? What course of study differentiates the GOM mariner from his ocean going counterpart?
This is an excellent chance for those who have worked in all aspects of the business to have our say.
Take the lead Anchorman and others, tell us what you think.[/QUOTE]
The ICLL Protocol is consulted for the most-current international requirements regarding watertight integrity and boundries by the class societies. OSV’s must follow those standards, same as everyone else to get the appropriate class designations and international certificates.
I agree that improvements in training can be made, but realizing that 90% of the most valuable training that you will use happen on each particular vessel, the associated vendor training, and what is required by the SMS and training matrix. There is not much value for an OSV mariner to do 2 weeks in a simulator for ship handling, 1 week of marine propulsion plants, and another 2 weeks of cargo ops when each class is structured around something that they will never see or care to do during their entire career.
A recent example of “valuable” training is sending all Siemens manuals and electrical drawings from a particular vessel to GMATS and have some of the best instructors in the industry develop a HV/MV/LV course and conduct that course on the vessel with hands-on training. Seeing interlocks in action and the troubleshooting/theory/safety behind it. That’s the only way to stay on top of technology. Same thing with with class approved preventative maintenance programs, like TM-Master V2, and the associated training needed.
There will never be a one-size-fits-all approach to training when comparing OSV’s to their Ocean counterparts, and it doesn’t make sense to consider working in that direction.
The obvious STCW courses that serves as a common denominator to all vessels is generally required of the OSV mariner and should remain.