We absolutely do have to vet everyone that comes aboard with a towing license.
30 days of “observation” time, a one day TOAR simulator course, and a USCG exam taken at a school where everyone passes, are NOT any sort of assurance of towing competency.
The scary thing is that HR assumes a license is an assurance of competence.
We have all seen enough guys that are just a warm body with a license.
If the USCG had serious requirements for towing licenses that suggest a reasonable probability of basic competence, I’d be in favor of keeping the towing licenses.
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I almost agree this to be true with most of the licenses we hold.
98 percent of what I learned over the years has been hands on and very little from the exams.
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License is a learners permit. Anyone who implicitly trusts someone bc they have a piece of paper saying they took a test is an idiot.
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Oh good to know. I can’t imagine many other countries don’t. I know most of the FOC tugs don’t have towing licenses for those flags.
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Agreed but most companies take this approach. Most times it’s trial by fire. No shadow or training program in place. Just a warm body filling a billet.
Canada has a couple of smaller tonnage towing licenses. As I recall its 150 GT and 350 GT.
Tugs under 15 tons (about 40 feet) built before a certain year, and new tugs under 10 tons, do not require any licenses. There are a lot of these small tugs in British Columbia.
Perversely, this above 10 or 15 ton license requirement made small tugs less safe because they were built with very low freeboard to keep them under tonnage.
The guys I’ve met on bigger tugs and even the smaller and older OSVs all have Unlimited licenses, but no towing endorsements are required.
In the UK, there may be a “home trade” small tonnage towing license, but generally the job openings for tug Masters require STCW II/2 500 or 3000, but no towing endorsement.