I have been observing several Gulfmark (St.Louis and Orleans) supply boats backing into C-port 1 slips using, I believe the DP system. The movement of the boats is just too precise (no movement fore or aft while heading changes, speed varies little when observed on AIS) for these guys to be doing this manually. I would just like to say that I find this shameful and disgusting. When I was coming up boat handling and dockmanship where skills to be learned and admired not buttons to push. I know that Gulfmark is laden with academy people and that no real mariner would ever do such a thing. I work for GOL and I would like to tell all these can’t handle a boat people that I would be LAUGHED out of the company if word got out that I was using the DP to back into the slip, and rightfully so. I am also proud to say we are a company of real mariners, there may be some academy types around here but I have yet to meet any. I don’t think there is anything wrong with going to an academy, but when you see people trying to short circuit the dues paying process…honestly I don’t think anyone who has actually paid theirs can help but be sickened.
WTF is up your ass! You’ve got three knots of current running down the bayou and you’re a fool NOT to use DP to get into C-Port! I certainly have and am not ashamed at all to say it…pal!
For once I am going to say take your anti academy asshole attitude and shove it where the sun never shines!
Yes…your emotional defense of your incompetence is no doubt commensurate with your day rate. If you think there is current in Fourchon god help you if your DP goes out in Cameron. I guess you would just wake up the hawspiper. I am told that is whats done when all else fails. Only good thing I can say is that its job security for the people who learned to handle a boat by hand. We manage to dock daily there without using it as do many others. If you did it with my company you’d be a laughing stock, rest assured.
Yes they do use dp at the dock. A lot of the new guys where I work want to do that. C captain. If you need to use dp at the dock you need a new profession. Yes using dp at the dock is wrong in many ways besides the fact that these people can’t drive boats. Oh and yes c captain I have ran 155 ft - 300ft vessels out of c port 1 for years it just takes boat handling skills. My rant on this subject is done so I will not reply to your stupid comments.
My dearest Captain Swampnet
I’ll assume your username is indicative of where you are from and hence need say no more. How’s that 8th grade edumacation doin ya?
I also need to ask what the eff “dockmanship” is? The correct term I believe is “shiphandling” or “seamanship”. Look them up sometime…you might learn something.
Keep working on your numbers btw…you’se gots a ways to go here with only two whole posts to your credit.
My dearest CaptHH
…whatever
Never been on a dp boat but wouldn’t it be faster/more efficient to use it to dock in the first place?
DP is anything but faster…
See below idiot Mr. “c.captain”…these are but two of the many examples to be found with a simple google search, just because you have never heard of the word (and yet the schools are so much better up north you say) does not mean that I invented it, far from it. Actually I learned the term when someone suggested this book to me back when I was learning how to handle a boat. Back before you button jockeys were even a rumor out here. And yes I am proud to be from Louisiana. People from Louisiana invented the part of the profession that we are in. If I thought you could read and learn as well as you can flap your jaws here on this board I would suggest a book to you. Its callled “Rise of the Cajun mariners” by Woody Falgout. No book has yet been published called “Rise of the carpetbagging know-it-all mariners who came down and showed everyone their manifest superiority at docking with Dynamic Positioning” Although I suspect that you could be a major contributor and central character to such a book. And it appears that your idea of paying your dues is by the number of posts you have on this board, not with boat handling or dare I say dockmanship. You cannot defend yourself or your incompetence with anything other than name calling. Rather sad.
Dockmanship by David Owen Bell - Schifferbooks.com
www.schifferbooks.com/newschiffer/book_template.php?isbn…
Dockmanship, according to author Bell, is “the art, skill, and practice of safely berthing and unberthing a vessel.”
Seaworthy.com Dockmanship
www.seaworthy.com/…/index2.php?…
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
Dockmanship. $7.95. Provides the needed information to turn any skipper into a master of docking. Covers every aspect of close-quarter maneuvering for all size vessels
…
If it weren’t for the name calling and mud slinging this would be a good topic of discussion.
Does using DP always mean that someone doesn’t know how to operate the vessel? I’ve had the paint scratched on my drillship a lot more by non-DP boats than by DP boats. Having (and using DP) doesn’t mean you can’t shiphandle. A trained mariner (regardless of academy or hawsepipe) knows how to best utilize all of the tools available. If you’re backing into any dock… regardless of the current… and you can use DP then why not? That doesn’t exclude you from the obligation to intervene if the system isn’t working right. Do you only use celestial navigation instead of GPS just because you think it makes you a better sailor than the next guy? It doesn’t make any sense to ignore the technology for the sake of pride. Additionally I think you’ll see companies requiring the use of the technology provided more and more. They have millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars invested in these modern vessels and don’t want them spending time in the yard getting holes patched because you came alongside a little too fast.
For the record I would like to be clear and say that I think that DP is a fine and useful tool for operations offshore, or indeed any time you need to hold position. I do not think that its better to take 5 times as long while others are waiting to back a boat into a slip using DP because you simply cannot do it by hand.
I am an Academy grad.
I work for a major OSV company.
I work as a senior officer aboard one of the largest OSVs in the fleet.
I have a mere few years in the oil field.
I have never docked the vessel under Dynamic Positioning system.
I have never witnessed docking with DP.
I am the academy grad trying to puzzle out why the cajun navy thinks it is so special, as if they invented offshore lightering.
I am the academy grad frequently doing chart corrections, fixing the computers, running the GMDSS, troubleshooting the DP, reading the regulations, and typing the emails because the cajuns don’t know how.
Finally:
There’s no such thing as 2nd Captain.
The foc’sle is a place on a ship, not the name of a deck level.
I’m out.
Strap in everybody, the ride is going to be bumpy and I have a feeling this thread is going on for a while…
Hang on. Gonna go make some popcorn.
Good humor while waiting for my relief to show up… I got my popcorn ready!!!
I’ve had popcorn ever since that dumbass called c.captain an academy grad…
Hmm, I’m from an academy. Worked hard to get there, worked hard to stay and graduate, and gosh darn it wouldn’t you know, a few years later I’m actually able to stream a tow, flop a barge and put’er in safely to the berth in various conditions and still manage to get along great with green to seasoned hawsepipers and academy grads. Some people still seem to have this hawsepipe vs. academy beef going on. Its 2012 last time I checked, and its about time we get over it.
I think it would be hard to use DP to back into C-Port 1 as the side forces on the vessel would be contanly changing as it was backed into the slip. DP doesn’t like variable forces in a short time period. Also the forces would only be on the bow… Again DP is not usually set up to counter forces on only one end of the vessel.
Where I work DP means designated person but I still want to put in my 2 cents here. Via Malcom Galdwell there are categories and traits. In this case the categories are academy grads and Cajuns and the traits are ship handling skills and office skills.
The point I want to make is that making a connection between the category and the trait in this case is ignorant.
K.C.
Very interesting.