[QUOTE=Capt. Phoenix;110113]I’m not saying ship mates aren’t competent, I’m saying that what you said about ATBs isn’t the norm.
I am saying though that most deckhands I have seen on ships are not nearly as competent as most tug deckhands, probably because they don’t handle lines nearly as much.
Plus, most of the time there are ten guys on deck on a ship with eight our so standing there doing nothing. They aren’t needed but called out anyway, why? Because that’s how it’s always been done so that’s what is “safe” and “good seamanship”. The result is breaking hours rules for no reason.[/QUOTE]
Agreed that there are instances where there are too many on deck. However, that has rarely been my experience, and never with mooring. You are really out of the loop about a lot of shipboard operations. When you consider that the on-watch ABs are standing lookout and helmsmen approaching the dock, that leaves only off-watch guys to do anything, at least one of which has already filled in as a lookout relief at the mid-watch and an entire off watch as dinner relief if needbe, plus an off-watch to rig an accomodation ladder for a pilot, which in our trade and gross tonnage, we are always required to take, recency and/or federal pilotage doesnt cut it. We transit areas requiring escort tugs and tethering, the regulations that go with those require personnel on standby at all times to take a line or release a tether, thats an off-watch gang taking 2-hour shifts before or after their nearest watch, sometimes at both ends. Factor in a 3-5-hour transit which we routinely do, and you have at least two watches working off their normal hours, and thats before we get to the dock (or after). We have also done stores and trash underway, thats an entire off-watch gang too.
Then there is the issue of mooring lines… full-sized double, split drum winches (very common) require a minimum of 4 people to operate safely: an operator, two to handle each line on and off each drum, and at least one to watch the lines over the side. That’s the entire deck deptartment with mates (and following the COLREGS up top) at both ends. Sure you could sacrafice personnel… have the mate wearing 3 hats on the bridge (OICNW, lookout, helmsman, where no single job is being paid attention to appropriately), 2 people to operate a winch where neither can see the other end and only properly tend one line at a time (and both drums turning…) – none of that is remotely safe (the mate’s part being illegal), and it would take FOREVER to tie up that way with our equipment. There is also the whole other issue of dock stature and arrangement where full-scale ship docks lend themselves to much longer leads (with heavier lines) and longer tie-ups that can’t be dodged no matter the kind of vessel calling there. That’s a fact of life. Paying out 300’ of 2" spectra to a line boat which then has to take them to a dolphin, transfered to a crew up there and onto hooks happens only so fast. A mid-sized ATB might call at a ship dock but not necessarily be required to take full advantage of the arrangement, or vice versa, they might be slapped at a barge dock with the accompanying shitty arrangements normally found there and be forced into bad leads and mix-match of lines, which should take less time.
The original point being, when you start legitimately logging personnel work and rest hours while following all of the other regulations, it is extremely easy to break one or the other if you’re not careful. For those that haven’t had the joy of having to comply with these rules, it might seem easy to say “oh, just save hours at the dock” or “save hours underway” etc. But with the roving 24-hour period, something you did a day ago could affect you today or add to your hours in six days, and things change; ETAs, orders, docks, traffic, wx, etc, which throws off the plans. Hindsight is always 20/20, and you usually don’t discover it until you input it in the program and it tells you that your work hours were illegal! Plus, you want to keep things rolling as long as possible, you can’t just knock off the whole crew because you’ll be making landfall in 2 days; M/R has to be kept going, crews working, and the inevitable repair discovered today that needs to be done yesterday and will now consume everyone’s hours. Oh you forgot to save hours for that? Too bad. Log today under an exception and hope for the best. All of these things take people and time, the vast majority of which can’t be accomplished with a deckhand and tankerman doing everything on 6 and 6. On that note, we also tend to do far more of our own repairs and more thorough preventative maintenance precisely because we have the people and experience for it, plus the space for spare parts. The ATBs weakest link is the companies’ insistence on the smallest possible engineering crew. It isn’t uncommon for single-fuel ATBs to have a lone engineer with a phonebook as the engine department. God bless 'em, but there is only so much they can do alone. The dual-fuel behemouths will have more like 2 officers and an oiler, better, but if anything happens that requires both of them together, bam, rest hours gone.