Author: Simsea

The On The Wave (OtW) project positions itself within the Blue Growth programme area 3 “Education, Scholarships, Apprenticeships and Youth Entrepreneurship” and clearly and directly contributes to two programme outcomes, namely “4. Education, training and cooperation in marine and maritime issues enhanced” and “5. Enhanced collaboration between the beneficiary and the donor states involved in the programme by focusing on capacity building processes within the maritime sector”.

The project will contribute to “promote the improvement of human resources skills and awareness in marine and maritime issues” by building a rationale that stands heavily on the value and need of better-equipped education and training professionals within the maritime sector, focusing on distance and blended learning methodologies (on the top training priorities due to COVID-19). On the Wave will further reinforce education and training in the sector by including collaborative processes of knowledge sharing between training providers from Portugal and Norway to design new training courses.

The project will answer the needs of call#5, namely:

1. improving skills and competences in maritime sector through education and training;
2. promoting institutional cooperation of education between entities from Norway and Portugal, thus enhancing the quality and relevance of education and training in Portugal;
3. encouraging the professional development of teachers, trainers.

On the Wave will contribute to such priorities by creating training courses which will entail the design, development, and implementation of the following initiatives:

1. Implementation of sharing sessions and study visits, thus promoting trainers short exchange activities and the exchange of knowledge and experiences.
2. Co-designing a distance/blended learning training methodology for maritime training offers;
3. Structure, develop and implement short-duration training units (SDTU), as well as structuring an online model and 3 online STCW training courses
4. Jointly organize a set of events, thus further promoting synergies and cooperation between Portuguese and Norwegian training providers.

By doing this, the project will answer and contribute to the following programme targets/indicators:

1. The development 5 intellectual outputs jointly created in cooperation projects (courses programme, curricula, teaching materials…);
2. At least 60 to 80 participants self-declare improves skills and competencies after undertaking the SDTU;
3. At least 2 training providers are supported in providing maritime training subjects;
4. At least 3-4 trainers/technical staff from Portugal participate in short exchange activities;
5. At least 2 events are jointly organized (at least 50 participants) and 12 workshop like sessions are jointly organized (overall 252 participants).

If you want to know more about the project please contact Felix A Klein; fak@simsea.no or phone 992 94 880.

The personnel onboard ships – including the bridge, deck and the machine room – makes judgments and decisions of risk and efficiency that impacts safety and the bottom line of the company. The performance of the personnel reflects their abilities, personalities and their training. In general, one can argue, that the sum of the contributions (the captain and the sub-ordinates) mirror whether a maritime company lives up to its standards and policies. A good captain will be able to coach and facilitate development of the people onboard yet remain able to be assertive and decisive when needed. The officer on watch is the right hand of the captain who contribute to the major goals, and so on. A fully functioning crew are dependent on each members contribution, and it is therefore important to know of each members ability, personality and training, in order to predict future performance.

At Simsea, we offer an assessment product that increases the likelihood of predicting future performance of sea farers. The assessment is administrated by our human factors specialist and our maritime director, and the product can be fitted for candidates who are either promoted or newly hired.

We tailor the assessment to our clients’ needs. However, we recommend an assessment that follow three stages: 1. Job analysis. 2. Ability and personality tests, 3. Simulator evaluation.

Assessment method

1. We first conduct a job analysis together with our client and learn about the ship demands and success criteria for the job.
2. Thereafter, we gather information about the candidate’s abilities and personality and assess fit with the job. We use research-based tests that are highly reliable and rigorously tested from the firm Human Content.
   1. First, the candidate conducts a general ability test that reflect the ability in analysing and solving complex tasks, ability to learn, and finding good solutions.
   2. Secondly, the candidate conducts a personality test which provide information on which type of work situations they are likely to thrive in, and which situations they are likely to feel challenged by. This information is vital, because we know that people are not perfect, and we know that performing well in challenging situations can be trained on.  
3. In the last stage the candidate performs in the simulator and we have several different types of scenarios that fit different types of work-roles on a boat, including both bridge crew and engine crew. In the simulator, we get to see the candidate’s performance related to the specific job-role, and they are also evaluated on their social and cognitive skills with the 4 NOTECHS categories; decision making, situational awareness, cooperation and leadership.

The assessment can be conducted either exclusively for one or more candidates, or for candidates who already participate on several of our courses such as:

• Bridge Resource Management in accordance with IMO Model Course 1.22 and 1.39.
• Engine Room Resource Management in accordance with IMO Model Course 2.07.

The client and the candidate receive a final report that contains a conclusion, and evaluations on which strengths and developmental potential that we see in the candidate.

If you have questions about our assessment product you can contact our Human Factors specialist Felix Anker Klein at fak@simsea.no

In today’s digital world it is possible to conduct most offshore operations in our advanced full-scale simulators before you go offshore. No footprint there!

A modern subsea simulator park like we have at Simsea, is an excellent arena for testing or even better; conduct a complete dry run of your operation! These full-scale integrated simulators can run most offshore operations. No footprint here!

And you personnel will be familiar with procedures, equipment, seabed and other on scene conditions when they finally reach the destination offshore. They will be on top of the situation and know that they master the challenges and have this good feeling of professional confidence in the project and in each other. Of course, such confidence is a prerequisite for efficient execution offshore!

Our facilities consist of several real ship bridges with DP, engine rooms, offshore crane, WROV, ‘shift supervisor’ desk and – the relevant field’s existing infrastructure and typography.

In these simulators, the operators have a focus on the solutions, the equipment, the procedures and the tooling on a quite different level then by getting a presentation in a meeting room: Tooling design and detailed sequence planning for the operations are tested and confirmed; contingency operations and parallel operations are identified. By joint testing of procedures and task plans you will avoid stops in the operations offshore and redesign on deck due to unforeseen challenges. Simulator tests, dry runs, etc. should be done by onshore and offshore personnel, together, reducing the cost of sending a lot of onshore based personnel onboard for many days. And not to mention: You can do your HAZID and HAZOP by doing the operation instead of talking about it in a crowded meeting room.

After such preparation’s footprint and costs will definitely be reduced.

Many shipping companies have experienced unexpected issues with the electric propulsion system on their ships. They have had to ensure that incidents are properly investigated and that prevention measures are deployed to avoid reoccurrence of similar problems.

One of the actions needed is to enhance the electric competence of the engineers onboard the vessels. The main purpose of such training is to contribute to

1. closing an identified competence gap in the customer’s current shipboard organizations related to existing electrical propulsions machinery,
2. bridging the competence gap between engineers and ETO’s and
3. develop the understanding of each other’s roles and functions.
   Simsea is currently running a training session like this for one of our customers.
   
   After the course, participants should have an in-depth understanding of purpose, functionality, interdependence and operation of
   • Generators
   • Switchboards
   • Transformers
   • Converters
   • E-motors
   • Gearbox
   which are the main electrical components in the electric system onboard.
   
   Special emphasis will be put on issues primarily related to the variable speed converter system:
   • Connections
   • Ethernet switch
   • Fast Link cable • IGBT
   • PCB & Capacitor • Relays
   • Snubber Capacitors
   In addition, the Engineers shall be able to handle any emergency and crisis scenarios.

The content of the course is in accordance with requirements from (customer), and the course content includes:

1. Rules and regulations
2. Basic system understanding
3. Main components modes of operation
4. Maintenance and inspections of installations and ex equipment
5. High Voltage Cables theory
6. Power generation, Emergency and main. Principle of work
7. High Voltage switchboard and danger related to the equipment.
8. High and Low voltage breakers, function of different types 
9. Use of High voltage indicators and grounding devices
10. Operational planning and preparation of switching procedures
11. Protection relays, principle of work
12. Grounding/Earth systems, PE, IE and IS systems
13. Transformers different types and operation
14. Converters components and operation
15. Propulsion motors synchronous and asynchronous principal of work
16. UPS systems, functioning and operation
17. Emergency shutdown systems, philosophy and functioning (ESD)
18. Black start
19. Simulator training

One of the main challenges in running such training is to maintain an operational rather than an engineering terminology and focus during the lectures and to demonstrate professional challenges and solutions by employing realistic simulators. Often, courses held by suppliers of electric solutions do not meet such an operational focus and thus the learning outcome is reduced.

Please contact A Rune Johansen in Simsea at +47 909 30 668  if you would like to hear more about this opportunity.

✔ Grunnkurs hurtigbåt

Grunnkurs hurtigbåt er rettet mot navigatører og maskinister på hurtigbåt.
Kurset er et scenariobasert kurs, som skal gi deltagerne en økt forståelse og erfaring av å operere hurtigbåt under forskjellige situasjoner. Kurset skal gi deltakerne økt forståelse for menneskelige faktorer som påvirker vår atferd og måten vi samhandler og kommuniserer på, være bedre rustet til å jobbe i team, og kunne være med på forhindre misforståelser og hindre at uhell og nesten-uhell skjer.
Deltakerne skal oppnå kunnskap om grunnleggende psykologiske og sosiale forhold som påvirker situasjonsforståelse, beslutningstaking og atferd i kritiske situasjoner og hvordan disse kan påvirke teamets prosesser, evner og ytelse i operative sammenhenger.
Deltagerne skal demonstrere kompetanse og ferdigheter i henhold til STCW Tabell A-II/1, A-III/1 og forskrift fra 2011-12-22 nr. 1523 § 65, emneplan for hurtigbåt fra 2014-11-18.
Kurset vil også gi opplæring på gjeldende regelverk, standard prosedyrer og prosedyrebygging, krisehåndtering og teknisk karakteristikk av hurtigbåt. Relevante «Case studies» gjennomføres for å belyse årsaker til tidligere operative ulykker.
Varigheten er 4 dager (29 timer) i tillegg til en e-læringsmodul (9 timer).
Det er plass til 12 deltakere per kurs. For å kunne motta kursbevis må deltakeren bestå vurdering i simulator samt skriftlig eksamen.
Kurset er i henhold til Sjøfartsdirektoratets emneplan pr 18.11.2014.

✔ Re-treningskurs hurtigbåt

Re-treningskurs hurtigbåt er rettet mot navigatører og maskinister på hurtigbåt.
Opptakskrav til kurset for deltager, er gyldig kvalifikasjonsbevis for hurtiggående fartøy i henhold til §65 i forskrift om kvalifikasjoner og sertifikater for sjøfolk. (FOR-2011-12-22-1523).
Kurset er et scenariobasert kurs, som skal gi deltagerne en økt forståelse og erfaring av å operere hurtigbåt under forskjellige situasjoner. Kurset skal gi deltakerne økt forståelse for menneskelige faktorer som påvirker vår atferd og måten vi samhandler og kommuniserer på, være bedre rustet til å jobbe i team, og kunne være med på å forhindre misforståelser og hindre at uhell og nesten-uhell skjer.
Deltakerne skal oppnå kunnskap om grunnleggende psykologiske og sosiale forhold som påvirker situasjonsforståelse, beslutningstaking og atferd i kritiske situasjoner og hvordan disse kan påvirke teamets prosesser, evner og ytelse i operative sammenhenger.
Deltagerne skal demonstrere kompetanse og ferdigheter i henhold til STCW Tabell A-II/1, A-III/1 og forskrift fra 2011-12-22 nr. 1523 § 65, emneplan for hurtigbåt fra 2014-11-18.
Kurset vil også gi opplæring på gjeldende regelverk, standard prosedyrer og prosedyrebygging, krisehåndtering og teknisk karakteristikk av hurtigbåt. Relevante «Case studies» gjennomføres for å belyse årsaker til tidligere operative ulykker .
Varigheten er 2 dager (15 timer) og en dag e-læring (9 timer).
Det er plass til 12 deltakere per kurs. For å kunne motta kursbevis må deltakeren bestå vurdering i simulator samt skriftlig eksamen.
Kurset er i henhold til Sjøfartsdirektoratets emneplan pr 18.11.2014.

For booking bruk denne linken https://sts.simsea.no/course-types/category/high-speed eller kontalt
Turid Landås på telefon +47 940 05 770 eller mail@simsea.no..

Operating a ship requires painstaking and continuous planning, training, and preparation and follow-up of procedures. When we operate a ship there is an inherent risk in everything we do , which may lead to some kind of impact ranging from smaller incidents to huge disasters impacting on human life, the environment and material damage.

Any non conformity may harm the shipping company’s relation to its charterer. A risk analysis process is often carried out before hiring a vessel. A low risk vessel is good for business! One incident or non conformity is one too many. Dependent on the seriousness of the incident investigations will be carried out to identify and understand the root causes. This in itself could be a challenging exercise requiring thorough analysis involving different competencies. The same goes for identifying effective corrective actions that includes efficient learning processes and lasting improvements.

And of cause there is a cost side as well in addition to any loss of business due to dissatisfied charterers. Most maritime incidents are covered by insurance. According to CEFOR the insurance companies covered incident cost of approximately 1,5 billion USD in 2015. The policy holders’ own share of this add up to significant sums of money. For material damage the policy holder will have to cover normally 150 000 USD per incident and 16 days off hire. A total cost of 1 million USD for an “average incident” is not too much to put into your budgets.

So, what is the recipe for effective and efficient corrective actions?

The obvious answer is of cause that there is not one single recipe there to help us out. However, we know that human factors are the major root cause of incidents. Of this reason it becomes essential to increase the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the people on-board; their awareness, their ability to assess risk, to avoid it if possible and to handle incidents should it occur, and – their ability to cooperate and communicate . Yet, more and more companies choose to send staff with a bare minimum of training to work, vastly increasing the risk of incidents. 

In most aspects of life, we know that the only way to improve competence and performance is by training. Researchers have found several effective learning practices for adults meaning that grown up people is learning:

1. when they know why they are learning something
2. by doing
3. by solving problems
4. when the subject is of immediate use
5. in social interaction
6. when they can use their life experience
7. when they can integrate new ideas with existing knowledge

Of cause training on-board will meet the most of these criteria and should be priority number one when it comes to learning normal operations and preventing incidents. However, when it comes to handle those incidents we know will happen someday (and they will; shit happens), there is simply no alternative to simulator training. The simulator training focuses safe handling of critical situations requiring awareness, close interaction and responsiveness in environments very similar to real life on board. The simulated operations are monitored and observed and the participants get feedback and proper debriefing. We can do it again and again until all participants get the good feeling of professional confident in various challenging situations. Simulator training is a way to reduce the risk for human errors especially when absolute precision, perfect teamwork and split-second decisions are needed. But the best of all; simulator training completely risk free!

Some argue that simulator training often is costly. Well, this is simply not the case anymore. Especially when you consider the business case: Less incidents. Look to the shuttle tankers, they do it!

The Cruise Ship DP training program runs over 3 days and have an e-learning module that participants should take upfront.
After the course participants should be able to:

✔ Have acquired knowledge of the principles of DP.
✔ Have acquired a basic understanding of how to set up a DP system.
✔ Have understanding of the practical operation of associated equipment, including position reference systems.
✔ Be able to recognize the various alarm, warning and information messages.
✔ Be able to relate the DP installation to the ship system, including (but not limited to) power supply, manoeuvering facility, available position reference systems and nature of work.
✔ Be able to relate DP operations to the existing environmental conditions of wind, sea state, current/tidal stream and vessel movement.
✔ Carry out operational planning, risk assessment and hazard identification tasks
✔ Set up the DP system for a particular task
✔ Operate the communications
✔ Analyse the trends
✔ Discuss systems failures
✔ Decide on courses of action because of systems failures
✔ React to alarms and printer readout
✔ Initiate DP Alert status alarms
✔ React to all events occurring
✔ Operate the desk under normal and pressured conditions:

Simsea is an experienced provider of most maritime training courses and is accredited by NMA. Our DP training and DPO certification and are accredited by Nautical Institute and DNV GL.

Simsea in Haugesund provides H01 High Voltage training for electricians approved by NMA. The course has a total duration of 105 hours of which 5 days at center and 47,5 hours as e-learning. The course has been arranged for several years with positive feedback from the participants. The course is divided in two parts

Part 1 is equivalent to H02 and lasts for 70 hours
(3 days at center and e-learning equivalent to 47,5 hours) and includes:

1. FSE, Ship, low and high voltage
2. High voltage Ship theory
3. Rules and regulations
4. Basic system understanding
5. Modes of operation
6. Construction, outfit and equipment
7. Maintenance of installations and plants
8. Connections, tools and cable clips
9. Danger related to equipment on-board
10. Use of high-voltage indicators and grounding devices
11. Operation planning and preparation of procedures
12. Demonstration of management and operational skills
13. Auxiliary equipment and calibration
14. Maintenance and switching procedures and check lists

Part 2 lasts for 35 hours and includes:

1. Rules and regulations
2. Basic system understanding
3. Modes of operation
4. Construction, outfit and equipment
5. Generator operation, synchronization, adjustment load/power factor.
6. Maintenance of installations and plants
7. Connections, tools and cable clips
8. Danger related to equipment on-board
9. Use of high-voltage indicators and grounding devices
10. Operation planning and preparation of procedures
11. Demonstration of management and operational skills
12. Auxiliary equipment and calibration
13. Maintenance and switching procedures and check lists
14. Maintenance of High voltage equipment, switching procedures and checklists.
15. UPS systems, functioning and operation
16. Emergency shutdown systems, philosophy and functioning (ESD)(cause & effect.)
17. Practice, demonstration and perform termination/end mounting and connection of high voltage cables, performed in workshop.

For more info and booking use this link, or contact Turid Landås at
+47 940 05 770 or mail@simsea.no. Please note that we offer an attractive accommodation package here in Haugesund.

By: Sturle Danielsen Tvedt
Human Factors Specialist at Simsea Real Operations AS Asssoc. 
Professor II in Psychology at University of Bergen

Simsea conducted a fruitful test course for ship to ship (STS) operations yesterday with highly contributing guests from Equinor, Teekay and Knutsen OAS. We expect STS courses to an established course during this year.

STS operations are currently receiving increased attention as it becomes more common among shuttle tankers; it has been increasingly clear that the incidents are more frequent with STS than with the offshore loading operations typical for shuttle tankers.

Incident reports and simulator recreations yet again show that in addition to the technical skills needed for STS operations, senior shuttle tanker officers depend on their non-technical skills to perform safely: First and foremost, they need to maintain situation awareness of loading conditions, local conditions and complex weather- and current parameters. An example in point is sea swell: Guidelines and forecast may define direction and height of swell but neglect the period (“length”) of the swell. The result is that an operation performed within the defined safe limits (3m swell height) is unsafe due to a long swell period which increases rolling and likelihood of contact damage between the ships.

In addition to maintaining good situation awareness, the captains must negotiate authority with a mooring master in a situation which is parallel with ‘pilot relations’ – commonly known to lead to incidents when these relations are poor. Thus, in a complex decision making process during planning and execution (which is a compromise adaptation to wind, current, waves and swell, loading conditions, vessel sizes and manoeuvrability), a captain must be able to communicate to a mooring master the unique features of his propulsion set up (such as a non-linear increases in thrust and high-lift rudders) and how this must be taken into account performing the operation.

This is why ship to ship transfer is all about people – not hulls!

Simsea har trent tusenvis av dekksoffiserer i å unngå og håndtere vanskelige situasjoner som kan oppstå ombord. Vi trener dem i ledelse, situasjonsbevisshet, stress, beslutningstaking, kommunikasjon, samarbeid etc. Og – vi trener dem i maritime operasjoner som manøvrering, kystnavigasjon, ballast, stabilitet, tauing, DP mv. Dekksoffiserene vi trener kommer fra nærskipsfart, langfart, offshore, rigg, tank, bulk og offshore operasjoner.
Men, og det er det paradoksale, vi trener svært sjeldne maskinister. Unntaket var ved oppgradering av sertifikater. Ellers har vi sett svært lite til disse glemte heltene og våre maskinrom-simulatorer står mer eller mindre ubrukte. Dette er et paradoks fordi svært mange ulykker og neste ulykker til sjøs skyldes trøbbel i maskinrommet. Hendelsene på Hustadvika i slutten av mars i år er ikke noe særtilfelle. Det skal ikke mye fantasi til å se for seg stresset som hersket i maskinkontrollrommet på Viking Sky der alarmene ulte og skipet drev mot land og forhåpentligvis et ankerfeste. Mange seilende maskinister har ikke opplevd slike situasjoner og når de oppstår har de ingen trening i å hanskes med dem. Det er stor forskjell på rutinearbeid i maskinrommet og problemløsning under stress. Garva maskinister som er instruktører hos oss, bekrefter dette. Maskinister flest har behov for mer trening i å takle akutt maskintrøbbel under alvorlig stress. Dette innebærer å holde hodet kaldt når det “koker” rundt deg: Kunne oppfatte alarmer og andre signaler, forstå hva de betyr i den gitte situasjonen, kunne forutse konsekvenser og vite hvordan man skal håndtere situasjonen. Samtidig må man være i stand til å dele situasjonforståelsen med kollegene i maskinrom og på bro. Som det sies; et sikkert skip har maskinister som er rustet for krise så vel som daglig rutine. Øvelse gjør mester.