Team building is a lot of things. Having fun is one of them. And why not combine business and pleasure?

In our full-scale state-of-the art maritime simulators we can take you at sea on-board different types of ships and demonstrate different ship operations or even let you steer and operate the ship on your own along different coastlines and in different harbors. With no risk and a lot of fun!

In your daily life at work you might find yourself in situations where you listen to or talk about different types of maritime and offshore operations. Many times, you could wish that you had more insight in these subjects to increase your understanding of your clients’ needs or perhaps go into further details regarding ship capabilities and solutions

We offer a learning arena combined with great fun specially designed for non-operational bodies, brokers, finance institutions, politicians, etc.

Any team building sessions will be tailor made for you and will typically last for less than a day unless you want to go deeper into the subjects.

Did you by the way know that Haugesund is just one hour away from Oslo, 2-3 hours away from Bergen and 1-2 hours away from Stavanger? Take the morning flight and you could be back the same afternoon. Or, you could arrange a team seminar the day before or after and enjoy swinging Haugesund in the evening.

If you fancy this idea do not hesitate to contact Simsea any time.

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..

Below you will find Nautical Institute’s (NI) guidelines as per December 2019 for revalidation of your DP certificate. If you have any questions or are in doubt how these guidelines we recommend you to contact Jenny Daintree in NI for clarification. We also recommend you to get any clarification in writing. Simsea will continue to run revalidation courses and you will find actual dates in our booking system http://sts.simsea.no. You may also contact Lars Gustavsen at +47 913 89 783 for further details.

The Nautical Institute has developed a set of guidelines for those revalidating after the transition period for revalidation finishes on 31st December 2019. These guidelines are to provide information for those who have not yet revalidated their DP Certificate or are due to revalidate for a second time, and the actions required if they wish to revalidate. This guidance particularly applies to:   DPOs with DP Certificates issued before 2012   Any DP Certificate issued before 2012 that does not have an expiry date will expire on 31st December 2019.   DPOs with DP Certificates due for revalidation before 2020   Any DP Certificate issued after 2012 (and due to expire before 2020) that has not yet been revalidated will also expire on 31st December 2019.   The following points apply to all DPOs who are revalidating their certificate   1. DP sea time can only be claimed while a DP Certificate is valid. Time completed after the DP Certificate expires cannot be used towards any revalidation.   2. A DPO can still apply for their revalidation after the expiry date, however the new certificate will only be valid for a period of five years from the previous certificate expiry date.   3. DPOs may apply after their certificate has expired if they have met the DP sea time requirements for revalidation while their certificate was valid. [This applies to revalidation based on 150 days or more of DP sea time, or revalidation based on less than 150 days of DP sea time, in which case, the person needs to complete the Simulator Course and a minimum of 30 days DP sea time].   4. If the DPO did not complete the required DP sea time for revalidation before the expiry of the certificate, then the following routes for revalidation are available for DPOs with an expired certificate: Take the Revalidation Course without DP sea time. Standard rules for revalidation with the course still apply.Take the Simulator Course with a minimum of 60 days DP sea time   5. If a DPO cannot provide any evidence of the DP sea time within the last 10 years, or equivalent occupation or activities as recognised by the NI they will need to repeat their DP training starting with the Basic Course, and complete the training and sea time before a certificate can be issued. Please see below for example scenarios.

Any company involved in maritime or offshore operations has a wide range of training needs from ordinary familiarization to handling special operations and inherent risk. In many instances you will have the required coaching competence in your own organization. In some cases, training on board will be a good and efficient solution, in other cases this will be expensive or time-consuming to arrange. In such situations we offer rental of our state-of-the-art Kongsberg simulators.

Our simulators have models of real ships and equipment in daily use onboard. At time being we have models of semi-submersible rigs, shuttle tankers, coasters, anchor handlers, construction ships, ROV control room, shift supervisor station, work ROV, knuckle boom crane, wire luffing crane, diesel/ electric engines for ship and rig, high voltage and LNG bunkering stations. We can rent additional models from Kongsberg Digital’s library and – we can produce special models that has not yet been developed.

The SIMSEA simulators are delivered and updated by Kongsberg Digital and Fugro Intersite and certified by DNV-GL. As per today we have

5 Bridges, K-Sim Offshore with DP, DNVGL Class A

2 DP bridge trainers; NI class A and B (K-Pos, SDP)

6 ECDIS stations/bridges

Ship/rig offshore crane

2 Engine control rooms

1 High Voltage panel (real equipment according to NMA specifications)

1 DeepWorks subsea simulator, including ROV control room (Kystdesign),

All our simulators are integrated and can be used for advanced complex operations. Each simulator can also be used on a stand-alone basis. You will find our simulators very realistic and we provide different natural forces influencing your operations like weather, current, wind and heavy seas. The only thing missing is the fresh sea air.

We provide the necessary support like set-up of simulators for simple exercises or operating the simulator equipment for more complex training needs. We will also provide any administrative support, any documentation of the training and catering.

If you have any questions or want to examine this opportunity in detail don’t hesitate to contact Lars Gustavsen, telephone 913 89 783 or A Rune Johansen at telephone 909 30 668.

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!

Simsea has now got accreditation from the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) to provide both Basic and Advanced training according to the IGF Code. The courses are relevant for masters, officers, ratings and other personnel on ships subject to the IGF code. The courses could also be useful for personnel at LNG farms.

Please note that we as a part of the course run bunkering operations on Kongsberg Engine Room Simulators and that 2 Bunkering Operations at the Advanced course is approved by NMA.

Basic course:

By this course the participants shall gain basic knowledge to be able to contribute to the safe operation of a ship subject to the IGF code. Safe operation includes to prevent hazard, apply occupational health and safety precautions and measures, carry out firefighting, respond to emergencies and to prevent pollution of the environment.  

The content of the Basic course is in accordance with STCW A-V/3-1 including the following aspects of operating ships subject to the IGF code:

• Rules and regulations
• Design and operational characteristics
• Fuel characteristics, fuel systems and fuel storage systems
• Fuel and fuel storage systems’ operations
• Physical properties of fuel
• Safety requirements and safety management
• Hazards associated with operations and hazard controls
• Gas-measuring and similar equipment
• Safe working practices and procedures
• Fire organization, fuel hazards, firefighting agents and methods including fire-fighting system operation
• Emergency procedures
• Measures to be taken in the event of leakage/spillage/venting of fuels

Advanced course:

By this course the participants shall gain familiarity with physical and chemical properties of fuels, competence of operate controls, ability to perform all operations, plan and monitor bunkering of a ship subject to the IGF code. This includes competence to take precautions to prevent pollution, secure compliance with legislative requirements, to prevent hazard, apply occupational health and safety precautions and measures, how to prevent fire and to control firefighting and extinguishing systems.  

The content of the course is in accordance with STCW A-V/3-2 including the following aspects of operating ships subject to the IGF code:

• Safe bunkering including planning and monitoring
• Operating principles of marine power plants
• Ships’ auxiliary machinery
• Marine engineering terms
• Design and characteristics of ships, systems and equipment
• Fuel system theory and characteristics including pumps
• Effects of pollution
• Measures to be taken in the event of spillage/leakage/venting
• MARPOL, other relevant IMO instruments, industry guidelines and commonly applied port regulations
• Hazard and control measures
• Safety equipment
• Safe working practises and procedures
• Firefighting methods and appliances

Simsea has over the years trained thousands of deck officers to avoid and handle challenging situations that can occur on-board a ship. The deck officers typically come from all kinds of trades and ships. We train them in leadership, situation awareness, stress handling, decision making, communication, teamwork, etc. However, and that is a paradox, we very seldom train engineers! Now, our engine room simulators are not in use.

This is primarily a paradox because most incidents on-board a modern ship is caused by issues in the engine room. The incident at Hustadvika in Norway this year where a cruise ship faced server trouble is in fact not a special case. It doesn’t require much fantasy to imagine the stress the engineers must have felt on-board Viking Sky when the ship drifted towards striking rocks or hopefully a solid attachment for the anchors.

Many sailing engineers have no experience from such situations and the sad truth is that nor are they trained to handle them. It is of cause a big difference from day to day routine work in the engine room to problem solving under severe stress. Very capable engineers working as instructors in Simsea confirm this. Most maritime engineers need to be trained in handling engine trouble under server stress. This includes beeing on top of the situation; dicover and understand, and maintain a proactive attitude to the circumstances surrounding them. At the same time they need to be capable of share their observations, understanding and actions with colleagues and bridge to create a shared situation awareness.

Remember, “a safe ship has engineers that can handle a crisis as well as routine work”. Practice makes perfect.

Simsea now offers many training courses where we combine simulator training with e-learning. We call this blended training.

So, why do we do this?

In our continuous improvement work we focus on changes that meet our key success criteria:

• Increased learning outcome
• Credible documentation
• Reduced training costs

Our training schemes traditionally consist of a practical doing part and a part where we teach the relevant theory behind the doing. The Practice doing part place in simulators and is prepared by a thorough brief and summed up by a debrief where student reflection is an important element. Most of the theory has been taught in classroom lectures.  An important issue for us has been to find a more effective learning method for teaching theory than classroom lectures often characterized by challenges like students’ mixed motivation, mixed competence and lack of a common terminology.

We have landed on e-learning as our main method for teaching theory. In an e-learning module theory will typically be presented by text, pictures and videos. And – each part of the module will have tests that the student shall have to pass. We run all e-learning on a separate specially designed computer program. Computers facilitates the presentation of educational material according to students’ learning needs, as indicated by their responses to questions, tasks and experiences. In this way e-learning is adaptive, it is student active, it facilitates common competence and terminology and – it assures and document the learning outcome.

Our blended training approach is approved by the governmental bodies like NMA and has been well received by all stakeholders. The customers appreciate it because it means more value for money; the increase in learning outcome, the credible documentation and the reduced costs by reducing number of days at the simulation center. The individual course participant appreciates it because it reduces the stay away from home and family.