Remote rescue A remarkable tale of rescue after an island grounding 19


Screen and heard New study calls for ports to help crews to keep connected 21


NL nieuws Twee pagina’s met nieuws uit Nederland 34-35


Volume 44 | Number 09 | September 2011 | £3.35


Cowes yacht has close encounter


€3.50


with tanker FYachts cluttering up a shipping


lane or a giant merchant vessel


intruding into a sailing regatta? Whatever your point of view, the crew of the Atlanta of Chester were very fortunate to escape with hardly a scratch during Cowes Week last month when their 33ft yacht collided with the 123,581dwt tanker Hanne Knutsen. Two crew members were thrown


into the Solent on 6 August as the yacht was de-masted in the collision with the UK-flagged tanker off Egypt Point.


The RHIB Vigilant took one of the sailors back to shore for medical attention, while the Southampton Patrol Boat and Hamble Rescue took the other to a waiting ambulance at Trinity Pontoon. Both were later given the all-clear. An investigation into the incident


is now being carried out by Associated British Ports Southampton, the statutory harbour authority responsible for the Solent shipping lanes. Its findings are expected later this year. Picture: Lloyd Images


UK industry appeal on training support study P


Unions and owners make joint call for minister to agree contingency plan for SMarT review


A united industry appeal has been made by UK owners and unions for the government to put in an


emergency contingency plan to prevent seafarer training numbers from being set back by a review of the SMarT support scheme. Nautilus International has made a joint appeal with the ratings union RMT and the British Chamber of Shipping to urge ship- ping minister Mike Penning to ensure that the wide-ranging study of the Support for Maritime Training measures does not damage the intake of trainee officers and ratings.


The government has appointed Deloitte and Oxford Economics to conduct the first phase of the review, which has been com- missioned to produce ‘practical recom- mendations on how the economic require- ment for trained seafarers in the UK can be best met, having regard to current financial


constraints’. Terms of reference for the review


include: zthe UK’s requirement for trained seafarers at sea and ashore over the next decade zthe extent to which these requirements have to be met by UK seafarers zthe effectiveness and efficiency of existing funding arrangements zthe future need for government intervention to ensure the supply of trained seafarers zoptions for supporting the training of seafarers


The consultants’ study got under way


last month and is due to be completed by the end of the year. It will then be consid- ered by the review group before being passed to ministers — a process that is unlikely to be finished by next February at the earliest.


The timescale has prompted fears that the uncertainty over the future size and scope of SMarT could have an adverse effect on recruitment plans. ‘We are concerned that, in practice, the


majority of shipping companies will have set their budgets for cadet and rating train- ing before the review is completed and any resulting decision will have been taken,’ the industry letter points out. ‘We are concerned that companies will almost certainly be setting their training budgets against the background of a lack of knowledge of the training costs they will face and that this is already uncertain because of the position regarding further and higher education funding,’ it adds. ‘The danger is that budgets will be set in


such a way that — if the outcome on the SMarT scheme is negative —not only will the numbers in training reduce as a direct consequence, but in many cases recruit-


ment is likely also to be constrained by companies’ budgets as well.’ Nautilus, the RMT and the Chamber of Shipping have asked the minister to put a contingency plan in place for the current level of SMarT funding to be extended for a further year to ‘smooth the transition’ to any new arrangements. Nautilus general secretary Mark Dick- inson commented: ‘Not only are we con- cerned that this review is taking place — especially within the context of the gov- ernment’s programme of public spending cuts — but we are also very worried that the resulting uncertainty over the future will damage the desperately needed invest- ment in maritime skills. ‘The stakes are extremely high and the


government must recognise that it is run- ning the risk of reversing all the gains that have been made in the past decade,’ he added.


Crash skipper had been awake for 20 hours FRenewed concerns over


seafarer fatigue have been


raised after a report on a grounding in Scotland earlier this year revealed that the skipper had been awake for 20 hours at the time of the incident. The Maritime Accident


Investigation Branch report on the loss of the French trawler Jack Abry II on the Isle of Rum in January found that the skipper had misinterpreted the radar display and lost situational awareness —judging that ‘the island was further away than it was’. The evidence in the report points


to the skipper having fallen asleep approximately 20 minutes before the grounding. The MAIB concluded that the


skipper was likely to have been fatigued at the time, but that there were other failings which contributed to the accident. These included failure to use watchkeeping and navigational aids; no company instructions on navigational watchkeeping practice and a lack of oversight by the company of the vessel’s operations, to ensure the crew were adhering to policies.


Inside


F Piracy progress Efforts to combat piracy are paying off, the IMO has claimed —page 20


F Light work UK lighthouse authorities plan for ‘e’-navaids — pages 24-25


F Mind the ballast Why seafarers need to worry about new ballast water rules —pages 30-31


F ETV plea UK urged to delay the withdrawal of emergency towing vessels —page 48


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39