SPONSORS OF TYNE & TEES FEATURE
SOUTH TYNESIDE COLLEGE
South Tyneside College’s Marine Safety Training Centre is one of the foremost training facilities in the UK and has been developed to provide the most realistic training environment possible.
Within their training pool area there is an eight-seater helicopter escape module, helicopter winching arrangements, davit- launched life raft equipment, a range of marine and aviation life rafts, survival suits, life jackets and associated survival equipment, and an offshore platform transfer simulator. The centre also has a jetty which provides mooring.
semi-submersible rigs in the North Sea and ran fishery patrol and survey vessels for the Environment Agency. He joined the college 13 years ago.
GRAHAM EXPLAINS...
To ensure the safety of employees, I believe a review of the training standard is urgently needed within the marine safety industry for transfer from vessel to installation.
More realistic but controlled and safe training is required than is currently laid down by Renewable UK (RUK) and the Europe-wide Global Wind organisation (GWO), the two safety accreditation bodies.
INDUSTRY QUESTIONS
To start that process, two questions should be pondered by our industry and its regulators as they seek to give their employees the best possible training and fulfil their duty of care.
1 Is transfer training in what can be described as ‘benign’ conditions doing anyone any favours?
2 How many days a year are the wind and sea conditions around Europe’s shores so good that a transfer to or from an offshore turbine can be called benign?
EXPERIENCES
I have experienced a transfer in near perfect conditions on Burbo Bank but, with the ever present risk of bow waves from passing ferries and other vessels, nothing should be taken for granted.
A large, practical seamanship area is equipped with a wide range of shipboard equipment and models of ships’ structures and devices. Other accommodation includes modern classrooms and meeting rooms.
URGENT NEED FOR A REVIEW OF STANDARDS
Graham Johnson is Head of School at South Tyneside College’s Marine Safety Training Centre in South Shields. He is a professional mariner to rank of Master and has worked around the UK’s coast in tankers, supply boats and anchor handlers. He also spent two years on
In the early days of RUK, a large number within a sea survival working party argued against transfer training in unrealistic conditions, those conditions which fail to match how it really is in the water.
It was noticeable that those most in favour of this were those who were unable to control the sea or water conditions and who would have been at a disadvantage if the standard had dictated a set wave height transfer requirement.
Having delivered transfer training to a major European company which specified transfer in wave conditions, and having
given all our delegates the option of benign or wave conditions, all requested motion. I have no doubt that this is the better option.
OBSERVATIONS
Video footage from inside transfer vessels or from fixed cameras on installations show that transfers are taking place routinely in large wave conditions and that individuals are transferring without adequate training. Comments from delegates on boat transfer courses re- enforce this point.
Training providers across the country offer height training. This intensive instruction takes place at a realistic height and over two days offering training for a task that is in the main predictable and controlled.
UNPREDICTABLE
However, the transfer to or from a ladder to a vessel around the shores and further out to sea in European waters is far from routine and is unpredictable.
Sadly, RUK and GWo require us only to do training that is carried out in the flat calm and for only a very short period of time, with no emergency scenarios or rescues practiced.
NO MANDATORY GUIDELINES Fortunately, neither organisations’ guidelines are mandatory and at the request of individual companies we carry out training as realistic as possible to those witnessed around Europe’s coasts in our 4m-deep, 18m by 10m environmental pool by using our variable wave pattern generator, as well as wind, rain, light and sound effects.
URGENT NEED
It is because of RUK and GWo’s unrealistic guidelines that a review of the training standard is urgently needed. This is an industry that is growing rapidly, is in the public eye and can attract adverse publicity - and has no excuse from not learning from industries that have worked with the sea for decades.
Graham Johnson South Tyneside College
www.stc.ac.uk
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
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