For the second year running our Club sponsored the Training award for the Safety at Sea awards. Our loss prevention Karl Lumbers presented the award at a ceremony on board the museum warship, HMS Belfast. The winner of the award was the organisation Seafish Industry for their damage control training for fishermen.

The Damage Control Initiative of Seafish, the UK's pan-industry body for its seafood industry, teaches fishermen how to deal with flooding and prevent their ships sinking once water ingress begins. In 2009 52 per cent of ship losses in the fishing industry were caused by flooding. The initiative includes a two hour damage control seminar and a free box of equipment for fishermen.

Central to the initiative is a stability model that demonstrates the speed with which a flooded ship can founder and how to implement various damage control options. Over a thousand fishermen have completed this course to date.

The UK Club was one of the judging panel, represented by Karl Lumbers. The other judges were Billy Bean ( Warsash Maritime Academy), Peter Blackhurst (Inmarsat), Capt. Rod Johnson (Maritime & Coastguard Authority, UK), Harry Klaverstijn (Schat Harding), Peter Swift (Intertanko) and Kuba Szymanski (Intermanager).

There were two other nominees for the award this year - Det Norske Veritas for their survey simulator (SuSi) and Transas Marine for their global ECDIS training network, GET-Net.

A profile of the three nominees can be found on pages 20-23 of the awards guide pdf attached above, together with all the other award nominees.DNV

The SuSi simulator is a photorealistic 3d training environment for carrying out technical and safety inspections of vessels. It enables participants to have safe experience of situations on board that carry real degree of personal risk.

Originally developed for DNV's own surveyors this system is now offered externally with the aim of more efficient training leading to safer ships and operations. Programs have been developed for bulk carriers, tankers, container ships and mobile offshore units.

Transas Marine

Readers of our loss prevention briefings on ECDIS will be well aware of the compliance deadline of January 2012 STCW ECDIS training requirements.

The system utilises an international partnership of ECDIS training partners and a course which follows IMO Model 1.27, the latest STCW amendments and which is certified by Germanischer Lloyd. It offers both general and type-specific training on the Transas Navi-Sailor product series. In addition to the principles of safe operation and selecting assessing relevant information, training covers requests for new ENC licence and chart updates.