Seatime on Ferries

[yeti9389]

can anyone tell me if time as a cadet on some ferries can only be counted as half time or is this a myth?

[Brimbo]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

complete myth

[GuinnessMan]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

Utter bollocks for the British System. I believe the Indian system has something like that but not us (they even have to have X amount of "propelling" time).

[Steve]

You think this counts in full?

[attachment=0:2qa44p3j]297.jpg[/attachment:2qa44p3j]

[GuinnessMan]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

Seatime is seatime, difference is if you never went on a bigger ship then you would have a restricted ticket!

[Red Fox]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

Seatime is seatime, difference is if you never went on a bigger ship then you would have a restricted ticket!

Surely that depends on the route, Wightlink or similar you'd end up with restricted but P&O, Stena, DFDS etc you'll get an unlimited.

[Chiefy]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

Seatime is seatime, difference is if you never went on a bigger ship then you would have a restricted ticket!

Surely that depends on the route, Wightlink or similar you'd end up with restricted but P&O, Stena, DFDS etc you'll get an unlimited.

Not necessarily, as you are only running to / from Europe and as such can get a LEA (Limited European Area) ticket, which will be high then an unrestircted one. When you get your First Cert (for engineers) it is officer of the watch unlimited and Second Engineer upto 6000kW LEA.....I think........ one of the Jr Officers can take a look at thier ticket and confirm

[Steve]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

So in answering a vaguely related question I came across the detailed answer to this one, as per MGN 93: http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-mnoti ... 6FC619196F

Time on some ferries operating in sheltered waters (perhaps including the floating bridge/chain ferry pictured above) would in fact only count 50% for engineers and a further 3 months on a real seagoing vessel would be required.

The money quote:

3.8 Sheltered water service

3.8.1 Service in ships operating on lakes or rivers, or within category C and D waters as specified in Merchant Shipping Notice M1504 (as amended by M1569 or any subsequent Notice), may be accepted at half rate. However, an unrestricted certificate of competency will not be issued on the basis of sheltered water service only. Three months sea service will be required before this restriction is lifted.

[Red Fox]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

Just out of interest, in general there seems to be a bit of an negative attitude towards ferries, why do you think this is? Is it because the general, incorrect, perception of them is that they're all little things that don't go out of sight of land or is it something else?

[Steve]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

Do you have any examples of this negative attitude?

Ferries (even just within the UK) runs a whole gamut from rowing boats such as the Cramond Ferry, chain ferries attached to the shore such as above, small passenger ferries like that now in operation at Renfrew, hovercraft at Portsmouth, short crossing "landing craft" ferries to islands and peninsulae, inter-island ferries in the Hebrides etc, short sea ferries such as Dover-Calais or Stranraer-Belfast, up to longer distance ferries plying between the UK and Spain or Norway.

Have you heard the "glorified parking attendant" line one time too many?

[Red Fox]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

Do you have any examples of this negative attitude?

I just think there is the perception that many people think ferries are all like the Torpoint ferry or the Calmac landing craft things rather then for example the new Stena Brittanica at 200m+ and 63000GT or the Dover boats.

Surely no one does a ferry cadetship on anything smaller then 75-100m (bigger than most standby/supply boats) except maybe some Wightlink cadets because of berth availability problems with the deep sea company they normally go with.

Have you heard the "glorified parking attendant" line one time too many?

I've heard the glorified taxi drivers one for the Dover-Calais boys, but there is always people saying get yourself on cruise ships or get yourself on a container ship blah blah but without going into any real benefits of doing so though I can think of at least one perk of the cruise ships .

[Steve]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

I'm sure it's difficult to get any celestial work done on ferries, or much taste of deep-sea watchkeeping on all except the UK-Spain or UK-Norway type routes, but there are a number of things that ferries will teach you very, very well:

1) Shiphandling - for berthing your own ship without tugs, I can't think of anyone who does it better, slicker, faster than the ferry boys. Time after time after time.

2) High-intensity rule of the road - especially on the likes of the Dover/Calais routes and other busy short-sea crossings. We might feel like they are cowboys, crossing our stern at WHAT DISTANCE?!!! but again, they are doing it so often that they become very slick and professional in a way that I think those working deep-sea all the time will never/rarely experience. The likes of Wightlink and Red Funnel too are operating day in, day out in the UK's busiest waters. I don't envy them that, but they spend all their time way inside the deep-sea man's "magic mile".

Horses for courses and everyone likes something different. I like playing with helicopters, landing craft, war-canoes, pirates and smugglers. If that stops working out for me, my next stop could be ferries.

[Lewis]

Re: Seatime on Ferries

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12279454
Next you want sea time on this.