Time on land

[weerossi]

Alright all, Now I am coming to my final 2 months left of Phase1 I am wondering what Type of Ships offer most time at port as I could have a choice on which type I sail on?

I have heard Bulks are best as any sign off rain then the hatches close untill the rain has stopped, Also hear Tankers aswell.

Any1 already been to sea on any off these ships be able to tell me amount of time they had on land?

Cheers,

[The H]

Re: Time on land

Surely as a cadet you are tying to get as much sea time as possible.

[weerossi]

Re: Time on land

Never said I didn't want sea time :S or I wouldn't be in this career.

A few hours when in port sometime during several months at sea would be a good treat don't you think?

[Brimbo]

Re: Time on land

It depends on what port you go to, if its a poor country then large container ships can spent up to 5 days there with manual operation. Though bulk ships can spent a lot of time depending on the port and cargo of course, avoid tankers as they usually go to jetty's off-shore, not many countries want a large container of chemicals / oil waiting to blow up at there port!
Your company will tell you what kind of ship you are going on and such, its usually best to get what your given and not want another, though you should already know the type of ships your company has by now !

[weerossi]

Re: Time on land

Cheers, Brimbo.

My sponsor company have bulks, tankers, container, Car carriers. And i was told that i could request what type of ship I would like to go on. Even though it was not guarenteed.

[Steve]

Re: Time on land

Surely as a cadet you are tying to get as much sea time as possible.

This is unlikely to represent a problem in the commercial sector. I have heard of commercial cadets struggling to get sea time, but it's where their sponsor doesn't have many of their own ships, farm their cadets out, and give them lots of leave.

Time in interesting ports is a different matter.

RFA cadets on the other hand may struggle for watchkeeping time on inactive or relatively inactive ships. They are however often best placed for time ashore in interesting places. Swings, roundabouts.

And finally, there is little benefit to "as much as possible". Quality over quantity so long as you meet the minimum requirements for the latter. For example, for deck cadets, bridge watchkeeping on ocean passages is of generally less value than coastal watchkeeping other than for the necessary celestial navigation. I don't know what the engineering corollary would be to that, but I'm sure there is one. Maybe in maintaining equipment that can only be worked on whilst alongside.

[AlternativeNavs]

Re: Time on land

To clarify:

Deck Cadets need at least 6 months watchkeeping (Ocean or Coastal) experience as part of

at least 12 months Sea time... that SEA TIME!

If your vessel spends more than 2/3 of it's time at sea then you can count the whole trip as Sea Time - if not then you can only count your days at Sea.

Yes quality over quantity but you don't want to find yourself short at the end of you cadetship- as much as possible Sea Time would be the best option, and then fit in the quality stuff. Any experience is better than no experience.

For Engineers - 6 Months alongside or at Sea makes no real difference. Obviously you want 'at sea' experience though.

[Steve]

Re: Time on land

at least 12 months Sea time... that SEA TIME!

If your vessel spends more than 2/3 of it's time at sea then you can count the whole trip as Sea Time - if not then you can only count your days at Sea.

Not generally correct. Any time spent on a ship, recorded in your discharge book, counts towards "sea time" for the purposes of STCW 95 and the issue of an NOE.

Your 2/3rds thing only applies to a limited list of "specialised vessels" (i.e. the usual suspects for lurking in harbour) as per MGN 92: http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-mnoti ... 23F6A14382

Note that even in the case of most specialised vessels if you spend less than 2/3rds at sea and count only "steaming time" you are allowed to use a multiplier of 1.5 so you don't actually need to spend 12 months out of harbour.

And although it lists "MoD vessels" and imposes a requirement for 3 months service on merchant ships, that doesn't apply to RFAs as they are already "merchant ships" for this purpose.

The requirements for engineers are here: http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-mnoti ... 6FC619196F
6 months minimum sea service, 4 months minimum watchkeeping, similar caveats for ships spending time with propulsion offline and in sheltered waters apply.

[dawg]

Re: Time on land

I don't know what the engineering corollary would be to that, but I'm sure there is one.

It's probably "working on a ship that's falling to bits", rather than a nice new shiny high tech one... where you never get to see the insides of things, or how to fix stuff. Cheify?

[GuinnessMan]

Re: Time on land

Older vessels are better as that is the basics. Newer vessels have more automation and generally you can do more just standing in the control room.

I remember some cadets came back not knowing how to Synchronise generators manually. "We only pushed one button...."

[Chiefy]

Re: Time on land

Even new boats need to have thier inards inspected, in some instances more than the older ones, as you need to make sure "stuff just works"

On current boat the automation is so good, you (duty engineer) spends hours (while on stand-by, it's ok when it settles at running speed) runnning up and down to the Jacket Water By-Pass valve to keep engine jackets at the right temperature due to the 3-way being in the wrong place, an error replicated 12 times to my knowledge!