Are Cadets being let down and poorly trained? Thoughts, views and experiences please.

[GuinnessMan]

I know what you mean, no obviously I haven't had any dealings with flag authorities, I'm just commenting with what was discussed at the meeting. And Panama was called a flag of convenience. If it is much stricter then why would so many companies use it though?

I knew I would come in for some stick for being new to the industry but I'm just using what was discussed and I thought asking on here for peoples experiences that I can feedback to the group involved (Who are senior officers and experienced cadets) and would help us in following up with the minister.

Simple, their tonnage tax is lower than ours, however their maritime authority tend to be much stricter and, to be honest, a bit more of a pain in the a*se to deal with when it comes to likes of certificates and inspections. From experience, I tend to prefer the Marshall Islands Flag (ran by IRI) as they tend to be fairly good, decent inspections and generally good easy to work with when it comes to the likes of armed guards and dispensations (others throw up lots of barriers or are just unwilling to assist you in any way).

[GuinnessMan]

The 'Donald Duckling' tied up on the Tyne right now which says they can't be that strict?! Or does it just happen to attract irresponsible owners due to its low cost?

Just having a cold shower after getting severely burned by GM....

So your proof that Panama is not a very strict flag is based on the detaining of......one ship? Panama are fairly strict, but if you have a large enough ship register then some will, sadly, slip through the cracks as you can't do constant inspections on all of them. It's what PSC, Class and even the damned management company is for! Blaming the flag for the poor management of vessel's is a bloody cop out. I've sailed on a UK flagged vessel that a thorough PSC inspection would have detained immediately, does that mean our flag is crap?

Also, if you'd bothered to actually look a bit more into it, you'd notice that they are owned by Nobu Su's TMT group, the same group that has gone bankrupt (again!?) and has had issues with his ships all over the world. Why do you think no business will go near him with a sh*tty stick and the conditions on his ship's go from being good/alright to poor very quickly.

Edited to add: I've been told that my 4 month comment sounded a bit flippant, as if I was brushing him off. That was not the intention and I do apologies if it sounded that way. However, I deal with flags and the class societies near enough every day, which is a lot more than your average seafarer who will only see them a handful of times per year, so it means I have more experience as to what each flag tends to be like and whilst Panama is not exactly my favourite, they're certainly not the worst out there.

[GuinnessMan]

No I'm not saying that.

Yes I have actually looked into it a while back when she appeared here, and yes the owner of TMT is in court in the US for bankruptcy I read.

Why won't Panama release the report on the Danny FII still then? She was lost four years ago.

No idea. There may still be some litigation or other court issues going on. Sometimes these things can take years to resolve.

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[chris]

Panama the quality flag... I heard they don't have enough staff on their books for the number of ships they've registered.

Thats why this accident report was so delayed wasn't it?

https://www.nautilusint.org/News-and-Events/Pages/article.aspx?newsid=560