Offshore Working Hours

[endure]

No I was always direct employ. I blagged a cadetship with BP in my last year at college when BP/Shell/Somebody else who I can't remember first start Sparky cadetships. I never worked for a radio company fortunately!

[Clanky]

Endure, where you a Marconi sparkie?

[The Kraken]

Those seem like the days! Last thing I heard about the company I trained with was that they were getting rid of all the Sparkies and replacing them with junior 3rd officers, who basically do all the paperwork at sea and in port and little navigation (before it was standard chief, 2nd, 3rd).

[endure]

In the companies I worked for (BP, Sea Containers, Fyffes and P&O) the Grocer did the stores and the OM did all the other stuff. The only paperwork I did was radio accounts and logs. This was back in the 70s-80s though.

If all my kit was working OK I was free to wander off any time I wanted. In Geelong I used to go up to Melbourne for a couple of days (I lived there as a kid) and call the OM morning and evening just to make sure that everything was OK.

[The Kraken]

The company I sailed with as a cadet had Sparkies (I know, rare these days!) and he was allllllways working when we were alongside. His role was more of an administrator that a radio officer to be fair, so was always busy with the agent, customs, port-state control etc. I think I saw the last Sparky go ashore about once in 4 months.

[endure]

I must admit it came as quite a shock to be asked to work in port. Sparkies just didn't do that kind of thing

[Clanky]

Sounds nasty endure. The worst watches I ever worked were on a coastal dredger with Hanson. It was 8 on 8 off there, which on face value does not sound too bad until you work out that you are never sleeping at the same time from one day to another, and therefore never getting in to a regular sleep pattern. However at least you could get some decent length of sleep unlike your experience, nasty.

I have done 8 on / 8 off before and found it better than sixes. Due to the way that the hours of rest rules are worded it is no longer possible to work 8 on / off, but sixes and twelves are both OK, just shows how silly the regs are.

[endure]

The only redeeming feature was we only used the crane in dumps like Hodeidah and Bandar Shapour. Most other places had their own container cranes apart from Fremantle and Geelong but the Aussie dockers always drove our crane there. They used to send us a different gang every time and it used to take them a week to get the hang of things so we always had plenty of time ashore :-)

[cableguy]

When I worked for Sea Containers I used to do 6 on 6 off driving the ship's gantry crane in places where they didn't have any container handling facilities. I hated it. I was always knackered.

Sounds nasty endure. The worst watches I ever worked were on a coastal dredger with Hanson. It was 8 on 8 off there, which on face value does not sound too bad until you work out that you are never sleeping at the same time from one day to another, and therefore never getting in to a regular sleep pattern. However at least you could get some decent length of sleep unlike your experience, nasty.

[cableguy]

So do you get a meal (or two) brought up to the bridge while you're on watch then?

It all depends to be honest. If you are doing overlapping watches (ie DPO 1 0000-1200, DPO 2 0600-1800, DPO 3 1200-0000, DPO 4 1800-0600) then at meal times (0000, 0600, 1200 and 1800) there will always be three DPOs on the bridge, so everyone can go down and get as meal.

If you don't have this set up and the whole watch changes over at the same time then the old man (if he is not one of the four aforementioned DPOs) might be kind enough to relieve the DPOs for a meal, or alternatively you may need to get the meal in the middle of the watch sent up to the bridge. I have sailed with both such arrangements.

On the extremely odd occasion where only one DPO is required on the bridge (cable ship's working on deep sea repairs are the only ones I can think of) then you can go down in the quiet times and get something.

I think since I changed over to offshore construction (project instead of marine) I have eaten more meals on either the bridge or deck than I ever did as a DPO or SDPO.

[endure]

When I worked for Sea Containers I used to do 6 on 6 off driving the ship's gantry crane in places where they didn't have any container handling facilities. I hated it. I was always knackered.

[HarmlessWeasel]

So do you get a meal (or two) brought up to the bridge while you're on watch then?

[cableguy]

Please correct me if I am wrong throughout this. I would just like a little clarification.

As far as I am aware, vessels working offshore have unique working patterns.

When operating in DP mode, the pattern of which I am told is 6 hours on, 6 hours off. This does coincide with the ILO's working hours and does include, of course, a uninterrupted 6 hour rest period.

Is this enough sleep? The National Sleep Foundation recommend a minimum of 7 hours -6 at a push. With this work pattern, one would be lucky to get 5 hours 30 minutes of sleep.

Although Margret Thatcher managed to get by on 5 hours sleep a day and achieved the age of 87, is this damaging our health?

Hi Lewis,

Going back to your original question, whilst working offshore I have never done any other watches apart from 12 on/12 off (apart from when working in "on call" positions where I've always done 12 hours across the day and then gotten up when needed). Hope that kind of helps to answer it. 12 hours does make it considerably more bearable as I would say, including handovers I get 11 hours below, so a movie and 8 hours sleep, along with meals after/before handovers!

Cheers,


Greg

[marlinspike]

On the front page of this months nautilus telegraph it says the the MAIB are now saying that the 6 on 6 off work pattern can no longer be considered safe. Time to put an end to this form of torture, and stop dropping anchor in Guantanamo bay.

It always has been unsafe, and always will be unsafe unless they make the Graves dream machine from the james bond die another day a reality.

"After undergoing gene therapy treatment, Gustav Graves suffers with permanent insomnia. In order to keep himself from going insane due to lack of sleep, he uses this machine. He tells Zao that a couple of hours on the dream machine keeps him sane. "

http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/gadgets/graves-dream-machine

[Hatchorder]

Secondly, to a limited extent I agree with the comment "bean counters don't care about seafarers safety" - if they were that bothered about safety why do companies flag vessels to flags of convenience? Surely the fact that flags of convenience are cheaper in part because they have less stringent health and safety requirements has something to do with it? But maybe that's a discussion for a different thread!

Flags of convenience are not always about safety. I can name a number of "UK" flagged companies who "flagged out" to Isle of Man, Bahamas, Bermuda etc where their safety standards were the same as ours. The main difference for me was all about terms and conditions. When I was with Maersk they decided to flag out to IOM from UK flag and it was funny that we never once had a communication to say standards were dropping or safety was being compromised - no, we all got new contracts with less pay and less leave on offer - take it or leave it.

I left it!

I do sometimes think that that people think of the "bad old days" when they see flagging out and think that it is about rust buckets with no lifeboats etc. Monrovia and Panama were two that spring to mind from the early 80's. You are right that the bean counters are involved - companies are profitable or they die, simple. But bean counters are sometimes the people that keep many thousands of people in their jobs in times of hardship by making savings that can sometimes seem harsh but keep 95% of the workforce in jobs rather than 100% being unemployed.

I took my redundancy and started my first business, so I have sat on both sides of this fence. Trust me when I say some days you have tough decisions and tough decisions!

Ian