Getting into the offshore

[SeaDog_84]

Hello everybody,

anybody had much luck getting into the offshore, specifically companies which (heaven forbid) offer DP training? Did my cadetship on tankers, followed a quick one month trip with another company before landing a job on standby vessels (which I only took as it was a step in the right direction, they are truely awful). Anyhoo looking to progress onto a nice PSV or the like, but seeing the ususal ads, Full DP required, min 6 months experience required etc etc.

Any advice would be much appreciated,

Cheers

SeaDog

[chris]

Well as you know Im not a decky, but when I was a cadet on the NLB ship Pharos, they had a recently qualified OOW on as a supernumerary for a month or so gaining some DP hours having taken the initial DP course at his own expense.

So that could be an option.

[bobofinga]

The guy's I know who have had luck with DP offshore have either been employed straight from their sponsor company or have been lucky and got a job in the right place at the right time.

Only other thing I could suggest is trying to change ships in a company from ERRV to PSV or even AHTS

[laura]

Have you taken a DP course at all? It is expensive at over ?1000 and of course it's a bit of a lottery as to if it pays off or not. My company don't employ Brits but certainly we've had guys come from being Captains onboard cruise ships or chief mates from tankers who've paid for their own DP courses and then gone from there. It is a bit of a risk though.

The other possibility is to take your DP course and then sign up with a manning agency as a trainee DPO, I've met one guy who did this- it meant he was able to build up his experience on different types of ships and DP work- a bit frustrating for us onboard though, being neither familiar with the fleet or the equipment.

I would also say have you been chasing up all the different offshore companies in the UK/ those who employ UK officers?

I would also say that at the moment offshore is heading the same way as deep sea in the 70s/80s and many companies are replacing their junior officers and ratings with Filippino/ Eastern European crews- I would try to find a company where there is possibilities to switch ship type to either AHTS/ Dive Support/ construction as supply boats seem to be the first to go. I am not trying to be pessimistic just realistic- this was named in Lloyd's List fairly recently too. It's driving Northern European seafarers into oil and gas (installations) but they are not being replaced by Europeans. Safety culture is taking a nose dive but companies are offsetting this by further driving down crewing costs.

Saying that though, there are large investments in the sector at the moment and there are still high numbers of UK mates employed. For a while DOf and Subsea7 were doing a big recruitment drive, though I'm not sure if this is still the case, Technip also had a couple of newbuilds in the pipeline I believe.

[SeaDog_84]

Hi,

thanks for the replies, I'm actually doing the DP induction course (at my own expense) next week. A friend of mine who works for a company doing safety audits and the like for offshore vessels and rigs was saying the same thing about the filipinos and indians. It really annoys me actually, I understand it more with ships that trade globally, but I think it should be law that where a vessel operates almost exclusively in UK waters that the crew should be at least 75% EU nationals. From what I have heard I agree that the PSV's now generally being foreign crewed, but I was told it is (or perhaps used to be) best to do some PSV work before moving onto AHTS/ Dive Support/ construction vessels as they can be a bit more demanding.

I've generally avoided manning agencies in favour of applying to companies directly, if speculatively, but I'll perhaps look into them a bit more. DOF are mainly recruiting Scandinavians from what I've heard from a friend, and I can't say I've noticed any recruitment drives from subsea7. The supernumerary idea is also not a bad thought if nothing pops up in the hear future.

Cheers,

SeaDog

[bobofinga]

I agree completely with what you say SeaDog about EU/UK nationals being on ships in OUR waters servicing OUR rigs/platforms... but it'll never happen...

The Norwegians have it ideal!

[laura]

Crewing in UK waters gets complicated, if it's less than 12NM it's got to be EU, but that doesn't really solve the problem as Filippinos are changed out with Eastern European guys instead.

There are also pretty strict regulations regarding visas on British flagged vessels, we had a lot of problems getting our filippino crew into the UK on my last vessel which used to royally p**s off the captain, although I did point out to him that the whole point of it was to protect UK ferry jobs onboard British ships (not being british he didn't really care though). Crew changes within the schengen area were much preferred over UK crew changes as they were simpler. We didn't operate exclusively in UK waters though and on my current vessel can be anywhere in the world and have been.

It's pretty sad, I was up West of Shetland fairly recently and on the field the only British crewed boat was the standby boat or the occasional supply boat coming in- rather depressing and a trend I hope will be reversed when the consequences become apparent.

[Steve]

Are Swires still on a big recruitment drive?

[laura]

I agree completely with what you say SeaDog about EU/UK nationals being on ships in OUR waters servicing OUR rigs/platforms... but it'll never happen...

The Norwegians have it ideal!

Don't look to Norway at the moment.

Norwegian companies are flagging out right, left and centre.... and quite literally replacing entire crews with Filippinos, the norwegians go down the gangway and up go the new crew.

I can think of a few examples but I'd rather not bring names into it as I work for one, we've made about 70 Norwegian guys redundant this year and it's happening in the previously highly protected tanker sector as well. We saved one vessel due to a last minute contract agreement.

Ironically many of the ship owners are blaming the offshore platforms for stealing the employees they trained up with much bigger pay rises and time off the ship owners can't even begin to compete with, while this is partly true, it's also partly caused by the loss of jobs to Filippinos, morale is bad, ABs jump before they are shoved and the Senior Officers fear increased workload, and are a bit sick of training up their replacements.

Sadly many of these vessels are taken on the Isle of Man flag. Nah, Norway is just as bad as the rest of Europe.

[EH75]

Are Swires still on a big recruitment drive?

I applied to them a couple of months back and got the old "no experience" line. Shame as I heard they are a good company to work for.

[bobofinga]

I know about 4 guys who work for Swires , very good company. They put an emphasis on European Officers , especially Brits. They also actively promote from within and train in-house at their huge centre in Singapore for DP/AHTS/Mist/Huet etc.

[laura]

Huet- worst course ever, they just assumed everyone worked offshore or at done it before as it wasn?t taken as part of offshore survival- two hours in a leaking survival suit in a freezing swimming pool with vague instructions, the best being- ?if you put your hand against the window you won?t get disorientated when you go upside down?, not much help when you?re too short to reach the window.

All I took away from it was the flu. And usually I like swimming.

[gadget123]

I know about 4 guys who work for Swires , very good company. They put an emphasis on European Officers , especially Brits. They also actively promote from within and train in-house at their huge centre in Singapore for DP/AHTS/Mist/Huet etc.

That seems to be changing. They are pretty uninterested in british officers at the moment.

[bobofinga]

That seems to be changing. They are pretty uninterested in british officers at the moment.

Well I know 2 engineers who both got jobs this year after qualifying and a 2nd Mate who joined them in August.

Most of their senior officers onboard are Brits also.

[EH75]

Ironically many of the ship owners are blaming the offshore platforms for stealing the employees they trained up with much bigger pay rises and time off the ship owners can't even begin to compete with

Out of interest, what sort of jobs could you step into on an offshore platform with deck officer experience? I would've thought it was maybe easier to transfer for engineers?

Cos what good is knowing how to navigate a ship from A to B if you're on something that doesn't go anywhere? Could you transfer here with just an OOW ticket or is it more a chief mate/master level thing for managerial roles etc? Not that I'm thinking of jumping onto oil rigs anytime soon but if it's better money and time off then it'd be something to look at I guess.