Cruise Ships to Dredgers and Sea-Time?

[Charlie05]

Hi There,

I am new to the site btw but looks good.

Basically I have OOW CoC and worked as 3rd Off onboard tankers and cruise ships. I have been offered a job on dredgers now and I am wondering if it is firstly a good move (regardless of the shorter contracts) and how does this affect my sea time with the whole near-coastal business as I am approaching Chief Mate CoC time soon?

I would really appreciate if someone could help.

Regards

Charlie

[Steve]

The key info is in MGN 92 which says:

Sea service should normally be performed on merchant ships of at least 24 metres in length or not less than 80gt proceeding to sea.

The most important aspect is likely to be whether your dredger leaves categorised waters. "Near coastal" is not an issue, provided you do actually leave harbour. If you don't, the sea time doesn't count, not even towards a "near coastal" ticket. It's actually the examination syllabus that is different for the restricted tickets, rather than what counts as sea time.

[Charlie05]

That's great, thank you. So that means that obviously sea-time will then also be 1 day for 1 day... I heard on some ships like Pax ro/ro that sea-time is sometimes 0.5 for each day, maybe because of the same routine they have?

[Steve]

It's in MGN 92: www.dft.gov.uk/mca/mgn_092(m).pdf (see page 10)

Ferries have special rules, but no mention of dredgers.

[YoungMariner]

I have heard that dredgers are excellent for gaining hands on ship handling skills and often the officers have pilotage exemption licenses.

[Charlie05]

Thank you for your help. I am waiting for the contract to come through and see what it all says... Hopefully it'll be a good move :S.

[Clanky]

I spent some time on dredgers after doing a cruise ship cadetship and sailing as 4th engineer on cruise ships, it was like a breath of fresh air. I went back to cruise ships again recently as chief, but I'm now sailing on offshore vessels which is again like a breath of fresh air, not a management meeting in sight.

[ALTAMASH]

which company offering jobs on dredger

which company is offering you the job as the job depends upon the company and some dredging company i heard they put u on 6 hours on & 6 hrs off or 8 hrs on and 8 hrs off. so kindly chk regarding the duty hours and leave schedule and ask them about paid leave etc coz some time u have to be @ home for 3 to 4 months.

which company is offering you is it vanoord india pvt ltd, jaisu shipping or chellaram or dci?

[bobofinga]

which company is offering you is it vanoord india pvt ltd, jaisu shipping or chellaram or dci?

Majority of Officers on this forum are British and I would suspect it was a British Dreding Company he was being employed by , or rather a European not Indian.

[JoelR]

My grandad works on one of the few remaining grab dredgers with a company called UKD - might be worth checking them out...?

[skodanorman]

You need to check the tonnage of the dredger too.