New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

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JK
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New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by JK »

In the IMO, the countries have just agreed on training requirements for seafarers on board ships in Arctic regions. Thus, the IMO still follows the plan for finalizing the Polar Code which is to enhance safety of navigation in polar regions.
The new requirements mean that masters and navigating officers must have special training in order to navigate ships in ice, while engineer officers and the rest of the crew must be trained in how to behave in situations of crisis, such as rescue operations. In addition, more comprehensive training requirements will be introduced for all seafarers on board tankers and passenger ships engaged on voyages in icy waters.

This is a short blurb in Officer of the Watch
http://officerofthewatch.com/2014/03/16 ... position=0

I am not quite sure what is being proposed by IMO, but icy conditions do exist outside of the polar areas. I guess the training will extend to ships engaging in trade in the Baltic area and Canadian east coast and shoulder seasons in the Great Lakes.... besides the Arctic and Anarctica areas.

I have had the dubious pleasure of being a watchkeeping engineer in the Arctic, the Baltic and the Gulf of St Lawrence. Other then the fact you are in ice, there are differences. The Gulf of St Lawrence in the spring is, for lack of better words, is a bitch. There is ice, slush and snow ontop. It plugs the seabays quickly if you don't keep the seabay temps up around 25C.
In the Arctic the ice is blue tinged and hard as a rock island, but for the most part it is easier to manage the ER.
It was not uncommon to see ships in the Gulf of St Lawrence being totally unprepared for the realities of cold. Crew not dressed adequately, to trying to bounce into Sept Isle with all the ballast pumped out and milling ice with the prop. We watched an Irving ship ram the fueling dock in Cornerbrook because it couldn't sheer off in the ice.
Operating routinely in ice is only done by the minority in the industry.
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by Wyatt »

This is all very interesting. I wonder who will be putting this infomercial together? After working on 170' arctic tugs for 30 years out of Hay Riviera, and experiencing all sorts of "Arctic Emergencies", I wonder what fodder they will come up with? After a few turns at replacing busted off rudders, busted skin cooler repairs, bent prop blade repairs, all while the vessel is in the water was an experience I found exhilarating and some times hairy scary. Like the time I and my 2nd went under the transom in an aluminum lund while the port stern of the vessel was being held aloft by the big electro-lift fork lift machine just enough for us to squeeze under and get into the tunnel area so as to torch off a steel cable wrapped around the outboard prop. When you are in the Arctic, you have to use your imagination so to speak, and try to keep safety as high a priority as possible, or else you may find yourself stuck for quite some time.
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by JK »

Exactly, until you work outdoors at in the dark -40 repairing a steam coil on the emergency day tank it really doesn't hit home. No emergency generator, no power and you're are just like Franklins bunch. Will they include the fact that you may have to remove all the screens and balls from the heavy fuel tanks because they freeze with the condensation from the heated fuel and the tank pressurize. Or that you have to check the seabay vents on deck every hour because they are pumping so much slush that it will mound up and freeze blocking the vent.
Breaking down in the Arctic is a bit hairier.
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by JK »

My co-worker reminded me today of the -45 temps and the pipes we had freezing on the same trip. There was a 3 deck vertical section of 4" greywater piping that froze as it passed through the main deck to the lower deck. Of course it was someone's cabin we end up stripping out to clear the pipe. When we finally headed south in December, the accommodation were dripping with water from the frost melting.
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by Wyatt »

Oh yes, the freezing pipe syndrome. Experienced it many many times too. We got stuck in Bathurst inlet one year and I cleaned out all the heat tape the one hardware store had in Cambridge bay, as well as pipe insulation. We ended up winterizing in a hell hole called Hope Bay, a gold mine that was just getting started up. Not a very nice place to get out of let alone coming into in the spring. Oh the fun times we had up there.
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by JK »

Another little blurb on it. I never realized that Anarctica has no multi-year "blue" ice.
http://officerofthewatch.com/2014/03/14 ... tic-ocean/

One of the my best memories of the Arctic is following another ship in the Eastern Arctic in the mddle of the night through heavy ice, however it was so late in the year it could have been mid-afternoon. The ship ahead of us was picking out the iceburgs with their searchlights as they passed between. As they moved past, our search lights would pick up the icebergs in turn. You never have a camera for the neat shots, though little good it would have done in this case with only the searchlights for light.

This was taken at Noon after I got off watch. We are somewhere off Baffin Island.
This was taken at Noon after I got off watch. We are somewhere off Baffin Island.
This would be in the last week of November
Icefield. This would be earlier in the year, maybe September
Icefield. This would be earlier in the year, maybe September
Inuit and Dogteam, Baffin Island
Inuit and Dogteam, Baffin Island
For a scale, the mountains in the background are at least 5 miles away.
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by JK »

http://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-n ... lised-imo/
Still no definitive answer. I know several people who will be very happy to develop the training here in Canada, for the right price.:)
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by JollyJack »

Icing in sea bays is already incorporated in PPS 2 Exams.
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

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Yep, icy conditions happen not only in Arctic waters, DUH!!! http://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-n ... ard-boats/
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by Max Oiltemp »

JollyJack wrote:Icing in sea bays is already incorporated in PPS 2 Exams.
PPS1 as well, to a certain extent - i.e: 'Configure generators for ice.'

Even down South in Northumberland Strait, it could be an issue. With manual recirc of the O/B discharges back to the sea inlets, I distinctly remember getting confused one dark, cold night on the 'John Hamilton Gray' and closing off the recirc line while thinking the main overboard discharge was wide open. It wasn't - it had been closed in to force the water through the recirc line. To this day, I swear those engines called out to me that they were unhappy and that something was not right; fortunately, the penny dropped before any alarms went off. Gotta love those Fairbanks-Morse!

Regards,
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Re: New Training Requirements for Seafarers in Polar Areas

Post by JK »

FM are pretty amazing engines. A friend of mine found one 11* out of timing and it still ran.

Recircs, and seabays. I never had it happen on any ship I was on, but the old timers talk about taking off the sea strainer covers and shovelling out the slush into the bilge. What was worse is when the vents start pumping the slush out on deck and freeze. Your first indication is the SW pump gauges start jumping as the system gets airlocked, you better start running LOL.

Working in the Gulf and Nortumberland Straits is much more difficult then the Arctic because of the slush. I used to drive the seabay up to 20-25* temperatures on my watches and crack the vent on the strainer so I could watch for air.
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