Attended vs unattended E/R. pros and cons

[conrod]

Chuck,

Your up early............not on the 06:00 ~ 12:00 watch are you ??

Quality will always win over quantity. You are so right. I am a firm believer in passing on as much knowledge as I can, and have yet hear of one of my " Juniors " complain if we have to work longer shifts to fix problems. Its how you approach the problem that ultimately gets it fixed.

I think the only time I did not feel comfortable with UMS was on an old bulky crossing the Pacific in heavy weather. We were getting 2 or 3 alarms a night, and in the end I asked the 2/E (I was 3/E) if we could go on watches. Not that the alarms were that much of a problem really, but silly things like purifier filters, and we had a few leaks on the piston cooling pipes, which put the header tank in alarm at least once during the night.

Ironically, it was that one that caused the most laughs. You would wake up at 04:30.........expecting the alarm, and if it did not go off........you still went down below to see why. As the weather went down the tubes, our rolling period was just fast enough to stop the low level alarm from going off.............anyway once on watches, when you went to bed, at least you went to sleep, and did not dream of alarms !!

[ArkSeaJumper]

I have also worked on both, and it comes down to the age of the ship, on a newish ship (not 'out of the yard new', diferent story) well set up the onboard life is easier with UMS. but as Conrod has pointed out older vessels with alarms every night, watchs are the way to go.

I do have to say though the amount of electronics being strapped to engines these days is getting silly.
And due to there relibility, my first requirement on seeing a new engine, is finding out how to run it without all the potential shutdowns.