CINEC breaks new ground with Maldive pilot training!

For the first time in Sri Lanka, CINEC Maritime campus in Malabe was selected by the Maldives Ports Ltd., to train their Marine Pilots. This was the first time ever that Foreign Pilots have been trained in Sri Lanka.

Upon their visit to CINEC, Officials of the Maldives Ports Management were vas t ly impressed with the simulator facility and resources at hand at the campus subsequent to which it was decided to train their Pilots at CINEC instead of Singapore where they were previously trained.

The eight- day comprehensive training was conducted from the 20th to the 29th of October utilizing the TRANSAS Full Mission Bridge & Engine Simulator at Malabe.

The training included handling different types of ships in various ports and approaches in different weather conditions including ‘ Blind Pilotage’. BRM/ BTM concepts, ECDIS, instrumentation, emergency manoeuvres, aborts, escort tugs, deadship towage, legal aspects, fatigue & stress management were some of the areas covered.

The resource personnel included a Senior Captain with over 25 years of Piloting experience in Sri Lanka & the UK as the Training Instructor, Master Mariners, a Senior Tug Master, Senior Marine Engineer, Maritime Lawyer, Instrumentation & ECDIS Instructors and a Doctor of Medicine amongst others.

The objective of the course was to refresh the Pilots ship- handling skills under different situations.

Simulation gives that added confidence of having carried out the same or similar manouveres in the simulator when having to face complex situations in the real world. By engaging in demanding maneuvers or aborts that might be considered too risky for the real situation, this simulator course was a challenging training program pushing the Pilots to react to highly stressful situations.

Specially in today’s world when ship sizes are getting larger, with 20,000 TEU vessels being planned, and having to berth such vessels at existing harbours worldwide it is indeed a challenging task for the Pilots, with limited tug support, where simulator trials are a most valuable tool and confidence booster.