Thursday, June 24, 2010

SURVIVAL CRAFT / LIFEBOATMEN REQUIREMENTS FOR MARINERS

Sorry I should of posted this before the MMD requirements as it is best to also take this class before applying for the MMD.

In February of 2002 the Coast Guard started requiring mariners to get a survival craft or life boatman’s certificate endorsed on their Merchant Mariners Document depending on the mariner’s position or type of boat they worked on.

The new requirement meant that engineers of boats from 200 tons up to ships had to have survival craft training endorsed on their Merchant Mariners Document. What was required was to purchase a study guide from a Sea training school. After you received the study material you had to go home and study. When you felt like you knew everything the United States Coast Guard wanted you to know you then had to set up an appointment to take the test.

It was very inconvenient as it was but got worse. At a significant cost to mariners you also had to have the training endorsed on your Merchant Mariners Document and STCW certificate. While all training is good this course is routinely practiced onboard all vessels as part of the ongoing training all mariners receive. No specific incident happened to prompt this requirement.

Everyone one else was required to take a full life boatmen’s course. Again this is better practiced onboard your vessel but was now required. A life boatman endorsement was the only real difference between an Able Bodied Seaman and an Able Bodied Seaman unlimited. A ship is only allowed so many Able bodied Seamen and the rest will have to hold a special or unlimited endorsement. This meant the only real difference between the grades was time at sea it takes to get the unlimited status.

Captains and Mates who have been teaching this same material for decades now also have to go to this school and get the training endorsed o their documents. Not all boats have the same safety equipment so what is taught on each boat is specifically the safety equipment onboard that particular vessel. The Code Of Federal Regulations had already mandated training in this area for decades. The records of training are reviewed on a yearly basis by the Coast Guard and ABS.

The life boatmen’s training course consists of 2 days sitting in a class room reading study material and taking a written exam on the material. This course is expensive, in the 500$ range depending on the school you attend. The same study material can be learned from a 10$ Life boatmen’s book easily picked up in any maritime book store. It consists of basic material you learn in a few training sessions you receive on every boat. You also have 1 day of class where you will see a model life boat pretend launched. At least here you will see what a frapping line is if you never work on a boat with this type of life boat. There is a pretty good chance you will never see one. That is about half a day’s worth of talking. The other half of the day is actually spent in a small non motorized rescue boat. This is where you will see that you will never have the precision rowing abilities as the navy personal in the videos. You will also have to opportunity to call out a few rowing commands from the sixteen hundreds. Yes this is not a joke, the Approved Coast Guard method of calling rescue boat rowing commands is from the sixteen hundreds.

Watch a few pirate movies before hand and you may remember some of them five minutes after you are done. Fortunately this is the 21st century and most modern vessels will have a motorized rescue boat. If you end up on a boat with a pre historic rescue boat that needs to be paddled, fear not. The captain on the boat will have a real world system on if you ever use the rescue boat or not. In most instances this type of rescue boat would be deemed too dangerous to actually use at sea. In most instances the boat you are on is going to be used in a rescue not the rescue boat. The rescue boat would only be used in water to shallow for the actual boat.

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