The pressure from some ship owners to consider shortening training time for watch officers prompted Jean-Pierre Clostermann, manager of ship handling simulation at the Le Havre Merchant Marine Academy in France, to bring objective, experimental results into the debate about how much simulators can replace at-sea experience.

A rough trade could be one week on the simulator for six weeks at sea but Mr Clostermann warns that similar attempts made in civil aviation were quickly found to be dangerous.

“If we go too much in that direction, we will have experts at handling very risky situations but these people will not even recognise when this situation is about to occur,” he says.  

During an experiment with 90 cadets on a ship simulator, one third of the trainees performed an illegal and unsafe manoeuvre, even though they knew the appropriate rules perfectly.

This led him to the development of decision games where teams evaluate a situation and actively discuss and review their decision-making processes.

While the games helped to improve the results of the collision avoidance simulation for another group of 81 cadets, they did not eliminate the difference in competence demonstrated by cadets who had experience involving similar vessel types at sea.

According to Mr Clostermann, a simulator cannot compete with normal life at sea when it comes to accumulating ordinary non-event situations where an officer learns to do the routine things that enhance situational awareness until it becomes an automatic part of their thinking.

This in turn leads to the ability to recognise the difference between a potentially dangerous situation and a normal one.

Central to building a proper situational awareness is the recognition of a generic “pattern”, derived from former encounters with similar situations, called “pattern matching”, says Mr Clostermann.

“To be able to use that specific decision making skill, a person needs a good data bank of real life experience. If the bank is not big enough, they may not recognise at once the situation and its demands.

“You learn by sailing a ship in normal conditions, without any danger, because you deepen your skills doing things without thinking about them. You cannot do this in just a few hours on the simulator. Training means repetition just like an athlete trains by running a few hours every day, all week long and all year long.”

This limitation in learning potential is not a function of simulator realism and simulator training is certainly valuable.

“Mainly what we do on the simulator is check that the knowledge is there and that the trainee has started the process of turning knowledge into skill. We also push the trainees to their limits because we can provide some very difficult situations without threatening their lives.”

Mr Clostermann, a former seafarer himself, says there is no real alternative to seagoing experience.

“Nevertheless, if we want to improve the skills of the cadets faster, the studies at management level could be focused on mastering a specific seatrade (liquid bulk, offshore support, passenger vessels, cable lying, etc.), just as the aviation industry offers type ratings for specific aircraft. This could also prevent us from training our cadets to be future jacks-of-all-trades.”  

Wendy Laursen

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John Douglas

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The issue with "sea-time" is that it does not necessarily focus on required competences for the job in hand and adopts the general approach to ships with some exceptions like tankers.
Sea-time has been with us for hundreds of years and it is right to ask about its appropriateness at a time when ship operations are technologically more complex and constantly demand the use of new toolsets.
Simulators are not just there to deal with "events" that are critical or emergency but the day to day tasks of ship operation. In that role they really can reduce training time over lengthy unfocussed seatime.

Thursday 19 November 2009, 19:55

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Wendy Laursen

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Mr Clostermann's study focused on collision avoidance strategies. The scenarios involved assessing a multi-vessel situation and identifying the collision risk.

Factors to be considered were the speed and heading of each vessel and their manoeuvrability. Interpretation of navigation rules and anticipation of the actions of other vessels were also important to deciding how to act safely to avoid a collision.

The general perception that some vessels, such as fishing boats and small cargo vessels, may be expected to ignore official rules could influence decision making and some actions that could be taken to avoid collision may be more economical than others as they involve a smaller deviation in course.

A desire to remove doubts and simplify the situation may involve taking evasive action early rather than expecting right of way according to navigation regulations.

Some of these factors, then, do involve effective use of modern equipment, but others are less technology dependent.

There is no doubt that routine seatime to ingrain skills is valuable as is the on-the-job leadership shown by a master at sea. Exactly how the classroom and simulator can match this is an interesting question!

Friday 20 November 2009, 13:45

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Charles B. Husick

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Mr. Clostermann has identified a serious problem that often occurs when a technology that is successful in one area of operations is applied in another, seemingly related but importantly different area. In this case the success of the use of simulation in aviation would seem to make it equally facile in maritime operations. However, while simulation is very successfully used in aviation it is always preceded by many hours of actual flight experience gained during the pilot's effort to obtain the basic licenses. It is true that a student can actually fly am aircraft equipped with a "glass cockpit" that closely resembles a simulator he will be unable to deal effectively with the real world when flying the real aircraft. Sim training is invaluable when used to hone skills and can speed the acquisition of skill and knowledge it cannot substitute for the hands-on time, either at the controls of an aircraft or on a vessel.

Saturday 21 November 2009, 05:37

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Wendy Laursen

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More information about Mr Clostermann's research papers is available through google scholar by searching using the terms "chauvin clostermann"

Saturday 21 November 2009, 09:45

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