Rolls-Royce has recently opened a new training centre in Brazil to cater for customers operating vessels with Rolls-Royce systems currently in operation amongst the country's deepwater oil and gas fields.
The centre is located at the existing Rolls-Royce Marine Services site in Niteroi, just outside of Rio de Janeiro. It will provide a wide range of training programs, initially in support of winch and dynamic positioning (DP) operations – in which satellite technology automatically controls a vessel's propulsion system to maintain position in heavy seas.
The training concepts, course materials and equipment are based on those used at the Rolls-Royce Training Centre for Europe located in Ålesund, Norway. The courses and simulators have been designed in co-operation with the Offshore Simulator Centre, also in Norway.
The new training centre in Brazil is a part of the overall Marine Services Centre, and features a full size demonstration winch housed in the workshop. Meanwhile, a main bridge simulator with two operator chairs allows for interactive team training with a diverse array of scenario planning options to test any skill level.
In addition, two dome simulators with 180-degree horizons are installed for winch training, and are designed to allow crews to hone their winch operations skills in realistic surroundings. A similar dome houses a crane simulator.
According to Roll-Royce, all simulator domes use the latest situation modelling techniques and projection systems to give a very life-like representation of winch and crane handling activities on board an offshore vessel.