West Nautical new Command and Control course offers real life scenarios

West Nautical’s support team has put together a bespoke training programme to demonstrate their skills and responding to urgent assistance requests from superyacht masters anywhere in the world.

From a successful initial programme, the Command and Control course has been re-engineered and become available to the superyacht community.

Delegates from the UK, Australia and Europe has joined the three-day course and carry out emergency scenarios under expert instruction.

The course is the first to be acknowledged by the Merchant Navy Training Board in Europe and second globally.

The West Nautical team made use of the Marine School in South Shields’ simulation center to replicate characteristics of vessel types.

Using the expertise of Kate Gillespie of KG Maritime as course coordinator, a 90m motor yacht and a 40m fast craft were of those simulators. The captains of the simulators were tested on real time navigation and emergency scenarios that they could come across in their careers.

Examples of the scenarios include: medical emergencies in constricted sea traffic lanes, fires on board and rescues of migrants in Mediterranean waters.

“We often forget that anything can happen at sea and this was an ideal way to check how we react under pressure. The scenarios were realistic and tested us to the extreme. It also reminded us of the duty of care we owe to our crew, guests and owners both at sea and in port”, said Captain Jean Marc Bitouzet, MY St David Vessel in Italy.

Gillespie agreed; “I was particularly interested in the debriefs and at the experiential learning that the candidates took away with them. There were vast improvements in team working and the way that they developed themselves over the course. I could tell from their body language and tone of voice that they had developed rapidly in such a short space of time. I put that down to a combination of their existing knowledge, a willingness to learn more and the intensity of the course.”

“The five delegates each had a number of opportunities to be in command of the bridge simulator during the exercises. I saw some great delegation, understanding of the crisis or situation and an awareness of the needs and abilities of their fellow crew members. By the end they were a tight team that could, and did, handle any situation together with ease.”