Alistair Baillie

So I was lucky enough to get a chance to go to CSMART, in Holland, to attend a ship management course run by my company.

The course was half theory and half practical and focused around the various forces that affect the ship during the maneuvering stages of the voyage (arrival / departure in port).

CSMART is owned by Carnival Group and focuses on cruise ships. Since the ships operated by my company are mainly ex. Holland America Line or Costa Cruises vessels CSMART had the models for them on their simulator. This gave all of us a chance to practice maneuvering the ships into / out of ports with various conditions ranging from strong winds to strong currents without the risk of damaging anything.

The course was a lot of fun and put into practical terms the theory that you learn during your OOW course which you never get to try out in real life until your higher up the chain!