 This is a booklet accompanying the training video released by Videotel and devoted to Manila Amendments to the STCW Convention. While it is quite compact, the publication covers all important issues. This training package has been specifically designed to be used individually, for self study, but it can also be used in small groups of trainees with the target audience including ship owners and managers, port state officers and other governmental authorities, and providers of maritime training courses.
The trainees will gain a sound understanding of the purpose of Manila amendments to STCW convention and their scope, and will be able to plan the changes required to be done to ensure compliance with the standards and requirements taking into account all recent amendments to their contents. We would also recommend to use this Quick Guide for Seafarers as a supplementary training material.
All key issues have been duly covered and upon completion of the course the trainees will be fully aware of the convention and amendments, certification requirements and safety culture, ship security and maritime piracy, action plans and port state work, tanker training and fitness for duty - this is a list of topics covered in the pages of the booklet. In addition to the training audience specified above we would recommend this package to everyone in shipping industry from the crew members and shore support personnel to the managers.
 This is one of the best titles available today on ship handling. There are three major parts in this volume. In the first part, the essential features of the vessel are described together with the main maneuvering methods in use. The second part is devoted to the forces influencing the vessel movement and requiring close attention.
Finally, the last part addresses the factors affecting the vessels in the course of the maneuvering, for example when moving inside drydocks, performing mooring operations, etc. the author is mainly focusing on the different factors that affect the vessel’s maneuvering characteristics.
Since all of the topics are looked on at a quite essential level, the volume will be practically useful and can be utilized for the training. Sailing in the narrow waterways has also been covered, including the STCW recommendations setting up the helmsmen abilities.
The content of the volume reflects more than fifteen-year boat sailing experience of the author, and is intended for use by the students of the different marine education facilities; however, it will be equally useful for the self-studying. Make sure you have your own free copy and start familiarizing yourselves with the magic world of sailing.
 The handling and piloting of vessel is something about the individual understandings of the people, based on their practical knowledge. This book written by professional Captain shall be used as a very useful addition to the other materials covering this subject. The text of the publication is remarkably easy to understand and in some cases has been delivered in a form of anecdotes, to make reading more pleasant.
However, the contents of the volume will be useful even for the professional mariners as going through it will let them refresh their knowledge and skills that they might have forgotten. Of course, no one can learn the experience from the book and it is mainly the outcome of the years of doing things either right or wrong – what you do is that you try to avoid repeating the mistakes and you do your best to remember what was done right.
There are many chapters in this book and the author will take the readers from the basic information of handling vessels, through all technical aspects, covering literally everything they should be aware of, up to and including the responsibilities of the pilot related to the vessel and to the port authorities. We recommend this publication to all mariners and students due to the comprehensiveness of coverage and reader-friendliness.
 Every mariner should bear in mind the enormous number of vessels sailing the world’s oceans today when considering the anchors and the associated anchor work. In the past the anchors, together with their auxiliary equipment and arrangements, used to be designed for the vessels of relatively small size and tonnage. They were considered adequate to comply with the specifications in terms of the bottom and weather conditions.
Nowadays, the vessels are of considerably larger size; however, the expectations set for the anchor equipment are more or less same. But for the really big vessels this is not possible and that is why the seamanship methods shall be re-considered. We shall always note that the anchors are there to temporary hold the vessel in position awaiting pilot or berth availability. This book will provide all information needed to arrange the anchor operations in safe and effective manner.
The author has covered such important areas as the types of the ship anchors, anchor chains and windlasses, forcesand holding powers, anchorages including positioning and maneuverability, responsibilities etc. The separate chapter is devoted to the anchoring and mooring methods. Moreover, there is another chapter covering only the large sized vessels. The other items addressed include after-anchoring activities, handling-off anchors, maintenance of the ground tackle, and others.
 The present training resource has been specifically published for the young officers who are aspiring to get to the position of the Chief Officer. It will also be useful to the people just promoted to this position. It is a very practical publication which is mainly dealing with the real world of the ocean and vessels rather than purely theoretical; the authors have discussed different important problems that are commonly encountered by the Chief Officers of the vessels in their day-to-day operations.
In fact, there are many publication available today, teaching the students the proper way to perform the numerous tasks that are making up their professional duties. All of them are very helpful when used for the professional training; however, the most important issue is to try to learn how to correctly blend the possible and proper in order to produce a desired feasible result getting us and the vessel through the unscathed days.
That is why we would highly recommend this training course for all people in the industry and definitely to all desiring to become Chief Officers. The content of the volume starts with the description of the position and main responsibilities and duties assigned, and then covering all aspects of Chief Officer's work on board.
 One of the most common and critical operations on any vessel is the anchoring. It is felt, however, that in some cases the designs of the anchoring arrangement that are currently in use, do not fully satisfy the demands of the modern shipping industry. When performing the identification of the challenged normally associated with the ship anchoring, it become clear that there is a need for the review of the current standards governing the construction of the windlasses, considering the fact that the ships tend to get anchored at the water depths well above their lifting capacities.
It is therefore very important to mitigate the safety risks involved, as well as to do the best for eliminating any possible risk to the human life and environment pollution. This document was released by the Intertanko with the intention to highlight the major concerns together with the recommendations including but not limited to the system designs which is considered the most vulnerable part.
The identification of the above stated challenges complements the available guidance with respect to the operation ad routine maintenance of the subject shipboard equipment. Through mainly targeted at operators, these guidelines will also be of practical use for all people engaged in the design, manufacturing, operation and technical maintenance of the shipboard anchoring systems.
 According to the author, the present volume was written with the ultimate intention to provide merchant seafarers as well as the other mariners with the formulae they may need during their work. Unfortunately, most of those formulae tend to get forgotten by the people if not used every day. It should not be looked at as the complete list of all formulae to solve all possible problems, but rather to give the list of commonly applied ones.
One of the great features of the publication is the coverage of the different areas, from navigation calculations to the ship stability electricity related calculations and so many others. After the introductory part, the volume gives the general information about the key functions of the calculator machines, and trigonometrical functions. The navigation related calculations include rectangular to polar conversion, ETA, Mercator sailing, great circle, amplitude, azimuth, altitude, and others.
Then, there are many practical calculations covered including, but not limited to the visibility of the navigation lights, fuel conservation, draft change caused by the density, volume and area, bearing problems, cargo handling etc. Several conversion tables conclude the volume.
 The present information paper was officially released by OCIMF with the ultimate goal to provide necessary information on the heading control on the FPSOs, standing for the floating production, storage and offloading units. It shall be used in with, and supplement, the main documents governing the heading control. The recommendations contained in the document pertain to the safe management of the control operations.
Such operation normally takes place in order to allow for the installation and survey activities, as well as the necessary technical maintenance works. It is a common mistake to underestimate the bollard pull that would be required to safely and effectively maintain the heading, and this can eventually result in the unwanted position loss. In addition, more attention shall be paid to the operational limits.
The analysis of the numerous incidents involving the loss of heading control shows that the crew members are not sufficiently aware of the risks, and these guidelines, when properly applied, will contribute in the increase of the awareness. The content of the publication shall be conveyed to the personnel directly engaged in handling the FPSOs and proper understanding of all provisions shall be ensured.
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