The Shipowners’ P&I Club has added two new booklets to its extensive and well-respected range of loss prevention publications for the guidance of vessel owners and their crews
28 August, 2013 – The Club’s publications highlight best practice, good seamanship and sensible practical operational procedures in order to help reduce the incidence of property and vessel damage by raising operating standards.
The new booklets with their simple, concise and clear text and diagrams are an essential tool for small vessel operators trading in coastal waters and harbours and are designed to complement the usual statutory safe navigation rules documentation.
‘Tides’
The main purpose of this booklet is to allow the seafarer to have a better understanding of how to undertake tidal calculations. Hari Subramaniam, Shipowners’ Deputy Loss Prevention Manager explains that, “This is a major contributing factor towards groundings where the majority of our Members’ vessels operate within coastal waters, harbours and ports. Our analysis of the claims causation has highlighted the fact that many recent grounding claims could have been avoided by simply following this basic technique.”
‘Towards Effective Navigation’
The aim of this booklet is to open the window on navigation in a very basic way. It is aimed primarily at those mariners who are not fully trained in the art of navigation and it is hoped that this booklet will offer a better understanding of the subject. Shortfalls in such knowledge include positional and directional references; using gyro and magnetic compass; bearings; and reading charts. The booklet covers all of these, as well as providing an exhaustive reference list of nautical publications.
Once more Hari Subramaniam comments, “Our Ship Inspection Programme often highlights the fact that crews have a limited understanding of the rudiments of basic navigation and we also see claims arising where poor navigation is a main contributing factor. A better understanding of the subject will hopefully go some way towards reducing the incidence of these claims.”
The Club is indebted to the author of both publications, Captain H. Subramaniam, a distinguished member of the nautical teaching profession in India having trained mariners for over 34 years in obtaining their professional licences.
The booklets are particularly aimed at ordinary crew members – ‘Tides’ is published in English, Bahasa and Thai and ‘Towards Effective Navigation’ in English, Spanish, Bahasa and Thai.
The Shipowners’ Club is a mutual marine liability insurer, providing Protection & Indemnity insurance and associated covers to smaller and specialist vessels since 1855. The Club insures nearly 33, 000 vessels from over 6, 000 Members worldwide and is a member of the International Group of P&I Clubs.
The Club has offices in Luxembourg, London, Singapore and Vancouver.
