Antonis D. Faraklas* on Seamanship and beyond!
With the Homerion Conference Auditorium bursting at its seams, Chartworld’s seminar** will remain for ever one of the best of its kind in the last fifty years.
With a well-constructed agenda, the seminar kick-started on time with the mayor of Chios Yiannis Malafis – who offered the Homerion premises for the gathering, and local PASOK-KINAL MP Radm(HCG) Stavros Michailides delivering sort welcome speeches. Capt Georgios Georgoulis and Dr. Ilias Bissias, both from the University of the Aegean, moderated the event.
The Reverend Markos, Metropolitan of Chios, Psara and Oinousses – himself also a former Naval officer/priest – with great knowledge of the Shipping Industry, delivered a brief note of welcome, as did representatives from the municipalities of Psara and Oinousses, to the delegates who were from the local Merchant Marine Academy of Engineers in Chios, the Merchant Marine Academy of Oinousses for Deck Officers, and students from the Faculty of Shipping at the University of the Aegean in Chios, presidents of various associations and clubs including Capt Antonis Pitsilos the president of the Chios Marine Club and locals particularly from the Education front.
The keynote speaker was Chartworld’s CEO Antonis D. Faraklas who delivered a down to earth, straight and to the point but touching speech covering the entire shipping spectrum and in particular:
- the current status with the Houthis attacking ships at the south entrance of the Red Sea subjecting bulkers, tankers, container and other ships to go around the Cape of Good Hope increasing the trip to 15 days to Europe from the Far East / Subcontinent with the additional burden of more emissions into the environment, though this situation favours, as he honestly admitted, the shipping companies…
- he touched upon the need for real professional seafarers, dedicated and devoted to their jobs, lovers of the sea, as otherwise without loving this job/profession, they will fail in their obligations… If say their wives want them to remain at home just before Christmas or New Year’s Eve and/or Easter and they “comply”, there is no room for them being professional seafarers, a job paying a five-fold from those working offshore. Moreover he stressed the fact that good seafarers go for post-graduate diplomas and they are more than welcome in Shipping Companies’ offices! 24/7 is the buzz word… Antonis Faraklas running a fleet of over 60 vessels plus 6 to 8 new-buildings on order, continues to devote his life to this unique sector of the industry because he loves it!
Other speakers included:
Costas Petrakis, HSQ/DPA at Chartworld Shipping Corporation on how a shipping company operates
Theodore Lalas, Fleet Ops Manager at IRI/Marshall Islands Registry on onboard security and risk control
Dr. Alexandros Glykas, CEO at Dynamarine and professor at ALBA Graduate Business School.
After the coffee break, session three was also of great interest with:
Vassilis Sofikitis, Second Lieutenant at the HCG and skipper of HCG Patrol boats together with Vassilios Sarris from Chartworld’s Technical/Operations Dept, and Yiannis Vrontorinkais, senior manager at ClassNK Piraeus office, talking about Inspections, PSC, USCG, AMSA, SIRE and Class Societies.
At the fourth session we had John Couyou from Bureau Veritas Hellas emissions compliance department, Nikolaos Nikolaidis, Peninsula Petroleum EPE Greece and Christos Zoumbos, head of technical department at MAN Hellas discussing the reduction of emissions/ CO2, in existing and newbuild ships, biofuels of low emissions and electric propulsion engine / technologies and regulatory developments.
I guess the light lunch break offered an excellent opportunity for not just networking but in depth discussions on all four morning sessions and Antonis Faraklas’s keynote speech.
Semiramis Koliou from Chartworld’s Post Fixtures and Freight Collection department, the only female speaker, talked on Charterparties and Freight collection, one of the most important issues vis-a-vis the protection of earning of ships!
At the sixth session, Ioannis Botonakis, legal and insurance manager at Chartworld discussed Marine Insurance and P&I Club issues
Finally, Nikos Doganos, an assistant operations manager at Chartworld, outlined the course taken after graduating from the University of the Aegan on the hands-on situation within a shipping company.
Concluding and post Q&A, Seraphim Karpos, head of the department of shipping at the University of the Aegean, a civil engineer specialised in Transport Engineering and Planning, boosted the morale of all at the Homerion Auditorium, underlining the importance of percentage-wise figures when he compared the importance/ gravity of China’s share in global population, being 23 percent, with Greece’s control of the 23 percent of Global shipping, for which he received extended applause, given the Socratic emancipatory method he used. He went further on clarifying Chios’ stake and importance in Global shipping, naming also Chios the cradle of Global Merchant shipping!
Allaboutshipping and its co-founder has on numerous occasions in articles and TV interviews stressed the fact that shipping is the attainment of money and seafarers. Without these two prerequisites no one should embark in this business adventure. This adventure obviously includes the love affair so to speak not only of the Seafarer, but that of his Family as Antonis Faraklas epitomised in his keynote speech, with this field of business being also the most important one on all counts all over Planet Ocean, as: no shipping, no shopping and … no sipping (The triple S factor). It was good to have so many stakeholders present and we look forward to many more such events with Chartworld spearheading same.
We end this coverage with Thukydides: “Seamanship, just like anything else, is an art. It is not something that can be picked up and studied in one’s spare time; indeed, it allows no spare time for anything else’ (1.142.6-9)” (from the Peloponnesian War).
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*Antonis D. Faraklas was voted in 2023 Shipmanager of the Year; he was also honoured by many associations and alumni in Chios and Athens
**The seminar was under the auspices of Chartworld Shipping Corporation and Charterwell Maritime S.A as well as with the contribution of the Municipality of Chios.
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