Training is often seen as a vehicle on the road to safety, but a recent innovatory course at Maersk Training Svendborg underlined that it contributes to reducing bottom line costs and creates the environment for personal and team progression opening up possibilities for company development. West Africa is to Maersk Line one of the most exciting and fast developing regions in the world – so much so that they have a fleet of 22 commissioned and planned vessels especially designed for the purpose. The vessels are the first part of a progression which will see new ports serving new markets.

In May MT in Svendborg hosted the initial pilots course especially for West Africa when two pilots from Ghana and four from Nigeria spent a week at desks and simulators preparing for the moment they would have to take the 249 metre long vessels in and out of port.

Ground Breaking
Five months later one of the pilots broke new ground by safety taking Maersk Cunene out of Apapa in total darkness.

The choice before the Master was to leave as normal in daylight, but without a huge number of much needed containers for the Far East, or for the pilot to attempt in real life the manoeuvre he'd previously only experienced in a simulated bridge at MOSAIC.
The pilot's ability and new found skill with this one action alone saved Maersk Line an estimated US$100,000.

Observing the course in May was Stephan Martinussen, who as Head of Capacity Management for Maersk Line in Africa Liner Operations, was there to try and evaluate the training process. Already he has recognized that more has emerged from it than anticipated. 'What we have observed in Nigeria in particular, in Apapa, is a different willingness to go onboard Maersk Line vessels from the pilots, not only the ones we had here for training but also on the other pilots because there has been so much attraction on this extra education for them. They now actually want to be taken into consideration for future training sessions so actually it is not a problem for us to get pilots anymore. You could argue that getting a pilot is fairly easy, but in some parts of the world it can sometimes be a challenge,' said Stephan on a recent visit to MT for a share and stare session – sharing what was learnt and staring at the created possibilities.

Multi-benefits
- What was achieved on that Nigerian night went far beyond the dollars saved in bunkering.

'If you look at it from the Maersk Line point of view then this supports two of our pillars, because the more skilled the pilot is, the more reliability of getting the pilot on time, means we can be in the next port on time and not damage the vessel on the way. And then there is the environmental performance since if your bunker consumption automatically goes down it means our CO2 emission will also go down, added Stephan.

The WAFMAX vessels are already designed to be 30% more environmentally efficient, but their arrival in West Africa creates new demands on ports and their authorities. Although their length at 249m doesn't appear to be an issue, channels need to be dredged to meet their wide berth and or draught, which opens up a whole new set of navigational issues.

Many of these were exactly what were tried and tested on the MOSAIC simulators and it was in getting familiar with them that allowed the pilot to work that night. Up until that exercise there was a general unwillingness for vessels to have after dusk departures.
On the human side there were also tangible positives - when on the course in May the pilots said that what they liked about Maersk vessels is because they are kept to such a high standard, that they know when they ask for something it will be there and working. Now much has been done to eradicate the one major misapprehension they had, the uncertainty of guiding such large craft in relatively confined space.

In a way the four pilots who were on the first course have become like modern-day missionaries – their colleagues are keen to follow in their footsteps and port authorities have been awoken to the possibilities and potential to their countries.

Amongst the challenges is night navigation using leading lights. The simulators at MOSAIC allowed the lights to be put in place and then conducted the operation with the precise two knot current the pilots would have to face in real life. The simulators might also have a contribution to the development of future generations of WAFMAX.