Page 44: of Marine News Magazine (October 2018)

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TRAINING “We wanted to be proactive in addressing the needs of companies to ? ll the personnel void created by the downturn. We were pleased to work with industry to ? gure out what those needs were, and design programs to meet them.

OSVDPA accreditation became the cornerstone of that effort.” – Captain Kate Fossati,

DP Instructor at the Texas Maritime Academy and data from sensors for wind and motion are combined They did. Beyond this, OSVDPA conducted assessments with gyrocompass data to give a computer the vessel’s posi- of Captain Kate Fossati – one of two Texas A&M DP in- tion. This information allows the computer to calculate structors – to benchmark her knowledge of the DP theory, the required steering angle and thruster output to match her practical DP operational abilities, as well has her ability the ocean’s current conditions. Some, but not all, vessels it to use a DP simulator as an instructional tool.

is used aboard include: offshore supply vessels, drillships, semi-submersibles, turbine installation vessels, cruise

WHY TEXAS – WHY NOW?

ships, cable layers, dredges, shuttle tankers, military ves-

As the