Page 44: of Marine News Magazine (May 2016)

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INLAND MARINE OPERATIONS yers. Maybe the days of doing a lot with a little are ending. The Challenges Ahead

The coming subchapter M towboat rules will level the We have two big challenges in the towing industry as it playing ? eld in many ways. Captains will have the author- relates to Sub M: ity to make decisions based on safety of the vessel, crew • Mariners have to be able to say NO. They have to be and environment. All boats will be crewed similarly, docu- taught risk assessment and then allowed to say NO, with no mented risk assessments will become commonplace. Train- repercussions. Stop Work Authority has to be accepted by the ing will have to be stepped up, but it will be a struggle. boatmen and the of? ces.

For example, we put General Alarm strikers in the wheel- • Of? ce personnel – dispatchers, project managers, own- house but are they easy to reach? Do you drill enough to ers – have to work with the crews to mitigate risks. A NO make the motion to turn on the General Alarm second na- from a captain for safety reasons has to stop the job until it ture? What if you hear it? What will you do? At 0520, the guy is safe to proceed. It should be a team effort to get to the ‘Go’ in the rack is probably in deep sleep, what’s the reaction time? decision. It can’t be the standard of? ce response of “Well, if

No doubt the preaching will start from the people in you won’t do it, we’ll ? nd someone that will.” industry of? ces and safety consultancies that either never Many of the same boats will do the same jobs once Sub ran a towing vessel or forgot what it’s like to be on one. I M hits the streets and the two pieces above have to happen see a lot of that now. Companies are being told by their together. Sub M will change our behavior. The point from charterers that they need to do all the risk assessments for the beginning of the TSAC task to build Sub M was to their companies including the risks on board their vessels. increase mariner safety. Only when we start to live safety

But, it is rare that anyone in an of? ce understands the risks both on board our boats, in our personal lives and in our better than the men and women who do the job every day. of? ces, will we see change.

The risk assessments need to be driven by the captains and We will miss Paul Amon, Tim Conklin and Harry Her- crew for the vessel operations. nandez. They and the Specialist brought their ‘A’ game to

May 2016 44 MN

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