Page 59: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Q3 2011)

www.maritimeprofessional.com Maritime Professional 59 TTechnical Portable Lifeboat Training by Compass Courses Maritime Training TRAINING INNOVATION Compass Courses Maritime Training, a maritime-training school in Edmonds,WA recently erected a Gravity Lifeboat Davit in an effort to better serve the maritime community with theirProficiency in Survival Craft course. After happily renting the use of a pub-licly owned davit from a Seattle area community college for years, Compass found itself scouring the country for adavit when the rental rate was raised beyond their means to pay. And, the rent increase would have meant the end of offering classes that were not full. Compass has always differentiated their offerings by recognizing that mariners need their classes when they have time on shore and canceling scheduledcourses can cause real hardships.An initial effort to acquire a davit from MARAD?s Ghost fleet was denied because Compass is not a non-profit organization. A subsequent global search yielded a davit on a decommis- sioned ship that was eventually removed (no small feat to get that davit cut off the ship and shipped across the country to Seattle) and then reassem-bled.Next on the agenda of Julie K. Keim, owner of Compass Courses, was the challenge of finding a suitable locale for a full sized gravity davit. With water- front property being in high demand, itwas perhaps no surprise no lot owners wanted an industrial looking installa- tion adjacent to on their properties.Keim eventually had the brilliant idea of installing the davit on a flat bed trailer to make it portable, and that is exactly what was done. Today Compass Courses is once again providing its familiar high level of serv- ice to the mariner, offering not one, but two Proficiency in Survival Craft/Lifeboatman classes every month, and having the ability to run additional offerings as needed. www.compasscourses.com (Image Courtesy Compass Courses) MP #3 (50-64):MP Layouts 8/17/2011 4:48 PM Page 59