Page 13: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2023)

The Author

Author’s Disclaimer

The views expressed in this presentation

Ryan are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S.

Captain John Ryan Holds an Unlimited Masters License.

Merchant Marine Academy, Maritime

He has sailed on commercial, military and training vessels.

Administration, the U.S. Department of

He currently teaches Navigation and Collision Avoidance

Transportation, or the United States.

at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. the students will spend almost as much time setting up the equipment as they spend underway. Students are required to look at all inputs and ensure they are properly set for the current conditions.

They examine the satellite geometry of the GPS in order to determine its level of accuracy. They will determine what information is displayed as well as the alarm settings. The students are ob- served by the instructor as they set up the equipment and throughout the underway portion of the exercise. The student’s ? nal evaluation isn’t just based on the success of the voyage, the ef? ciency of how they used the equipment is just as important. By requiring this level of set up each time the hope is that it will force the students to assume a more active role and get them into the habit of constantly thinking about whether or not the cur- rent display settings are giving them all the information they require. Program- ming the equipment every time they use it gives them ownership; it forces them to think.

When I teach collision avoidance, I require the students to tell me what they think the new course is before they work it out on paper or perform a trial maneu- ver on the ARPA. My goal is to get them into the habit of thinking about it prior to the calculation that way if they make a mistake it will be much easier to rec- ognize. Think before you execute.

The question we should constantly ask our self is, am I using this equip- ment in order to make an informed deci- sion or am I blindly following its direc- tion. If we are not fully engaged in the decision-making process then we can never recognize when something isn’t right. Technology does not relieve us of our responsibility to think. www.marinelink.com 13

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