Page 33: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2023)

COVER STORY CURTIN MARITIME

One Technology:

Vessel Management Software

In discussing maritime technology trends with industry leaders, MR always ask for ‘the one technology’ that in and of itself makes the biggest difference in ef? ciency and/or safety. Martin Curtin was succinct: new-generation vessel management software (VMS).

Curtin sees modern, centralized VMS as a tremendous tool. “It’s creating more of a Pavlovian response for our mariners to go to our Helm Connect vessel management software for everything.”

Curtin Maritime uses VMS extensively throughout full vessel operations: “I mean everything down to the deck hand’s rounds of cleaning toilets. Mariners know that every time I come on watch, I grab my cup of coffee, I grab the laptop or the tablet and I log in, I put my engine hours in and then my daily tasks.” The VMS adds accountability for mariners and crews, creating a central repository for all tasks.

But there’s more.

“Being a mariner by trade, a lot of people are hesitant to point something out because then they are the ones that have to deal with it. This is where the term ‘pencil whipping’ comes in,” said Curtin. “They go down into the forward fore peak and see a cracked frame and they may say, ‘man, I don’t want to have to deal with it.’ So they just ignore it.”

Curtin said the new VMS has effectively helped eliminate a lot of the pencil whipping, as the problems become a shared or reassigned task. “That’s probably the thing that’s been the biggest bene? t for us safety-wise; taking the onus off the crew a little bit and spreading it back to shoreside, creating more of a village atmosphere.” www.marinelink.com 33

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