New procedure for boat handling

Boating is the core competence in ESVAGT – now it is to be strengthened even further

The core of the work ESVAGT is carrying out is to rescue distressed people out of the water and bring them to safety.

This is an operation that ESVAGT has trained and refined for more than 30 years and which is very central to the company, says Jesper Møhring Madsen, the new HSEQ Manager:

- Boating is the essence of what we do. Boating enables us to reach people in distress – in all kinds of weather and at all times night and day, he says.

To ensure that the high boating competence level is an integrated part in ESVAGT in the future as well, 2014 will see the introduction of new boating procedures.

- We have constantly developed our boats, which are now third generation and the most superb equipment anyone can get to work with, and our vessels have been designed for rapid responses. But we think that it can be done even better, says Jesper Møhring Madsen:

- Even the best equipment is no better than the personnel who are to use it. Therefore, we will now introduce a new boating procedure aimed at proving that we always have the competence and preparedness in the boats that we and our customers expect, he says.

Transfer of competence and experience

The shipping company has seen a rapid growth in recent years, and today ESVAGT has 750 colleagues at sea. All of them must be able to operate the boat and they can – but some are more experienced than others. The new boating procedure will among other things ensure that in the composition of the boat crew there will always be crew members with lots of experience and routine:

- In the shipping company we have 30 years’ of experience in these operations, but this experience is to a high degree integrated into a rather small group of boat crew members. Over the past 18 months we have got 108 inexperienced new colleagues, and for obvious reasons they have not got the 30 years’ of experience that the company has. It is our ambition to get as much as possible of these 30 years’ of experience passed onto our new colleagues, says Jesper Møhring Madsen.

Therefore ESVAGT will divide the boat crew in categories according to competence and experience. The objective is to ensure that there will always be one or more ‘super experienced’ members of the crew who can teach and train the ‘green’ colleagues.

- It is important that the group of experienced boat crew pass on the correct understanding of safety and culture. Everyone who works on our vessels can navigate the boats. But not all of them who have this as their primary task, says Jesper Møhring Madsen.

He firmly believes that the everyday training under the guidance of a good and competent role model will make a difference.

- Our previous boating procedure was six pages. First of all it is difficult to pass on so many years’ of experience in only six pages, and secondly, six pages of boating procedure may not be the optimal way of teaching an inexperienced person about the optimal, safe boating procedure. We think that with a good distribution of the best role models, the learning and experience processes will get far better implemented, says Jesper Møhring Madsen.