Two members of the International Marine Contractors Association’s (IMCA) Marine Technical Adviser team will be speaking at the European Dynamic Positioning (DP) Conference in London on 16 November. One will cover new findings related to IMCA’s DP event reporting system and the other will consider the ‘marriage’ between DP vessels and the offshore wind industry.
Richard Purser, who joined the IMCA Technical team earlier this year, will be speaking on ‘DP events and reporting – latest trends and influencing factors’; and Captain Andy Goldsmith, who combines his role as a Technical Adviser covering DP with a similar role for Renewable Energy, follows him on the programme considering ‘What does DP mean for the offshore wind sector?’.
Richard Purser described what he will cover:
“Analysis of submissions to our voluntary event reporting scheme highlights the fact that areas of human behaviour have now become the main contributing factor. I will be explaining how we can delve deeper and identify what sort of human element has triggered the event or incident.
“This in turn influences our feedback to industry. This includes information notes; bulletins; safety flashes; and importantly the DP CPD (continuing professional development) App we have developed for key DP Personnel in association with The Nautical Institute. The App will be demonstrated on our stand in the associated exhibition.
“The more we learn, the more we can share and thus drive down event and incident figures. Our plea, as ever, is “keep reporting” it is vital that those in the sector continue to learn from each other in this way.”
The four pillars of Andy Goldsmith’s presentation will be ‘Understanding the role of DP in offshore wind operations’; ‘Standards and guidelines of DP systems in the renewables market’; ‘DP and walk-to-work vessels’; and ‘Knowledge transfer from the oil and gas sector to the renewables market’. He explained:
“I had left the sea by the time offshore wind operations became so prevalent; so, I have been talking to those ‘at the coal-face,’ doing the job now; and will be sharing some of their comments with delegates. They are certainly illuminating; in some instances, they reveal extremely challenging situations; raising a number of issues and questions that I will be exploring at next month’s event.
“Our findings show overwhelmingly the need for education of shore management, vessel operators and wind farm operators alike; and that IMCA has a key and ongoing role in supporting all concerned. This support includes guidance documents; the IMCA DP Practitioner Accreditation Scheme; and the IMCA/Nautical Institute CPD Scheme for Key DP Personnel.”
