Dragonfly Maritime

Here's the latest Superyacht Feedback publication from CHIRP. Fingers crossed that we see fewer reports and incidents in 2025! Which one stands out for you? - A substandard eye on a set of bitts. - Harassment of a crewmember. - Explosion of engine start batteries. - An unmanned Bridge leads to a collision at anchor. - Unsafe pilot transfer arrangements. - Yet more working aloft without any form of PPE. - Shoddy liferaft maintenance. Please like and share, both on LinkedIn and with your yachts & crews.

It's our 7th birthday! Seven years ago, Paul Naranjo-Shepherd started teaching COLREGs over the breakfast bar in his flat in Southampton to Cadets... Seven years later we have a team of over 35 Deck, Engine, and ETO tutors and in the twelve months to September, we helped almost 800 people with their MCA exam preparation! It's been a crazy journey but thank you so much for joining us on the adventure! Here's to another seven years!

Yesterday's panel on yacht incidents and the importance of sharing and learning at The Superyacht Forum (part of METSTRADE) in Amsterdam was a great success, judging by the packed venue and the number of follow up questions afterwards! I attended on behalf of the CHIRP Superyacht initiative and one of the audience members recorded this little introduction. I couldn't have said it better myself so I thought I would share... (the volume is a little low, sorry).

I've just finished the last in this series of STCW updating courses, all of which I did at Warsash Maritime School on their Warsash campus. Every course and every instructor has been absolutely exceptional, from the chaps on the fire ground to those on the pier, all led by Jim Cunningham. What really struck me is the incredible amount of experience that the instructors bring to bear, combined with a rigorous, no-nonsense attitude to safety and seasoned with plenty of friendliness and banter to make it fun too. A particularly notable mention goes to Catrin Gautier who taught the PMC refresher. Her passion, enthusiasm and deep expertise took a course which could be a three-day slog and turned it into possibly the best-taught course that I have ever had the pleasure of attending. Although it is sad to see the upper site being demolished, it's really heartening to see that the safety training team on the lower site are still upholding the highest standards of quality in maritime training that made the college's name in the first place.

I'm on another round of Bridge Resource Management (BRM) observation trips with Condor Ferries for the next few days, starting this morning with a trip on the Condor Voyager. I was here early enough to see her approach the linkspan this morning, which is the first time that I've seen her arrive from ashore. The power, speed and manoeuvrability of these fast craft truly is a remarkable feat of engineering and human ingenuity, as well as a testament to the skill of the Captain at the helm. I just wish that they would let me have a bash... What could possibly go wrong!?

ETO Oral Prep...? Yep! 5* ETO Oral Prep...? Of course! Whitehorse Maritime Academy

Did you see CHIRP's latest issue of Maritime Feedback? This one leads with a particularly hard-hitting report of a company's (fantastically ill-titled) Head of Safety leading a party of potential purchasers into an enclosed space without the slightest precaution being taken. Worse still, the crew who witnessed this incredibly near miss didn't feel able to intervene and nor did they feel comfortable using the company's internal near miss reporting processes... Safety culture, anyone? The good news is that CHIRP was able to offer a confidential port of refuge for this report, not only to share it with the industry via the publication below but they were also able to contact the company directly to report the incident, without giving any identifying information about the reporter. That's just the first report!

"We've been working together for a long time but I'm sure that there are areas where we're not performing at the highest standards. I want you to find them." That was how the Captain of the yacht that I'm flying out to this morning, in partnership with dsnm Ltd, opened our pre-briefing call the other day. I must admit that I was slightly taken aback to encounter such a remarkable degree of openness to constructive criticism but it establishes a fantastic jumping off point for this short trip across the Med. It is very easy (and indeed normal) to get comfortable on a vessel or in a position, and the best way to counter that is to actively welcome external input, whether that is from new crew members, flag, management or, indeed, someone like me. Alongside some "soft auditing" activities across Deck and Engine, Mick Walsh CEng MIMarEST and I will be delivering a range of short training sessions covering everything from COLREGs to BA dressing and safety culture to crowd control. It's going to be a busy few days!

Our new Survey & Certification eLearning module is now available to dsnm Ltd's clients as part of our unique partnership. dsnm Ltd' clients can have access to all of our eLearning resources, for the whole crew, for a year for one fixed and very sensible price, whether for general crew training or as a perk for crew who are sitting their oral exams.

Are you interested to learn how Paul Naranjo-Shepherd navigated the transition to life ashore?