Oral Exam OOW 3000GT (Yachts) Cardiff:
At the beginning he gave me a Chart with course over Ground and wanted the Compass course. Did the Interpolation of Deviation like in my Navigation and Radar course.
The Variation on the chart was from 1989.
During this time he was looking for MSN 1802, Annex H and used the Syllabus for the exam.
Gave me a Tidal Stream Atlas, we are 2h bevor HW Dover, he wanted to know everything with his given information regarding to the Tidal Atlas.
Neap and Spring. What does e.g. 18,29 mean, 1,8 knts at Np and 2,9 at Sp.
Weather chart from approximately tow Years ago. It was an Analysis Chart +48h with no clear indication of Warm and Cold front, mostly Occlusions. He wanted wind direction and strength. No Geostrophic Wind scale on the chart,but stated that there is a difference in Wind speed between the same distance of Isobars at a different Latitude.
Duties for Officer of the watch. A weak point of mine because I am Captain on a 94 ft vessel and I am not very familiar with 3000gt OOW procedures. Stated the points from the Bridge Procedures Guide, witch I learned by Heard and not jet by practice.
Pre departure checks as a Officer of the watch.
Passage plan Appraisal Planing Execution and Monitoring.Than in detail Appraisal: Nautical Publication: ALRS VOL. 1-6, ATT,Tidal Stream Atlas, ALL, ASD, Chart´s up to date, Chart catalogue, Weather routing Charts, Annual Summary Notices to Mariners, Cumulative list, Weekly Admiralty Notices to Mariners, MSN´s, MGN´s, MIN´s, INTERCO, IAMSAR, Nautical Almanac.
Monitoring, Chart work in detail, what to do, gave the full list ( course,WP, XTE, PI, ETA, tidal streams, pilot- traffic points, contingency plans… )
Marpol Annex 5 in detail, distance and what kind of Garbage can I discharge. Special Areas. Garbage Record Book, Garbage Management Plan.
Man Over Board, Port side; procedures, Williamson turn manoeuvre and what other manoeuvres are possible, Anderson turn or Single turn and Sharnov turn.
Advantages and disadvantages of the different manoeuvres
Rushed into the initial Actions and did the Williamson turn and mentioned after he asked “and what else can you do“ Flag O – – – and VHF Mayday
GMDSS Sea Areas 1, 2, 3, 4 explain the difference.
Roughly about ALRS Vol.5 GMDSS information.
Fire in Engine room, specific action.
Told him CO2 Procedure, and related to:Find, Identify, Restrict, Extinguish (FIRE)
Important Restrict! Evacuate Engine room,Fuel shut off, stop Ventilation, close Ventilation in- and outflow, Engine room CO2 Alarm, close watertight doors, float Engine room and then silence. I was thinking- … cooling the close by Compartments, measure temperature,
Stability: half full Tanks, what problems occurs. Explained Point K, G, B and M, witch was hard without a sketch. Followed by explanation of free surface effect.
He wanted to know what is now with G and brought me this way „back on Track“
Mentioned GV (so virtual G) and the reduction of Gravity to Metacentric hight.
Crossing Situation: Stand on Vessel, give way vessel.
Stated now Rule 8, Action to avoid Collision in detail. Not by heard but I used the keyword from each paragraph and gave examples.
Sailing-vessel as a model on port side, and risk of collision. Explained first rule 18 and recognized that it is a overtaking situation. Corrected myself immediately, witch seemed OK , because explained now in detail rule 13 Overtaking and pointed out the difference! between rule 18.
Two Sailing vessels; I have the other on my port side. Asked about the Wind direction, and as I was to Leeward side She is the keep out of the way vessel.
Two Vessels on Port. One in front of another what to do?
Binocular are they Towing?Yes day signals night signals, sound signals, for a Tow over and under 200m.
What to do if Tug is Restricted in Ability to Manoeuvre, what to do without RAM. I am on stb.
What Action?
Tug with RAM Signals I keep out of the way.
Tug without RAM Signals, normal crossing Situation. I stand on he is the give way vessel.
What Action if he is not action as the rules require!
I sound 5 or more short Blast call the Master still no action, I give one short Blast and make a large Alteration of course to stb.
How can you find out if restricted visibility exist. What System can you use.
Rule 6, (b) vi gives the answer: „die genauere Feststellung der Sichtweite, die der Gebrauch des Radars durch Entfernungsmessung in der Nähe von Fahrzeugen oder anderen Gegensänden ermöglicht. (For foreign Students: it could be very helpful to have a copy of important Publications in mother language) He wanted to hear that I can use my Radar to measure the distance and for example if I can see normally a Light at a specific distance and now I cant, I assume restricted visibility.
Gave me arrows with different lengths as a speed and direction indication, said we are on Sea Stabilized North up and Relative Motion, questions with one vessel, port, stb, and aft then abeam.
stated Rule 19 .
Lights: (no smarty board) all lights on paper, fishing with outlying gear where to pass sound signal.
Sailing-vessel, where to pass, Sound signal.
Cardinal Mark W without top mark, what is it light characteristic and He is North where to pass.
Than one more Preferred Channel Mark IALA Region B Lights and were to leave it.
At the end He asked me about my work in the next month and how live is on Yachts.
I focused always when i answered to give the answers so structured as possible. Specially at the end of the exam when my brain was linked to my mother language. Fingers crossed for all future Students, good luck, proper prepared it should be fine
Big THANK´s to the valuable advices by John Percival!