The drills were well appreciated and the interaction during the session was overwhelming.

The second day commenced with Capt. S.K. Srivastava welcoming the overseas / local participants from the T&E Group and after their brief introduction, he engaged the audience on some pertinent issues, which included some current concerns among shipowners. Reflecting on owners / managers expectations in this buoyant / demanding market conditions he advocated the need for Indian seafarers to be cost effective, because any further escalation in the salary structure would set off an inevitable chain of events in a recession thus impacting all concerned adversely and subsequently losing favour in the long run. He stressed the need to have a pragmatic approach to deal with the rampant changes, as calculations are always being made about the costs that a seafarer would eventually impose on the owner and his budget.

Mr. Svend Anthonsen from the Copenhagen office addressed a wide range of technical issues and standardization of the purchase routines within the Group.

Additionally touching upon other critical issues like cost effective communication / good house keeping standards, Mr. Anthonsen elaborated on the topic by illustrating examples and offering solutions. He concluded the presentation stressing the importance of forethought and planning in these areas to achieve the desired result.

Mr. Hans Moerck’s presentation tackled issues relating to dry docking procedures / costing. Supporting the topic with some interesting facts / figures and expressing happiness with the performance of the Indian officers, Mr. Moerck singled out some concern, more significantly with regard to the repair lists emanating from the vessels that have appeared inconsistent, fragmented and uncoordinated on few occasions. He emphasized the importance of co-ordination / cohesiveness in these areas to avert any obvious implications on cost / time.

There was overall consensus on the issues and all present agreed that there has been an enhanced understanding of the problem and that a concerted effort would be directed to ensure improvement.

The safety related topics enjoyed prominence with Mr. Ralph Juhl who shared his experience / knowledge with the participants on port state control/vetting inspections and other safety related issues. Spelling out the T&E objectives on various matters, Mr. Juhl engaged the participants in very interactive discussions and disclosed some insightful details as the T&E group unfolds its future plans.

Taking over the podium from Ralph, Kai Eriksen from the Oslo office presented the crewing statistics of the Group which made interesting reading and the day came to an end after a valuable presentation on Risk assessment & management from Capt. Amar Singh of the Singapore office.

If we live with criticism, we learn to condemn

If we live with hostility, we learn to fight

If we live with fear, we learn to be apprehensive

But

If we live with encouragement, we learn to be confident

If we live with praise, we learn to be appreciative