Kongsberg Training has successfully delivered remote K-Chief 700 Step 1 instruction to four of the crew of the 93.25m superyacht Mayan Queen IV.
Although an initial enquiry for a classroom-based System Introduction course was thwarted by the coronavirus lockdown, the KONGSBERG team were able to convert the training to be conducted online whilst the vessel and crew were confined to port in Antibes – with one of the students even further away, in Thailand.
During the course, each student was given access to a virtual machine emulating a K-Chief 700 operator station – giving hands-on experience and allowing them to carry out practical exercises – while a KONGSBERG instructor delivered presentations and targeted advice via the Zoom videoconferencing platform.
“I was slightly sceptical about how successful a remote course would be, but the outcome was excellent and had several advantages over a classroom course,” said Chief Engineer Tim Webster. “Firstly, we have been trying to book the course for over a year now, but as our staff live in different global locations and have varying leave patterns it has been difficult to arrange for all of us to attend a course at Kongsberg. By doing it onboard during this lockdown period, we could have the full team involved whilst also bringing in Colin our other ETO remotely who was on leave in Thailand.
“The other benefit of running the course remotely and onboard,” he continued, “was that after every session the onboard team could go directly to our live system to try out our new knowledge and provide feedback to the instructors on various parameters on our system.”
All four candidates successfully completed the course and were delighted with the final results and the professional approach of their KONGSBERG instructors Øyvind Løchen and Sondre Kosmo Paulsen. “Although we have been operating K-Chief 700 for a year now, we all gained much more knowledge and realised the flexibility and many more benefits of the K-Chief system and AIM-2000,” said Webster. “We look forward to the Step 2 maintenance course.”
