A Pleading for Ship Manned Models as a “Physical” Simulator in the Ship Handling Training Process

AbstractAs almost everybody is aware, the seafaring as occupation is still a dangerous way of life. Despite the scientific and technological progresses, the casualties at sea are yet numerous and loss of human life is costly. The causes are pending on various domains such as the increased maritime traffic at often associated higher service speeds, the overconfidence in the navigation gear devices the lack of alternative navigational knowledge, bad team management, crew overstressing and unduly fatigue and so on.Because most of the causes listed above are (more or less) directly linked to human error, a proper training will (at least) reduce the frequency of such obviously unwanted events, so any way to achieve this goal is a meaningful one. Among other approach directions, the manned models ship training method is a very interesting (at least from most trainee's points of view.) and therefore efficient and successful procedure.The submitted paper presents briefly the pros & cons of the manned models ship handling training together, followed by some proposals resulted from a feasibility study (included in the RoNoMar project) for the establishment of a new such a training centre imbedded in the Constantza Maritime University's educational heritage, notably two manned models (an ULCC and a PCC) preliminary design specifications