Rob Grool: "when you want directions - do you ask three people and take the average?"
Rob Grool of shipmanager Wallem gave the kind of forthright presentation for which he is well-known and had a firsthand case study to impart to the last day crowd about how to manage information overload.
Grool had been marked to speak on the second day in the training session and had always thought that was on Wednesday. No said the organisers, it was always Tuesday. “It just shows you what can happen when your information doesn’t agree,” he suggested.
Formalities out of the way, Grool tore a strip off ECDIS mandation as an “unspecified” system which reminded him of GMDSS but not in a good way. “We have to remember – eNavigation should mean enhanced navigation. It’s a process not a product.”
The usual suspects – wonky satellite position inputs, incorrect chart data, insufficient training and pure bad practice – were all wheeled out and sunk by Grool gunfire. But he spoke whereof he knows.
Expressing incredulity at the serious of collisions with the Tricolor in the English Channel after the wreck had been marked – a good example of where mandatory ECDIS cold have helped the situation - he gave examples of incidents on Wallem ships that he had learned from. Those included performing a re-survey in one instance to satisfy himself that the right thing had been done.
The problem was clear he said – much like his speaker slot – mariners had to sift and separate information to find what they needed. And too few manufacturers really understood the process. “To be honest you can do bridge team management on your kitchen table if you know what you are doing, but personally I can’t read too much information only on a screen. And mark my words, there are going to be more accidents because underlying data has not been kept up to date.”
