Learning to sail the international seas—without leaving dry land
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April 18, 2012
One of the Camosun Nautical department's Transas Navi-Trainer 4000 desktop simulators.
Camosun's Nautical department can teach everything you’ll need for an exciting sea-faring career. With a combination of sophisticated technology and expert faculty, you can gain at-the-helm experience on the high seas—virtually, that is—using Camosun’s Transas Navi-Trainer 4000 desktop simulator! The simulator, located at the Interurban campus, is a teaching tool that gives students the experience of being out at sea through virtual exercises and labs.
Interactive exercises allow students to navigate through real world experiences that are difficult to simulate in a dry-land classroom, but are essential skills for anyone in command of a ship. Depending on the course being taught and the purpose of the exercise, instructors can program the Transas Navi-Trainer to mimic real environmental conditions like geography, weather and time of day. “The simulators are ideal tools for building and improving the navigational and manoeuvring skills of ship’s Masters and Navigation Officers,” says Ivan Oxford, Program Leader of the Nautical department. A student may not otherwise get to practise navigating through a winter storm on the BC Coast, or a windy day in Baltimore—the simulator provides them with these different situations and international locations.”
Students also receive valuable lessons in working with a crew because the majority of exercises are done in groups. “The simulator labs are excellent platforms for building team work, improving communication skills and increasing situational awareness, says Oxford. “Being able to manage a bridge is a critical part of being a captain or working on a ship. Some programs at other institutions cannot provide this, which is why we are incredibly fortunate to have the simulator.”
If you are looking for a career at sea there are a number of training programs and courses available through the Nautical department. Many of these use the simulator to strengthen the training in areas such as: chart work and pilotage, navigational safety, electronic navigation, meteorology, bridge resource management, electronic chart display & information systems and ship handling. The ship models include professional craft such as tug boats, freighters, tankers and passenger ferries as well as a pleasure yacht.
However if you want to learn more about pleasure craft, Camosun’s Continuing Education department offers courses that take as little as five days of training. Courses can also be customized to meet specific business or group needs.
Programs run throughout the year, and updated information can be found at camosun.ca/nautical. Whether you want to sail the international seas, or learn more about the oceans surrounding Vancouver Island, Camosun’s Nautical Department has a program for you!
Contact
Ivan Oxford
250–370–4016
Oxford@camosun.ca
Last updated: October 6, 2015 2:04 pm
