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Training Center for Maneuvering on Manned Model Ships

25 points by mhb 3 days ago | 8 comments

Was somewhat famously parodied in a naked gun movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6NJspRcfYM

Tom Scott visited a similar facility in Poland, Port Iława, where he got to pilot one of the scale models there under the guidance of the instructor. https://youtu.be/jplrbxI5GN8

mazokum 14 hours ago

Tom Scott made a video about a similar facility: https://youtu.be/jplrbxI5GN8?is=kytaMgjccGpJfypr

ashwinnair99 11 hours ago

The Navy requisitioned excursion boats to train pilots in WW2 and somehow this is not a more well known story.

ashwinnair99 15 hours ago

Did not know this existed. Makes sense though, port accidents are expensive enough that even a niche training facility pays for itself fast.

ok_dad 15 hours ago

> Training on models provides experience that could never be gained on real ships for the simple reason that neither shipowners nor local authorities would allow such risks to be taken.

I was trained onboard a real ship. It took about a year to become qualified as officer of the deck. There are also sims now which are probably better.

dmurray 14 hours ago

I don't understand your point. Are you saying that it's possible to get adequate training on a real ship, and using the fact that you managed to do it as an example?

Of course it's possible to train on a real ship. But the sailors who trained on models have certain specific experience that you will hope never to get. As for the things you experienced and they didn't, they can catch up with those during their first year on a real ship.

ok_dad 2 hours ago

These small models won’t train you in maneuvering skills directly, but rather in how to think about maneuvering and the mindset you need in traffic. A sim or a real ship gives you actual maneuvering skills in addition to that experience. You could sit in a classroom with models of ships of a desk and get the same experience as this place, in my opinion as someone who did this work. Obviously you don’t want to crash a real ship, but you don’t want to be crashing sims either.