Francois Mayor nudged back on the power and made a subtle adjustment on the wheel as he coaxed his cargo vessel through a narrow point in the Suez Canal — not the Egyptian one, but a replica in the middle of a French lake.
This stretch of water was built to train ship captains and maritime pilots how to navigate the Suez Canal — a skill in the spotlight ever since the Ever Given cargo ship got wedged in the Egyptian waterway last month in high winds and a sandstorm.
The channel is built to one-25th the scale of a section of the real Suez Canal and trainees must steer scale models of massive container ships through it without getting stuck.
Photo: Reuters
“It’s a bit hard to recreate sandstorms,” said Mayor, managing director of the Port Revel Shiphandling Training Center in Saint Pierre de Bressieux, France. “But we have gusts of wind that will push our ship to one side or another.”
During training on the mini-Suez Canal, instructors simulate steering problems and engine outages to see how the trainees react.
“You have little space to maneuver. You need to be particularly focused,” Mayor said.
Located in the foothills of the Alps, the Port Revel facility is designed to replicate some of the trickiest spots in global shipping.
The facility also has a mini-San Francisco Bay and an imitation Port Arthur, Texas, for lessons on docking and maneuvering cruise ships and tankers in crowded ports.
Underwater turbines replicate currents and waves.
Mayor said that the incident with the Ever Given, which blocked the Suez Canal for six days and choked global trade, might prompt shipping companies to send their staff for refresher courses.
“After each accident ... we see new clients coming,” Mayor said. “The cost of training at Port Revel is nothing like the cost of having a vessel like that stuck for a day.”
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