The WMA Manned Model Shiphandling Centre offers various courses, which are briefly discussed below, and full details on each course are given on this website.

• Advanced Course - 5 Day Course (36 Hours) Monday to Friday. This course is for experienced pilots. It's content will be customised to meet individuals requirements and aspirations. Significantly, the course addresses more advanced issues of ship handling.

• Twin Screw Course - 2½ Day Course (18 Hours), Monday to Wednesday or Wednesday to Friday.

• Pilots Professional Development - 5 Day Course (40 Hours), Monday to Friday. Three Days in manned models, followed by two days in the full mission ship's bridge simulator.

• Shiphandling Appreciation - 2 Days (16 Hours). Designed for shore based managers, senior managers and executives with responsibility for marine operations. The content is tailored to meet their special requirements and aspirations and significantly, addresses fundamental ship handling principles.

Courses can also be developed for customers individual requirements. Please contact us to discuss your requirements.

Manned Models are a form of simulation and, as such, are subject to some limitations and differences compared with a real ship, which have to be taken into consideration :-

• Time - Due to the scaling factor, ship handling manoeuvres are carried out in a shorter timescale than the real ship (or a real time ship simulator). This permits each participant on the course to conduct a large number of individual berthing and channel manoeuvres, including re-runs when difficulty has been experienced. It also means that an individual has to think very quickly and thus the concentration and observation that is important to the ship handler is emphasised.

• Speed - The scale of the model also means that speed is low in real terms. The scaling factor is the square root of the scale. Therefore on a 1:25 scale model the scaling factor is 5, so if one is doing 1 knot in the model, this equates to 5 knots on the real ship. Therefore, if approaching the berth with 0.5 mile to run making good 1.5 knots, this will equate to 7.5 knots on the real ship, much too fast !In fact an approach speed at this type of distance needs to be down to 0.1 - 0.2 knots equating to 0.5 - 1.0 knot on the real ship. It is therefore quite normal for course participants to experience problems on the first day in adjusting to this low scale speed. These problems, however, are overcome relatively quickly as excessive approach speeds are very obvious and the results are often spectacular !

• Distance - The need to estimate distance is a fundamental factor in establishing correct approach speed, and can be aided by using "ships lengths" as a yardstick. At the pre exercise brief, the candidate will be given a chart of the lake with the course and an indication of distance to run marked up.

• Wind - The wind cannot be scaled, but the lake has been laid out to give optimum berth and channel protection from various wind directions. Even in gale conditions areas of calm can be found behind screens of trees and hedging, where useful exercises can be conducted. The effect of wind on a ship is an integral objective of a shiphandling course and it is not advantageous to work exclusively in calm conditions. Every effort is made however, to start with basic manoeuvres in sheltered waters. As individual participants progress they will be subjected to stronger winds to concentrate on specific objectives in this subject area. Instructors will endeavour to conduct shiphandling operations in the most appropriate scaled wind conditions for a particular objective.

• Briefings / Debriefings - All participants will be fully briefed by their instructor before each exercise commences to enable them to formulate an exercise plan. Once an exercise is underway the instructor remains on the jetty (or in an accompanying launch) and does not intercede unless absolutely necessary. This is to avoid breaking the concentration required during the exercise and allows participants to learn, if necessary, by observing the results of his actions. When the exercise is completed, a comprehensive debriefing is conducted on the quayside to discuss the results. Such debriefs are considered to be a most important part of the course.

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