Simulator training versus sea time

The pressure from some ship owners to consider shortening training time for watch officers prompted Jean-Pierre Clostermann, manager of ship handling simulation at the Le Havre Merchant Marine Academy in France, to bring objective, experimental results into the debate about how much simulators can replace at-sea experience. A rough trade could be one week on the simulator for six weeks at sea but Mr Clostermann warns that similar attempts made in civil aviation were quickly found to be dangerous.