Words of wisdom from the ISF Manning and Training Conference 2010

As the IMO celebrates the year of the seafarer, it played host to the launch of a new initiative. Seafarers' Rights International is a new centre to advance the rights of seafarers and their legal protection on a worldwide basis…

Much has been made in recent years of the US authorities' aggressive approach to prosecuting so called magic pipe cases against crew members. Many in the industry have been critical of the procedure, by which whistleblowers are used to gain a conviction…

Consultants Drewry's latest survey on operating costs warns that they're on the rise again, with headline operating costs set to rise to 1.7-2.0% this year after falling back 1.5% in 2009….

PLUS ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. It's a case of once more around the block as the International Group of P&I Clubs once again attract the attention of the European Commission. As the clubs have been investigated on two previous occasions and not been found wanting, it may look to some that a third investigation seems over-zealous…

Pearson & Taylors classic book “Fractured French” wasn't intended to be the kind of French you could use to order a croquet monsieur, but a brief glance shows that it does contains plenty of phrases associated with our dear industry…

We are delighted to note that six new members have joined the Maritime HR Forum in as many weeks taking membership to nearly 40 companies. The Forum is the only source of worldwide, reliable compensation and benefits data for the shore-based shipping industry…

Spinnaker is seeing more vacancies in the offshore support and FPSO markets than we have ever had. This is both technical, in terms of newbuildings, FPSO project management and technical management of offshore fleets, as well as offshore commercial specialists…

When freight rates collapsed in September 2008 it looked like being a long hard winter and while 2009 was a tough year for maritime recruitment, particularly in the commercial market, 2010 couldn't be more different. Spinnaker is seeing a very active market and great successes in all three of its divisions – commercial, professional services and technical…