Guardia de máquinas

A 90-minute, 4-round basic Express simulation for Spanish vocational training (Formacion Profesional), Maritimo-Pesquera family: module 1177 Procedimientos de guardia de maquinas (Tecnico en Mantenimiento y Control de la Maquinaria de Buques y Embarcaciones, Real Decreto 1072/2012) and module 1314 Organizacion de la guardia de maquinas (Tecnico Superior en Organizacion del Mantenimiento de Maquinaria de Buques y Embarcaciones, Real Decreto 1075/2012).

The learner is a newly qualified engine officer on her first contract aboard the only ro-ro of a fictional short-sea shipping company from a fictional port in Asturias, keeping the engine-room watch over the four quarters of a year.

Eight watchkeeping decisions over four rounds: how the watch is taken over, how an engine is started, how six simultaneous alarms are handled, how a fuel transfer is run, what is done with the bilges while the oily water separator is out of order, how a blackout leaving port is recovered, how the emergency equipment is tested and how the year is closed.

Scored on voyages on schedule, engine-department cost a week, alarms not normalised in time and engine-room incidents; three tempting choices come back later, and two critical errors (the bilges pumped overboard bypassing the separator, the emergency tests written as done without doing them) cap the round. Lesson: with simultaneous alarms, prioritising matters more than acting fast. Training level only.

Spanish primary, English parity. All companies, ports, ships and people are fictional.

An introductory simulation that assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, designed for undergraduate courses. It also works in vocational and high-school programmes and in onboarding sessions.