Watchkeeping and Bridge Navigational Safety | 5 ways to prevent collision

The latest MCA Safety Spotlight (July 2025) shines a harsh but necessary light on the ongoing risks linked to poor bridge watchkeeping practices. Despite advances in technology and regulation, collisions, groundings, and serious accidents are still occurring due to preventable human errors.

Numerous factors can impact the safety of bridge operations, including fatigue, distraction and misuse of equipment. In accordance with the MCA safety spotlight, vigilance, leadership, and discipline are the makings of good seamanship.

1. Fatigue Is More Common Than We Think

Fatigue is one of the most underestimated risks at sea. It creeps in quietly, reducing concentration and reaction times without the watchkeeper realising. Many recent accidents—highlighted in the MCA’s case studies—can be traced back to an overworked or poorly rested crew, sometimes due to commercial pressures or insufficient manning levels.

What can help:

Ensure accurate records of working and rest hours are maintained, in compliance with STCW and ILO conventions.
Masters should have the authority and company backing to refuse unsafe watch schedules.
Implement practical fatigue management strategies, including rotating watches to allow proper rest.
Promote open reporting of fatigue without fear of blame.

Key takeaway: A well-rested watchkeeper is sharper, safer, and far more effective than a tired one.

2. Keep Distractions to a Minimum

The MCA warns that mobile phones, personal tablets, and non-navigation tasks are increasingly cited as factors in collisions and groundings. In Case 1 of their recent investigation, a fatal collision occurred due to a watchkeeper being distracted by a personal tablet and having consumed alcohol hours before the watch.

Watchkeeper on bridge talking on walki talki

What can help:

Enforce “no personal device” policies during bridge duty.
Establish clear bridge discipline—navigation comes first, always.
Conduct regular briefings on the risks of distractions and complacency.
Make use of bridge resource management (BRM) techniques to keep focus on tasks.

Key takeaway: Navigation requires 100% attention. Staying focused on the task at hand makes all the difference.

3. Watchkeeping Technology Is a Tool, Not a Replacement

Bridge technology—radar, ECDIS, and BNWAS—has significantly improved maritime safety, but it cannot replace a lookout. The MCA has found that navigational aids are sometimes muted, set incorrectly, or relied upon without cross-checking with other methods.

What can help:

Ensure radar and ECDIS alarms (CPA, zones) are set appropriately for the vessel’s environment and traffic conditions.
Train officers not just on how to use these systems, but why settings matter.
Cross-verify electronic data with visual lookout and manual plotting.
Test BNWAS and other alarms to ensure they’re functioning correctly.

Key takeaway: Technology supports safe navigation—but only when used as part of a layered safety approach.

4. Continuous Training Is Essential

The STCW convention sets the standards for watchkeepers and their qualifications. However, to achieve a high level of competency and safety, watchkeepers should participate in ongoing training, practice and refresher courses. With complacency and outdated knowledge continuing to play a huge role in navigational errors.

Watchkeepers training on bridge simulator

What can help:

Refresher training on COLREGs, Bridge Resource Management (BRM), and radar/ARPA systems.
Simulator-based exercises to rehearse collision avoidance and emergency scenarios.
Peer-to-peer learning onboard to ensure everyone understands procedures.
Make training a regular conversation, not a box-ticking exercise.

Key takeaway: Ongoing professional development is the difference between knowing the rules andapplying them instinctively under pressure.

5. Leadership and Culture Make the Difference

As figures of authority and an example for the rest of the crew, Masters, officers, and company leaders must promote a safety-first culture where proper watchkeeping is maintained. The MCA’s case studies show that weaker leadership and commercial pressures often result in best practices being overlooked.

Watchkeeper and engineer on bridge looking out the window

What can help:

Embed watchkeeping standards into your Safety Management System (SMS).
Provide Masters with clear backing from shore management to enforce proper manning and rest periods.
Invest in leadership training to reinforce standards onboard.
Encourage open reporting of near-misses without fear of blame—this builds a culture of learning.
Demonstrate leadership by walking the talk—prioritising safety over speed or cost.

Key takeaway: A strong safety culture, supported by leadership, prevents the erosion of standards.

At The Maritime Skills Academy, we see these lessons as a positive opportunity to keep improving how we train and support watchkeepers. By blending technology, good habits, and strong teamwork, we can create safer, more efficient bridges. What may seem like a small step in developing a skillset will have a much larger impact on the industry, resulting in less incidents and casualties, globally.

If you’d like to learn more about how our training programmes—including Bridge Resource Management and COLREGs refreshers—can help your team, get in touch with us.

Woolwich Ferry Visits the Maritime Skills Academy’s Training Centres

At the end of 2024, the Maritime Skills Academy (part of Viking Maritime Group) hosted London River Services’ Woolwich Ferry Team to our Dover and Portsmouth facilities. It was a pleasure to host General Manager, Darren Ellis and his team as they participated in some training.

Read Darren’s full testimonial below to see what he had to say.

“The Woolwich Ferry Marine Operations Team are responsible for the Woolwich Ferry service delivery, maintenance of assets and infrastructure and asset renewal. The Woolwich Ferry service sits within Transport for London’s (TfL) Rail & Sponsored Services Directorate (R&SS).

The Woolwich Ferry (WF) Marine Operations Team has restructured the ferry service over the past two to three years, which included voluntary compliance with international marine standards, such as The ISM Code, for what is an Inland Waterways Category C ferry service on the Upper Thames River at Woolwich. Part of this voluntary compliance with international marine standards included all of our operational people completing STCW training at the Maritime Skills Academy training centre at Dover.

The WF team found the training facilities at Dover to be state-of-the-art. The training, led by experienced and engaging instructors, provided a positive training experience for all our people. Thereafter, this training has successfully been incorporated into their operational roles at the Woolwich Ferry Service.

The two Woolwich Ferries are modern diesel-electric hybrid double-ended vessels which carry lorries, vans, cars, cyclists and foot passengers. The vessels are equipped with four hydromaster azimuth thrusters for maximum manoeuvrability in a confined and intensive route of operation.

The WF Marine team worked closely with the MSA Portsmouth vessel simulator team to profile the WF vessel operating and manoeuvring characteristics, and for the first time to digitally map the Upper Thames operating area within the Woolwich Reach.

A regular monthly programme of emergency contingency training was completed throughout 2024 with all bridge teams training and exercising using the world-class simulator facilities provided at MSA Portsmouth. The simulator exercises also incorporated some of the more testing vessel manoeuvres specific to the WF service operational envelope.

The simulator training has been a great success and has been enthusiastically received by our bridge teams. It has prepared them for a full range of potential adverse future operational events, ensuring they can react as required if and/or when such events materialise, keeping our people, assets, infrastructure and the environment safe.

Working with the Maritime Skills Academy has been a truly collaborative partnership which has significantly enhanced our operational standards and the service we continually deliver to our customers.”

Darren Ellis Woolwich Ferry General Manager

Seapeak Visits MSA Portsmouth’s World-Class Facilities

Seapeak is a global leader in the international maritime transportation of gas liquids, and it aims to lead the way in the transfer of energy and keep the world in motion.

The Maritime Skills Academy Portsmouth recently hosted these distinguished industry leaders, as they were on the search to identify a provider who could not only deliver world-class training but also utilise and incorporate Seapeak’s own policies and procedures and navigation handbook whilst simultaneously maintaining its purpose, values, and standards.

After this recent evaluation, Seapeak’s Training and Recruitment Manager John Reid expressed his satisfaction with the training centre by writing the following glowing testimonial.

“The Maritime Skills Academy Portsmouth delivers all we requested and much more. From the moment you arrive at the Lakeside North Harbour building, you get the immediate feeling that this is a very professional set-up. From the outset, the message is that you are here to learn in a learning environment. The style of teaching ties in with the ambience and attitude of “let’s learn, and learn at your own pace” by building confidence first, and then moving on to enhancing skills and knowledge.

As well as several state-of-the-art bridge simulators, MSA Portsmouth has Engine Room Simulators (ERM), switchboards, High Voltage Simulator Training, ECDIS Training suites, classrooms, briefing rooms, and incredible recreation space for student breaks. All of which can be integrated for running multi-vessel or multi-departmental exercises or drills.

Another real plus (particularly for Seapeak) was for us to discover that the MSA also have the ability to run Basic and Advanced Polar Code courses.

All in all, the Maritime Skills Academy and their professional staff are running an elite training centre providing world-class training to the maritime industry. Seapeak are delighted to be working with them to ensure that our Officers are receiving a high level of training consistent with our Seapeak Values and Standards.”

On behalf of the entire MSA Team, it was a pleasure to host John and his colleagues, and we are grateful for his kind words and complimentary testimonial.

If you’d like to arrange a visit to our facilities to see how the Maritime Skills Academy can support your maritime training needs, please get in touch below to schedule a visit.

GET IN TOUCH

Tag: portsmouth