Returning to Sea: Refreshing Bridge Team Readiness After Time Ashore

Superyachts need to be ready to sail with safe, competent and confident Bridge Watchkeepers.

Protracted periods alongside inherently impact operational readiness and introduce non-assessed complacency creep.

This is common after crew changes, seasonal downtime, or a long refit. The command team returns with the same qualifications and experience, but several weeks or months may have passed since the team navigated together.

Bridge procedures and working practices are rusty, and leadership teams understand the risk, and now have a portable solution to minimise it.

For one private-yacht team preparing to return to sea, the brief was straightforward....'help us blow the cobwebs away'!

They wanted an entry-level VASCO program to bring the command team back up to speed with COLREGs and reinforce the yacht’s safety-management standards before live operations resumed.

Simulation gave them an opportunity to put the entire team through a sequence of scenarios and evaluate how capabilities and understand where the risk existed.

Finding the team’s rhythm again

Most return-to-sea preparation naturally focuses on the yacht itself. Equipment gets tested, passage plans developed, and drills completed. The crew reviews the Safety Management System and gets up to speed, individually, on anything that has changed while they have been away. But alongside this theoretical understanding, building a cohesive bridge team is essential if the vessel is to operate safely.

Picture a crossing situation developing off the starboard bow. The Navigator is assessing risk and deciding what action to take. The Co-Navigator is tracking the wider traffic picture, prioritising target information, and building situational awareness. Helm is waiting for clear instructions.

Everyone knows their role. The real test comes when they have to perform those roles together. Was the target identified early enough? Was the risk of collision evaluated. Did the Navigator receive the information they needed? Did Helm understand and acknowledge the order? What happened elsewhere in the traffic picture while the team’s attention was on the immediate target?

VASCO places the Navigator, Co-Navigator, and Helm in the same immersive VR bridge environment, with the instructor controlling the exercise and observing the team in real time. The debrief can then focus on what happened during the exercise: a target raised later than expected, an instruction that caused hesitation or a decision that worked well.

The discussion is grounded in the team’s observed response and the choices they made together.

COLREGs in a developing situation

Collision-avoidance decisions rarely arrive as clean, isolated textbook questions. The bridge team is working with moving vessels, steady bearings, and incomplete information. A straightforward encounter can become more demanding as traffic builds and environmental conditions change.

An introductory VASCO program can begin with familiar head-on, crossing, and overtaking situations. This establishes how the team reads an encounter, communicates the developing risk and applies the relevant rule.

Exercises can be completely aligned with the Yacht's operational needs and developed to ensure every element of team competency and experience shortfall is effectively addressed.

Reconnecting with the yacht’s safety standards

The Safety Management System sets out the yacht’s expectations for safe operation. Reviewing the relevant procedures gives everyone a shared reference point after time ashore. A practical scenario then shows how consistently those expectations are understood and applied by the team.

The instructor can build the session around the standards the yacht has prioritised for its return to operations. Where the review has focused on bridge responsibilities or escalating navigational concerns, the exercise gives the team a realistic setting in which to apply them.

During the debrief, the instructor can return to the moment a concern first emerged. Who held the information? How was it communicated? Was the agreed reporting process followed?

Safety-management standards depend on people recognising when a procedure applies and using it at the right moment. A developing scenario makes that easier to observe.

The first session also gives the instructor a practical baseline. An established team may settle quickly and be ready for a busier environment. A team with new personnel may benefit from more time on communication and role clarity. The program can develop from what the instructor sees, keeping each exercise relevant to the crew on board and the yacht’s upcoming program.

By the time the yacht returns to sea, the Navigator, Co-Navigator and Helm have recent experience of working through a developing encounter together. They have heard how their colleagues communicate, applied the COLREGs within the same scenario and reviewed their actions with an instructor, so the first live passage isn’t the first time the team has navigated together since the break.

Finally, skill re-enforcement is not a single intervention; it can only be truly achieved by a commitment to regular activity. VASCO sessions delivered onboard, or via 3rd party instructor/assessor, should become part of the operational tempo, ensuring the maintenance of bridge watchkeeping standards becomes an inherent part of vessel routine.

Find out more about VASCO and book a demo.