Resolve Maritime Academy builds new wet trainer

David Boldt, Simulator Group Manager; Denise Johnston, Director of Resolve Maritime Academy, and Clifford Charlock, Fire School Manager, at the site of Resolve Maritime Academy's new wet trainer in Port Everglades

JULY 30, 2014 — Resolve Maritime Academy, Fort Lauderdale, FL, is building a new, two-story wet trainer. Larger and more expansive than Resolve’s original, the L/V Gray Manatee. it will be used for stability and damage control courses.

Utilizing props meant to simulate flooding from breaches, broken pipes, and hatches, the new wet trainer is designed to give the first responders of a vessel the knowledge and understanding necessary to deal with survivable hull breaches.  

Located next to the L/V Gray Manatee in Port Everglades, the academy’s new wet trainer is one of the largest in the industry.  Four-times the size of the first, the wet trainer is 40 ft long by 8 ft wide, two-stories high and spans 640 square feet.  

Featuring a wet room for practicing different types of damage control techniques and a flooding room to run scenarios ranging from command tactics to damage assessment, as well as second flood access, it gives students the ability to enter the flooded compartment from above thus incorporating modern SOPs (standard operating procedures) into their training.  Practical exercises can incorporate individual client SOPs for Damage Control).

“We are incredibly proud to offer a course that combines stability and damage control using our new two-story wet trainer,” says Denise Johnston, Resolve Maritime Academy Director.

“Based on some recent incidents, the industry has been looking for specialized training so we are building the wet trainer to meet their needs and be able to evolve for future training,” says Clifford Charlock, Fire School Manager.

Offered as a five-day course, Stability and Damage Control encourages team building, correct decision-making and proper damage control tactics in a setting that allows hands on skills in a safe but stressful environment.  Students will cover NAPA damage stability, case studies, cross and down flooding and flooding mitigation in the classroom before being tested in the wet trainer.