Paul Verhoeven comes from a family of skippers. He has worked at Brabo since 1975. He started out as a boatman, then became a pilot, and has been in charge of training for around ten years.
Paul Verhoeven: “Our people start by passing the boatman’s exam and a few years later they can start their training at the Antwerp Maritime Academy. In the meantime they practise regularly in our simulator. Here we check whether they have the necessary skills to become pilots.
Once they’ve completed their STCW master course after eight years, they still have to attend six months of practical lessons. At the same time, we prepare them to appear before a jury (via theoretical training: types of propellers, types of rudders, docking of ships, etc.).
In practice, our apprentice pilots carry out around 350 piloting assignments and ten assignments (twice) with a ‘godfather pilot’. After this, if all goes well, they are ready to join our team of pilots.
Pilots start with ships from 90 metres in length and then gradually progress to larger ships. After two years they are piloting ships of 180 to 220 metres. At that point they are given additional simulator training and they go to Poland for a ship handling course. After five years they go to France (Port Revel) for an emergency course. This covers everything that can go wrong and how to respond in an emergency.”
