About
Welcome to Hempstead Maritime Training
Hempstead Maritime Training has been committed to delivering exceptional maritime education and training since its establishment. Our goal is to offer top-quality learning opportunities that empower maritime professionals with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in their fields.
My Mission
At Hempstead Maritime Training, we strive to deliver exceptional maritime education that fosters a culture of excellence and innovation. We are committed to helping our students achieve their professional goals by providing expert training for maritime professionals and offering advanced ship handling courses in our state-of-the-art facilities.
My Vision
We envision a world where maritime professionals are equipped with the best training and education, enabling them to navigate safely and efficiently. Our goal is to be a leader in maritime training, continuously improving our courses and facilities to meet the evolving needs of the industry.
The HMT Story
Through HMT, I am committed to training that integrates technical knowledge with practice in real-time judgment and small-team decision making. Skills in the wheelhouse must overlap to be effective. Yet traditional maritime training ashore isolates topics so much that non-integration becomes a habit of mind.
Watchstanding means floating a dynamic mental construction of many elements – visual scene, heading, speed, time, traffic, radar information, sea state, currents, weather, chart information, position, route plan, safety of the crew, ship, and cargo, awareness of your own performance and when to call to augment the team.
Assembling these elements is a measure of good seamanship. The licensing process neither trains nor assesses for this outcome. Typically the burden falls on the junior watchstander while on the job to unlearn the separation of tasks and discover new efficiencies without making catastrophic mistakes. Useful training could help mitigate such a risk.
At HMT I strive to exercise the not-so-surprising discovery that trainees in an ECDIS or ARPA course benefit immensely from holistic practice. In my simulation scenarios, I emphasize solo watchstanding with multiple ownships interacting in the same waterway. In custom courses I combine advanced ECDIS navigation in mini-teams with updated elements of BRM.
Careful sequencing of scenarios builds confidence in combing the visual scene with electronic charts and radar while also practicing elements of shiphandling, decision making, and communications.
As a result, HMT offers STCW courses in underway simulation contexts, type-specific instrument training, as well as custom courses tailored to a client s desired emphasis. HMT also provides coaching and formal training for instructors striving to achieve these kinds of outcomes and simulator operator training.
HMT, started in 2013, is a school without a schoolhouse. I conduct training anywhere in the Americas on my own high-end portable simulator, or anywhere in the world at a client’s simulator-based site. I use Wartsila’s NaviTrainer Pro 6 simulator with NaviSailor ECDIS and NaviRadar embedded, all updated to the latest versions available.
In 2024, I added Furuno FMD3100 ECDIS training to my repertoire, after being Furuno-certified. I am now able to setup Furuno-based ECDIS training using my Wartsila simulator. This equipment is less portable. I am confining this training to sites in the Pacific Northwest.
My own expertise is the product of decades of seafaring on small vessels and deep draft ships, overlapping somewhat with decades of teaching in the maritime field. I believe wholeheartedly in your desire and ability to stand a safe and competent watch, and to find satisfaction in preserving our seafaring profession.
