Crew Connect Fishing Academy
Real MAIB investigations, worked as decisions rather than case studies. You're the skipper or the deckhand at the actual moment a real crew faced this — what do you do next?
Learn it. Prove you understand it. Prove you can apply it.
Fishing Safety Knowledge
Stability, weather decision-making, cold-water shock, engine-room single-handed working, the Seafish Safety Folder in practice — one topic at a time, grounded in the Code of Practice for Safety of Fishing Vessels and MAIB's own recurring findings.
Fishing Competency
Knowledge Checks test whether stability, cold-water physiology and watchkeeping concepts have actually stuck — not just whether you can recall a definition.
Fishing Decision Simulator
Real incidents, branching decisions, real consequences — recognise a developing list or a fatigued watch, decide, live with what happens next.
Full write-ups behind three of the scenarios below
Four Minutes — Lexi Rose
A 69-year-old skipper with 40+ years experience, alone, four minutes from propulsion loss to capsize. No PFD.
The Fifth Time — Nista
Back rope entanglement pulled a lone skipper overboard — the fifth near-identical UK creel fatality since 2019.
Lost in 40 Minutes — Weston Bay
A double man overboard during pot shooting exposed no separation from running gear, no drills, and recovery kit that couldn't lift an unconscious casualty.
Real fishing-vessel investigations, worked as branching decisions
Every scenario is built from a real MAIB investigation — the opening situation, the decision points, and the real outcome are all drawn from the actual report. Wrong turns show what would genuinely have happened, not an obviously bad choice.
Njord — The Valve Left Open
A ten-tonne catch, a 10-15 degree list read as good fortune rather than a warning, and an EPIRB left to save the crew instead of a transmitted Mayday.
Silver Cloud II — The Night Trawl
Three exhausting days, flu-like symptoms, and a lone skipper alone in the wheelhouse at 2330 trusting a watch alarm to do a person's job.
Louisa — The Last Job Before Bed
A tired crew leaves the deck wash running and a nuisance bilge alarm disabled. Real outcome: three of four crew lost at anchor overnight.
Ardent II — The Adapter Nobody Checked
An untested multi-socket adapter feeds a mess-room freezer with no smoke detector in the space. A real fire, a real evacuation call, a real constructive total loss.
Nista — The Fifth Time
A lone creel skipper, an unchecked EPIRB, and a back rope entanglement mechanism that had already killed four other UK fishermen.
Crystal Stream — The Alarm That Wasn't Connected
A watch alarm nobody had actually tested. A fatigued solo watchkeeper. A real grounding, and a genuine liferaft-survival problem afterward.
Silver Cloud II — The Watch Nobody Shared
Fatigue and flu symptoms, a watch alarm with no repeater outside the wheelhouse, and a decision to push on rather than call for relief.
King Challenger — The Way It's Always Done
An unassessed fleet-standard practice, no lifejacket or lifeline, 10.5°C water. Cold-water shock decided the outcome within seconds.
Sea Harvester — The Pole Kept Rising
A guide-pole rises under strain, twice. The second time, nobody calls stop.
Jacoba — The Beam Nobody Confirmed
A winch operator who can't see the deckhand working beneath a suspended dredge beam — and no confirmation protocol to close that gap.
Pauline Mary — No Knife, No Separation
Pot-shooting entanglement risk with no knife at the shooting gate and no separation from the running gear.
Amadeus — Leaning Over the Rail
Fatigue and posture on the last pot of a long shift — a routine task made hazardous by how tired the deckhand already was.
Weston Bay — No Separation
A double man overboard during pot deployment exposes a gap between what a "self-shooting" system promises and what it actually delivers.
Cornishman — The Chain Nobody Checked
A deckhand works beneath a suspended trawl beam against the vessel's own risk assessment — an ageing quick-release chain fails from invisible hydrogen embrittlement.
What this is — and isn't
- ✓ A place to rehearse fishing-safety judgement between formal Seafish courses and real trips
- ✓ Grounded in real MAIB investigations, the Code of Practice for the Safety of Fishing Vessels, MSN 1871, and the Seafish Safety Folder
- ✓ Free to use while this section is in active development
Not an approved stability assessment, a substitute for your vessel's own risk assessment or stability information, or a certification provider. Always follow your vessel's own procedures and the Skipper's authority.
Start with a real incident
Louisa — a tired crew, a running deck wash pump, and a bilge alarm someone disabled because it kept going off.
Start the Scenario