Training Manuals.

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For over five years I was the Vessel & Volunteer Manager at Voyager NZ Maritime Museum located at Downtown Auckland, NZ.  Under my care were three very different vessels: a scow, a square rigged brigantine and NZ's oldest steam boat.     Crew were all volunteers aged from 16-80yrs old, some coming from long maritime careers, others totally new to the sea.   My role, amongst other things, was to create the training manuals from raw materials (crew verbals, notes etc)   Because of the huge variety of skill sets, the manuals needed to be comprehensive and full of pictures to explain our way of doing things safely.   These manuals seem to take forever to create and often just when you think it is right, somebody points out something that needs to be changed and so it goes on and on, and even then they are living documents, so always ready to be updated.  I must've got them right because this is what one of the Mates emailed me:

"Carol, I'm really impressed with the Training Manual.  Yourself and others involved have done a great job of it and I must say as a professional writer of technical specifications and often training materials, that I think it is very fit for purpose.  Its important that thins are expressed simply and clearly with a writing style tat is easy to read - You've achieved that. ......  I refer to it often, especially now that I have the mate/training responsibility and need to make sure that my instructions are clear  accurate...... "  - Paul T.

Being a maritime writer, I was also pleased with the result and know that the work I did will form the basis of the training for some time.



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