Time For A Change? The Case For Towboat Simulator Model Standards
For the Seamen’s Church Institute’s Center for Maritime Education (CME), the safety of mariners is at the heart of everything we do. As the inland towing industry evolves, so does the importance of high-quality training to ensure the safety of mariners and the integrity of inland waterway operations. A critical tool in modern mariner training is the use of simulators, which are increasingly relied upon for everything from licensing and promotions to operational planning and accident reconstruction.
With this growing integration and reliance, the question of accuracy becomes more than academic. It becomes a matter of safety.
In 2021, the classification society DNV introduced a groundbreaking standard, DNV-ST-0033: Marine Simulator Systems. This standard requires that ship-assist tug simulation models be validated with performance data drawn from both computational fluid dynamics simulations and real-world trials. By anchoring simulation behavior in verified, measurable metrics, these standards help ensure that simulator-based training reflects how vessels behave in real-world conditions. In doing so, they enhance the realism of assessments, improve training outcomes and reduce the potential for errors during high-stakes operations.
While this standard marks an important step forward for ship-assist tug operations in coastal and deep-sea environments, the inland towing industry—composed largely of push boats and barges navigating rivers, channels and locks—faces a unique set of challenges. These include shallow water effects, bank suction and cushion forces, wind and current variability, wave interactions in confined waterways and the complex hydrodynamics of barge handling. Unlike coastal ports, where vessel behavior can be measured under relatively consistent conditions, inland waterways are dynamic, constrained and highly influenced by environmental factors rarely captured during sea trials alone.
Simulators for inland towing are now being used in increasingly critical scenarios. They support mariner licensing and assessment processes, determine hiring and promotional readiness and even help government agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers evaluate the feasibility of infrastructure projects. In this context, the absence of a validated simulator performance standard for inland towboats would create a major gap—one with real-world operational, financial and safety implications.
The inland towing industry needs a standard that mirrors the intent of DNV-ST-0033 but is tailored to its operational realities. Such a standard could begin by defining key measurable actions that reflect how inland towboats operate under typical and adverse conditions. Testing might include push pad thrust trials to evaluate thrust performance in shallow water, bollard pull measurements to determine force output, stopping distance trials both with and without barges in tow and assessments of handling under different current directions and speeds. Additional metrics could include maneuverability benchmarks, such as acceleration rates, backing power and turning radius, all under various environmental conditions.
Creating such a standard would provide enormous benefits to training centers, mariners and industry stakeholders. It would ensure consistency in how simulator models behave across institutions, reducing disparities in training and evaluation by ensuring that all mariners, regardless of where they trained, are equipped with the most accurate representation of vessel performance available. It would improve the fairness and accuracy of hiring and promotional decisions by standardizing performance expectations. Most importantly, it would enhance the validity of simulation-based analysis for critical infrastructure planning and operational safety.
The ship-assist tug community has already demonstrated what’s possible through the adoption of DNV’s standards. Their work offers a useful model for the inland sector to adapt to the unique challenges faced by inland mariners. As simulators continue to influence career advancement, operational readiness and safety outcomes across the inland maritime sector, the time has come to ask an important question. Can we afford to move forward without a unified, validated standard for towboat simulation? The answer seems increasingly clear.
Now is the moment for the inland towing community—training institutions, vessel operators, regulatory bodies and classification societies—to come together and define what such a standard should look like. The tools exist. The need is evident. The benefits are far-reaching. What remains needed is leadership.
CME looks forward to partnering with those who recognize this need and are prepared to take the first step toward advancing safer, smarter and more standardized simulator training in the inland sector.
Featured image captions: Capt. Stephen Polk (right), director of the Seamen’s Church Institute’s Center for Maritime Education, and Capt. Andrew Martin, a CME instructor, stand in the simulation room at SCI’s facility at the Port of Houston. (Photo courtesy of the Seamen’s Church Institute)
