Specialist manning
Offshore supply vessels, anchor handlers, crew boats, tugs and fishing vessels need crews with different certificates, different rotation patterns and different tolerances from deep-sea cargo crews. Maingate Shipping mans these vessels from Kenya for operators working the East African coast, the western Indian Ocean and the Mozambique Channel.
The pool includes ratings and officers with dynamic positioning familiarisation, offshore survival training, fishing vessel experience on purse seiners and longliners, and tug and workboat service in ports across the region.
Offshore crews work four-on, four-off or similar patterns, so manning means keeping two crews certified, medically fit and available for every position. We keep the rotation calendar, arrange the crew changes at the supply base or by crew boat, and hold standby seafarers for the positions the operator cannot leave empty.
Purse seiners and longliners in the western Indian Ocean rotate crews at Port Victoria, Port Louis, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Kenyan fishing ratings with the relevant safety certificates and sea time are placed, transported to the port of joining and handed over to the vessel's agent.
Offshore survival and helicopter escape courses, dynamic positioning induction, crane and rigging competence, fishing vessel safety certificates and medical fitness to offshore standards are checked before a seafarer is proposed, and gaps are filled through training in Mombasa or the region.
This desk is part of Maingate Shipping Limited, the Mombasa ship agency, crewing and brokerage house that has attended vessels at Kenyan ports since 2020 from its office at Express Building, Moi Avenue. Port agency at Mombasa and Lamu is handled by the company's own boarding officers; calls elsewhere in Africa run through the Maingate agency line under one DA format and one reporting style; Kenyan seafarers are recruited and managed from the same office; and the chartering desk fixes the tonnage that brings East Africa its wheat, fertilizer, clinker and fuel.
Principals deal with one desk for the whole voyage, and every service is agreed in writing before it is performed.
Yes. Crews join at Mtwara, Pemba, Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, or by crew boat from the supply base, under the operator's rotation.
Yes, given the vessel's manning scale, flag and the operator's competence requirements, with the crew assembled, documented and delivered to the vessel.
Standby seafarers are held for the positions the operator designates, and replacements for other positions are drawn from the wider pool.
One instruction, one account, one contact for the master and one for the principal.
Related desks on the same instruction line.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091