Forward Mounted Booms

[Guest Jon Paul]

I know looks don't deliver cargo but that is the ugliest boat on the lakes lol

[Guest]

In looking at the photographs of the Northern Venture, I would like to know what the visibility is from the vessel's bridge. I realize that on a longer ship, the unloading housing would probably be a smaller problem as the distance between the viewing position and the obstruction are further apart much walking directly toward a telephone pole would be much less of a problem to see where you are going until being just within feet of it. However, the Northern Venture is shorter than the other vessels currently operating on the lakes with such an arrangement and I would therefore assume that the housing represents a much larger viewing obstruction as it is much closer to the navigation bridge. Are there cameras placed to assist in navigation? I have not heard of any incidents attributed to these bow-mounted unloading booms so obviously the system works. Does this increase the workload on the crew, especially when navigating in the rivers during the summer boating season?