DIGITAL SHIP MAGAZINE (Jan/Feb 2013)

AA fter extensive negotiations,Inmarsat and Astrium havetaken the first firm steps

towards a distribution deal for theGlobal Xpress Ka-band service fol-lowing the agreement of a Memoran-dum of Understanding (MOU)between the two companies.

The deal, officially an 'MOU on aStrategic Distribution PartnershipAgreement for Global Xpress', wasstruck at the Inmarsat partner confer-ence in Budapest, Hungary, onDecember 5.

The exact details of what is con-tained in the document have not yetbeen disclosed, though it has beenconfirmed to Digital Ship that theMOU does, at least, pave the way foran agreement on Global Xpress to bereached.

It has also been confirmed thatboth parties are currently in activenegotiations to finalise a deal “in thevery near future”, which it is hopedcould come about early in 2013.

Astrium has so far been conspicu-ous by its absence from the growinglist of confirmed resellers for GlobalXpress, despite the fact that it is cur-rently Inmarsat's largest external dis-tribution partner, contributing toapproximately 40 per cent of

Inmarsat's maritime revenues.It is thought that a number of dif-

ferences exist between the two parties

with regard to how they would like topresent the product to the market,particularly when it comes to the inte-gration of value added services (VAS)to operate with the Ka-band commu-nications network.

Astrium is understandably keen tobe able to differentiate its offeringfrom that of other competitors pro-viding Global Xpress as far as possi-ble, and seems to have so far been dis-couraged by Inmarsat's efforts toexert greater control over the VASecosystem via its alliance with Cisco.

In an interview with Digital Ship inour October issue, Erik Ceuppens,head of the Astrium Services BusinessCommunications division, admittedthat there had been “tensions”between the parties, particularly withrelation to the freedom resellers willhave to create their own packagesaround the Global Xpress product.

“Inmarsat is looking at the GlobalXpress tie-in of value added servicesto one connectivity technology. Wehave, clearly, a different view – thereare connectivity technologies but thesolution layer we are building shouldbe, in a certain way, independent ofthe connectivity provided,” said MrCeuppens, in that interview.

“This is probably where we have a

IN THIS ISSUE

January/ February 2013

electronics and navigation

continued on page 2

software

satcomsKGJS to implement Dual iFusion – 2

Hybrid connectivity –from land to sea – 6

Live training over satellite –the next wave? – 10

Performance optimisation at Maersk – 20

Unified systems forbetter shipping – 24

Weather routing vs voyage optimisation – 26

Inmarsat and Astriumagree GX MOU

Furuno BNWAS for Tidewater – 30

The IMO’s e-Navigation infrastructure– should we care? – 32

Changing traditionsfor the PlayStationGeneration – 34

Astrium Services has been a notable absentee from the confirmed list ofGlobal Xpress reseller partners that Inmarsat has announced over the last six months – this may be set to change as the companies have confirmed

the agreement of an MOU that should pave the way to a formal deal

The MOU is expected to lead to aformal deal on GX in early 2013

(+47) 77 62 19 00 or [email protected]

Eitzen Chemical operates, overall, around 80 chemical tankers. Based in Copenhagen, Capt Søren Krarup-Jensen heads up Marine HR. “Dualog Connection Suite is the corporate platform for communication with our ships. At the same time it provides our crew members with private e-mail accounts without any adminis-tration on our part”, says Captain Krarup-Jensen.

“Dualog provided the combination of fl exibility and control we were looking for – independent of satellite communication systems and airtime vendors”, adds Krarup-Jensen.

“Improved Crew Welfare”Søren G. Krarup-Jensen, General Manager, Crew & Marine HR, Eitzen Chemical

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SATCOMS

Digital Ship January/February 2013 page 2

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different view, for example, thanInmarsat. We strongly believe in diversity.I think it’s also of benefit to Inmarsat,because if there’s no diversity the only dif-ferentiator will be price and I think that’snot really healthy for the industry.”

“What’s important is that, in the GlobalXpress framework, elements are therethat will allow companies to compete onthe difference in their value propositionsto the customers, and not only to competeon price. For us, indeed, it’s critical thatthere is a differentiation possibility basedon the services that we will be able to add.”

However, despite these differences MrCeuppens was still, even at that time, con-fident that a compromise could be

reached.“Clearly, what we are trying to do is

establish a strategic agreement withInmarsat on Global Xpress. To come to astrategic agreement obviously both partiesneed to agree, which is always a process togo through – and we are currently goingthrough that process,” he said.

“What is key for us is to be able to builda sustainable business model for GlobalXpress in the future, not only for Astrium,as such, but also for our partners. A majorpart of our business is still through ourdistribution channel, so we are not onlynegotiating for Astrium, we are negotiat-ing for our distribution channel.”

It would seem that the companies’newly agreed MOU may now mark the

first steps in reaching a compromise dealthat will see the parties able to cooperateon distribution of the Ka-band serviceunder terms that are satisfactory to both.

There is certainly an eagerness on bothsides to reach a resolution - after all,Astrium does not want to be unable tooffer Global Xpress to its customers as partof its portfolio, while at the same timeInmarsat can ill afford to exclude itslargest maritime partner from its list ofresellers as it tries to recoup its $1.2 billioninvestment into Global Xpress.

Further developments will be keenly awaited, to see if Astrium doesindeed join Telemar, GMPCS, Navarino,SingTel, Imtech and JRC as a GX partnerin 2013. DS

www.globewireless.com

Norwegian shipping company KristianGerhard Jebsen Skipsrederi AS is toimplement the Dual Globe iFusion systemfrom Globe Wireless as the communica-tion solution for both the SKS Tankers

Holding AS and KGJS Cement HoldingAS fleets.

The Dual Globe iFusion systemincludes a two terminal FleetBroadbandconfiguration, with one terminal acting asthe primary communication system andthe secondary terminal acting as a backup.

KGJS to roll out Dual iFusion All external voice and data communi-

cations are controlled by the primaryantenna, however if any connection loss isdetected on the primary the secondary terminal antenna is used automatically forall services.

The secondary terminal also serves as abackup and can become the primary ter-minal in the event of primary terminalhardware failure.

Globe Wireless already had an existingrelationship with KGJS prior to this deal,and the two companies have workedtogether to develop and evaluate the spe-cific requirements and communicationsystems needed.

“Globe Wireless has been working withus, not as a supplier, but as a partnerthroughout this time and has demonstrat-ed exceptional commitment and flexibilityin offering us a satellite communicationssolution that satisfies our evolving needs,”said KGJS, in a statement.

“They were open to our ideas and hadmany of their own to offer. GlobeWireless’ Dual Globe iFusion solution willensure that there is reliable, high qualitybroadband communications between ourvessels and offices ashore.”

“In addition, Globe Wireless is meetingour bandwidth needs, along with provid-ing a complete turnkey solution includinglogistics, equipment, service, support and applications. This level of supportenables us to focus on our business at amore efficient level reducing our opera-tional costs.”

The standard Globe iFusion system will be supplemented by a second back-up antenna

www.globecommsystems.com

Globecomm Systems has announced that ithas reached the milestone of providing con-nectivity services to 3,500 ships globally.

“The growth of our maritime servicessegment is a core strategy for Globecommand will continue to be so in comingyears,” said Dave Hershberg, Globecommchairman and CEO.

“The key to our approach is being ‘agnos-tic’ about the airtime and letting our cus-tomers choose a service that is right for them,all of which can take advantage of a market-leading suite of value-added services.”

Globecomm's products include com-munications services ranging from L-bandto GSM and VSAT, as well as value-addedsoftware products.

More than half of the company's cus-tomers use Inmarsat platforms, with theremainder divided between Iridium,VSAT and GSM technology.

Globecomm has also installed 300 Wi-Fi networks on ships to enable managedinternet access for crews, as well as com-bining hybrid VSAT and GSM services,enabling remote access to onboard IT net-works and providing firewall and anti-virus products.

“2012 has been an excellent year forGlobecomm Maritime,” said MalcomMcMaster, president of GlobecommMaritime.

“We have remained focused on coretechnologies such as InmarsatFleetBroadband, but have also expandedour range of services, with emphasis onextended Ku-band coverage and our com-bined Ku-band/L-band service se@FLEX.”

“Reaching 1,800 active Inmarsat termi-nals demonstrates the success of continu-ing to support core maritime technologywhile at the same time providing cost-effective services that our customers havecome to know and trust.”

Globecomm hits 3,500

Beam Communications has cele-brated its 10th anniversary, having beenfounded in 2002 in Melbourne following arequest by Telstra and Iridium todesign and manufacture a satellite termi-nal for the Australian market.

SELEX Elsag is to provide customer-specific engineering services to optimiseSnapTV’s modular IP infotainment sys-tem in the UK maritime market. The com-pany will also provide after-sales supportin the country from its 15 regional servicesupport centres.

www.beamcommunications.comwww.selexelsag.com

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“Ferry operators all over the world arefacing a growing demand for reliablewireless access from passengers and commuters wishing to take advantage ofthe internet and other communicationsservices. Ferry operators must be highlyadaptable to meet the mobile social

networking revolution,” said EivindMadsen, CEO, MCP.

“We are proud to have Color Line as apartner as they are always looking to meetand surpass their passengers’ needs andwants – including their desire for mobileconnectivity.”

www.mcp.com

Maritime Communications Partner (MCP)has signed separate extended contracts todeliver wireless communication servicesto Stena Line’s European ferry operationsas well as Color Line, Norway’s largestcruise and transportation company.

The new contract with Stena is anextension of an existing contract, andexpands MCP’s services on to two addi-tional Stena Line vessels. These vesselsinclude the former Scandlines vesselsSassnitz and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The new contract will cover access tomobile communication services onboard,with MCP in the process of upgrading itsGSM service to include higher bandwidthsystems like 3G and LTE in the next few years.

“Our partnership with MCP goes backmany years, as our first contract wassigned in 2004,” said Niclas Ingeström,CIO of Stena Line.

“We have always worked closelytogether with MCP, testing new innova-tive solutions to ensure that we are able tooffer our passengers the latest and bestwithin mobile services.”

“It is clear that innovation and researchis a top priority for MCP, always focusingon future growth and technologies.Having a partner like MCP ensures us thatour passengers have the best communica-tion services.”

The deal with Color Line meanwhilewill see MCP extend its provision ofmobile communications services onboardthe company’s vessels.

“It is crucial that our passengers receivethe best wireless communication serviceavailable. This includes the opportunity touse their mobile phones and data roaminglike normal when they are out of the rangeof terrestrial coverage,” said Jo EirikØstmo, acting CIO, Color Line.

“Our cooperation with MCP goes backto 2006, and we are very pleased to takepart in, and get the benefits of, their con-stant drive for innovation and future technologies. With MCP as a partner wecan rely on the best possible wireless com-munication services for our passengersand crew.”

Color Line operates a fleet of six ships,transporting more than four million pas-sengers, close to 900,000 cars and over170,000 trucks each year.

Stena and Color Line extend GSM contracts with MCP

Stena Line and Color Line passengers will be able to continue using their mobile phones at sea via the MCP service

www.globalstar.com

Globalstar has announced that all six of itssecond-generation satellites scheduled forlaunch in early February have been deliv-ered to the Baikonur Cosmodrome inKazakhstan.

Following the successful completion oftheir pre-shipment review at Thales'smanufacturing facility in Rome, the finaltwo satellites arrived at the launch com-plex on December 9th.

Once deployed, Globalstar says that thesix satellites will restore full service to itscustomers and position the company asthe first mobile satellite service provider todeploy a second-generation constellationof low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites.

“After more than six years of designand development, we are proud toannounce that Globalstar is on the thresh-

Globalstar edges closer to launch old of completing the deployment of ournew constellation,” said Jay Monroe,chairman and CEO for Globalstar, Inc.

“This successful delivery signals theachievement of one of the last key mile-stones for our fourth launch and restora-tion of Globalstar's industry leading serv-ice quality.”

Two of the six satellites previously deliv-ered to the launch site have already beenfuelled and mated to the upper stack of thedispenser of the Soyuz launch vehicle.

With the delivery of the final two satel-lites, Globalstar says it remains on sched-ule for a launch in early February. Three offour launches consisting of six satellitesper launch have been completed.

This news was the latest positive devel-opment for the company after it was alsorecently able to return to commercial serv-ice a satellite it was forced to remove inearly 2011 after it was affected by amomentum wheel issue.

This satellite was originally launched inOctober 2010 before being removed fromservice shortly afterwards. However, withthe spacecraft now back in working order,Globalstar now has all 18 of its launchedsecond-generation satellites providingcommercial service.

“After more than a year of development,Globalstar and Thales Alenia Space com-pleted the software engineering, uploadedand tested the solution, and then success-fully returned the affected satellite to com-mercial service,” said Mr Monroe.

“The solution not only permitted thissatellite to return to service but also pro-vides a fix for similar problems that mayhappen across our constellation. Onceagain, I would like to thank all theGlobalstar and Thales engineers and theirrespective teams for this collaborativesolution.”

Globalstar hopes to complete its final next-gen launch in February.

Photo: Arianespace

KVH extends mini-VSAT capacitywww.kvh.com

KVH reports that it has completed anupgrade to its mini-VSAT Broadband net-work that will provide customers inEurope, the Middle East, and northernAfrica (EMEA) with a 60 per cent increasein satellite capacity.

The company says that the addedcapacity was provided by consolidatingbandwidth covering two separate regionsinto one unified beam, and by implement-ing Variable Coding, Spreading andModulation (VCSM) technology providedby ViaSat, KVH’s partner in the mini-VSAT Broadband network.

“We actively monitor and manage ourmini-VSAT Broadband network to ensurewe are delivering the speeds and qualityof service our customers expect,”explained Marc Edwards, KVH’s directorof network operations.

“Rapid growth of our customer base,which now includes well over 2,500 sys-tems in the field, resulted in increased util-isation of the network during peak peri-ods in the EMEA region. We reconfiguredour satellite coverage to more effectively

serve this region with a single beam,which allows the ViaSat ArcLight spreadspectrum technology used in our network to more efficiently carry the traffic.”

“At the same time we implementedVCSM, and the combination of changesincreased our network capacity by 60 percent overall in the EMEA region.”

VCSM will be introduced throughoutthe remainder of the mini-VSATBroadband network not covered by thisextension in the coming months.

“One of the significant advantages of providing a fully integrated end-to-endsolution where we control both the hard-ware design and the network architectureis that we are able to continuously enhancethe quality of the service we’re deliveringto our customers and upgrade our equip-ment in the field with over-the-air modemsoftware updates,” said Mr Edwards.

“We also have the ability to dynamical-ly reconfigure the satellite maps used byour onboard terminals, which enables usto load our network evenly and bringadditional capacity online whenever andwherever it is needed.”

Thuraya agrees Japan dealwww.thuraya.com

Thuraya Telecommunications and SoftBankMobile, a Japanese telecommunicationscompany, have announced they havesigned an agreement to offer mobile satel-lite communication services to the Japanesemarket using Thuraya’s satellite network.

SoftBank Mobile has applied and suc-cessfully received approval from theJapanese regulator to provide Thuraya’ssatellite network services in Japan, and,

commencing from February 2013,Thuraya handsets and airtime serviceswill be sold to customers via SoftBankMobile’s distribution channel.

As part of the agreement, the two com-panies will collaborate together to designa new version of Thuraya’s handset withspecial features, which will be availableexclusively from SoftBank Mobile.

These services will be availablethroughout Japan and in the maritimeareas surrounding the country.

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Hybrid connectivity makes theleap from land to sea

WW ith Alexander Bell’s patent forthe telephone granted in 1876,it’s safe to say that everyone

alive today has lived in a world of elec-tronic communication.

Of course, at home or in the office, wetake our connectivity for granted. But looka little further afield and even in 2013, 137years after Mr Bell set us on the path ofcommunicating by electricity and later, RFand digital, much of our planet still does-n’t have access to reliable telephony, espe-cially broadband internet.

Many countries in the developingworld lack critical terrestrial infrastruc-ture. If it is in place it may be unreliableand at the mercy of a power grid that can’tdeliver due to economic, natural resourcesor political issues.

So, for commercial businesses, banks,heavy industry and humanitarian organi-sations operating in these often remote,sometimes unstable locations, custom,managed VSAT services are a communica-tions lifeline.

In the last decade or so though, thecommunications possibilities being pro-vided to VSAT users on land have explod-ed as service providers have invested con-siderable R&D spend in developinghybrid networks, using a harmonisedselection of disparate technologies andbandwidth to ensure their customers havereliable, high bandwidth connectivity atall times, regardless of local conditions.

These developments have, over the lastfew years, transferred to connectivity atsea, where voice communication, e-mail,

broadband internet and IP applicationsare delivered by multiple carriers within asingle network.

Hybrid at seaSo, after becoming established as amethod for supplying communications onland, hybrid networks are now becomingmore common at sea, with ship ownerinvestments in communication aimed atimproving operational efficiencies, sup-porting crew recruitment and retention,enhancing passenger welfare and securingvessel safety.

The bottom line is that today, morebandwidth is needed and single anten-na/technology solutions may not alwaysbe the best approach in order to stay cost-effective. We see freight rates at record (rel-ative) lows and no end in sight to the cur-rent woes in the global economic outlook.

Hybrid networks however, can offer allthe bandwidth that’s needed, but automat-ically select the least cost carrier, dependingon where a vessel is at any one time.

A hybrid network on board a vessel mayconsist of just two different communicationplatforms or several, depending on the spe-cific needs or indeed route of a vessel.

Technologies available are across theboard: MSS including Iridium andInmarsat, C/Ku/Ka-band VSAT, 3/4G,Wi-Fi, WiMax and even TVRO, whereinbound data can be channelled through avessel’s satellite TV antenna.

Rather than simply installing a range ofdisparate platforms and equipment though,the critical aspect that makes a real hybrid

network on board is a central point that canmanage and select the best carrier for thejob in terms of bandwidth required andleast cost routing. And all automatically.

These boxes are already commonplace,deployed on a number of vessels withinall maritime industry segments, but todaythe alternative carriers to MSS and VSATare only available close to shore or in port,which doesn't reflect the true potential.

A true hybrid solution will always findthe best carrier available for the job and,because of this, will be able to providealways-on connectivity for vessel-wideWi-Fi, so the potential for changing usagepatterns in the maritime transport seg-ment is high.

This is an area of development whichstill may be seen as being in its infancy.

On land, these systems have been indevelopment for a number of years andwe are able to learn from the work alreadydone. At sea, few service providers arepositioned to offer these kinds of solu-tions, which are designed to provide thebest channel available based on the chang-ing local connectivity environment whilstintroducing cost efficiencies in regards toautomatically selecting the cheapest wayof sending and receiving, depending onwhere the vessel is.

Applications But why is more, cheaper bandwidthneeded and how can shipping companiesprofit from the investment that the sat-coms industry requires them to make?

For starters, we’re well aware that e-mail has become an important tool for ves-sel management, whilst the ability to sendand receive files is a boon for completingforms etc, before coming into port.

On that level, many vessels don’trequire a huge amount of bandwidth.However, factor in the crew communica-tion aspect, more bandwidth hungryequipment and real time vessel monitor-ing applications where data from on boardsystems is continuously transferred toshore, and we quickly see the requirementfor bandwidth increasing.

So finding the fastest, most cost effec-tive route for communications at any onetime will, without a doubt, save a vesselmoney when we look at how a modernvessel uses the internet. We can also lookone step ahead, at solutions proposing tocompletely integrate all vessel or opera-tion data into a single online system thatcan be viewed by stakeholders on boardand ashore.

Such ‘collaboration’ systems are current-ly being used within the oil & gas industry,to support exploration and production,with, for instance, drilling software avail-

able to give all experts a detailed view ofwhat is happening in the well.

This data has to be unified and trans-mitted, often in real-time to shore, so thatall experts have the best information,allowing them to make informed deci-sions to enhance efficiency.

This level of collaboration isn’trequired within the maritime transportsegment, but there are a number of sys-tems available that can integrate all of avessel’s performance, fuel consumptionand emissions data and display it in a webbrowser for ship managers on shore.

This means that disparate systems haveto talk to each other in standardised for-mats, such as WITSML used by the oil &gas industry, which in turn creates theneed for even more bandwidth.

Developers of these systems put a lot ofeffort into compression and efficiency, toensure that the bandwidth they consumewhilst communicating doesn’t cripple avessel’s communication budget. But still,as real time monitoring becomes moreimportant for enhancing ship operationefficiency, more bandwidth than tradition-al ‘dump’ reporting is required, so hybridnetworks and least cost routing can helpto reduce the financial burden.

It may not be immediately measure-able, but the benefits in crew retention,HSE and vessel efficiency outweigh thespend on communication, whether for asingle VSAT or full hybrid solution.

The nature of hybrid networks meanthat a service provider may select from sev-eral communication carriers to meet a ves-sel and shipping company’s requirements,and there are several new technologies, orcarriers, in development that will increasebandwidth available even more.

Bouncing Wi-Fi off of vessels is onesuch new approach. Although some wayoff from becoming mainstream, this tech-nology enables the availability of high-speed multi-megabit broadband internetat terrestrial rates.

Another new technology in develop-ment is communication by laser light.Again, this won’t be making its way tovessels any time soon, but an Americancompany has announced its intention tolaunch what it says will be the world's firstcommercial satellite communications con-stellation based entirely on optical wavetechnology.

The planned constellation is to be com-prised of 12 satellites, eight primary satel-lites and four spares, which will be placedin a Medium Earth Orbit at 10,500 km.

One of the most interesting aspects ofthe system is that it will not rely on radiofrequency (RF) spectrum, as typically usedin maritime satellite communications. The

Satellite technology has formed the backbone of maritime communications for decades, but the ever-increasing hungerfor bandwidth should see hybrid networks incorporating new technologies become increasingly important to vessel

connectivity in the near future, writes Tore Morten Olsen, Astrium Services

The Color Magic is just one example of a vessel combining 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi with its onboard VSAT to extend its bandwidth capabilities

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“Imtech now has the most extensiveglobal service network in the marine mar-ket. These services branches focused pre-viously on navigation and communica-tions technology, but now offer Imtech'sentire marine services package, leading tocross-selling and further growth.”

“The new orders are good evidence ofthis. A new development is following ves-sels remotely, 24/7. This offers Imtechnumerous new possibilities.”

The 24/7 remark relates to the previ-

ously mentioned Global Control Centre,which offers continuous remote supportand maintenance to vessels at sea.

The data created by this competencecentre also provides further opportunitiesfor application in business intelligenceand data management areas.

A digital platform allows users toaccess vessel data while vessels are under-way. Imtech says that, in the future it willalso be possible to integrate this data withvessel movement data in ports.

SATCOMS


possibility that this service will be lowercost than current or planned satellite serv-ices, as it does not require wireless spec-trum, regeneration stations, multiple gate-way facilities, and other infrastructureassociated with RF communications,means that it has potential to be an impor-tant technology for future hybrid net-works. Whether laser can overcome obsta-cles such as weather conditions and block-age remains to be seen.

Increased access With hybrid technology providing accessto lower-cost, more available connectivity,usage patterns are already starting tochange. The internet is now more accessibleto crews than it was just a few years ago.

This actually introduces a new chal-lenge for managers in that full vessel Wi-Fi can actually be too easy for crew toaccess, with a potentially negative impacton efficiency and even vessel safety.

Systems are available that offer quitedetailed management of how and when acrew member can access the internet though,so vessels can avoid the situation where creware able to check personal e-mail on theirsmartphones even when they are on the job.

Another area that may change as con-nectivity becomes more available through-out a vessel, is the job of the engineer.

Already, data monitoring and controlsystems are available that can be accessedon a laptop/tablet on board or ashore. Thiscould lead to a future where every engineerhas his or her ruggedised tablet, which candeliver all the information they need aboutany system in seconds and can even dupli-cate this in real-time for colleagues on land.

This is only one example, reflected bythe plethora of systems being shown off atmaritime exhibitions, where it’s almostimpossible to pass a stand without seeingdata on some kind of tablet.

The technology is here though and it isnow down to owners, managers and engi-neers themselves as to whether theychoose to use the new levels of connectiv-ity available through hybrid networks toenable portable data management andcontrol on board their vessels.

Ship operators are increasingly requir-ing more complex communications capa-bilities to support a multitude of applica-tions and the availability of flexible servic-

es is fundamental to this.There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ communi-

cations solution, so the modern approachto maritime broadband allows users tocombine a range of services and hardwareto satisfy their individual needs – hybridnetworks.

VSAT and MSS hybrids are more thanenough for most vessels currently, but inthe coming years, with connectivity beingso heavily relied upon for business criticalapplications, providing more, cheaperbandwidth over hybrid networks is goingto become increasingly more important.

As systems become more complex inorder to allow land usage patterns to bereplicated at sea in a cost effective fashion,the user must continue to experienceseamless and reliable connectivity.

So, as an industry, whilst developingcutting-edge technological solutions, wehave to always remember that reliability iscritical, regardless of the technology orplatform being used. DS

Laser-based communications could form part of future hybrid networks

About the authorTore Morten Olsen is CEO of Astrium Services BusinessCommunications – Maritime.Mr Olsen was previously CEOof Marlink, prior to Astrium’s

restructuring of the Group, and has morethan 16 years’ experience in the satellitecommunications sector

www.imtech.eu/marinewww.navarino.gr

Imtech Marine and Navarino haveannounced a partnership whereby Imtechhas become a global supplier of theInfinity bandwidth management and opti-misation system.

Infinity can be used onboard shipsequipped with IP-based satellite termi-nals, such as Iridium Pilot,FleetBroadband or VSAT, and will be usedby Imtech to support its Global VSAT net-work and various connectivity solutions.

Imtech Marine offices that will be offer-ing Infinity include those in theNetherlands, Germany, Belgium, China,Singapore and the USA.

“Imtech Marine’s vision is to be a truelifecycle management partner for our cus-tomers and help them lower their TotalCost of Ownership,” said Eric van denAdel, managing director of ImtechMarine.

“By effectively combining our expertisein system integration and maintenance oftechnology on board, we support our cus-tomers during the full lifetime of a ship.Connectivity solutions are an importantpart of our lifecycle portfolio.”

“We are very happy to partner withNavarino, as they have proven that theycan tailor the Infinity product to the oper-ational needs of our customers. Infinitycan provide the ship owner with detailedreports on usage and visualise the savingson their airtime, while providing the mosteconomical and effective business andcrew communications. It is a very effectivetool to help ship owners improve efficien-cy of their operations considerably, and

thus it fits perfect in our life cycle manage-ment strategy.”

Imtech's Global Technical AssistanceCentres in Singapore, Houston andRotterdam already perform remote moni-toring and maintenance support for shipsat sea. Infinity is expected to help thesecentres to directly access the satellite com-munication equipment onboard through aback-up connection.

“We are very pleased to be able to offerInfinity in conjunction with ImtechMarine,” said Panos Tsikopoulos,Navarino's commercial director.

“Infinity is a very successful solution inthe marketplace and we are careful only towork with quality resellers whom we areconfident have both the technical expertiseand commercial strength to fully supportand promote Infinity.”

“Imtech Marine, as one of the world’smost prestigious leading maritime compa-nies, is precisely the sort of company weenjoy working with and well placed tomeet the quality standards we insist upon.Their global reach means customersaround the world will be able to experi-ence Infinity.”

In other news, Imtech, has alsoannounced that it has recently receivednew marine services and maintenanceorders worth approximately €82 million, abusiness area that has become a key focusfor the company.

“In the marine market, Imtech is working towards strategic growth in its services and maintenance activities and a strong expansion of the number ofservices branches along important ship-ping routes,” said René van der Bruggen,CEO Imtech.

Imtech to Infinity

www.speedcast.com

Hong Kong-based SpeedCast, togetherwith its majority shareholder, privateequity firm TA Associates, has complet-ed a buyout of Australian SatelliteCommunications (ASC), a serviceprovider in Australia.

ASC provides satellite-based communi-cations solutions throughout Australiaand surrounding regions, to maritime aswell as the mining, oil & gas, constructionand government sectors.

The company is headquartered inAdelaide, Australia, where it owns andoperates its primary teleport and runssales and support centres.

“As a profitable and rapidly growingcompany, ASC is an ideal fit withSpeedCast’s global growth strategy,” saidPierre-Jean Beylier, CEO, SpeedCast Ltd.

“SpeedCast is executing on its strategyof organic and acquisitive growth. Withthe acquisition of ASC, SpeedCast consol-idates its leadership position in Asia and

extends its penetration into the importantAustralian market, particularly for the oil& gas and mining verticals.”

ASC’s Adelaide teleport will be addedto SpeedCast’s global network, adding asecond point of presence in Australia inaddition to SpeedCast’s existing teleportin Perth.

This combination will provide dual-siteredundancy for SpeedCast’s Australiancustomers and serve as a back-up toSpeedCast’s Hong Kong infrastructure.

“The acquisition of ASC by SpeedCastis a very positive development for our cus-tomers, our employees and our suppli-ers,” said Chris Joseland, managing direc-tor, ASC.

“With SpeedCast’s experience, webelieve that our business will now beable to take the next step in businessgrowth. We see a great opportunity tooffer our customers a broader range ofsatellite services and solutions, globalsatellite coverage and worldwide engi-neering support.”

SpeedCast buys Australian satcom company

p1-14:p1-14.qxd 10/01/2013 19:11 Page 8

CONNECTINGOCEANS

Eutelsat Maritime SolutionsWith capacity commercialised on 30 satellites, Eutelsat is one of the world’s leading satellite operators. Eutelsat has pioneered the development of today's maritime telecommunications and continues to build its success on the reliability of its in-orbit resources, its expertise and continuing commitment to innovation. Our VSAT technology provides corporate class networking services, interconnectivity and real-time data applications for all business, leisure and crew welfare needs.

eutelsat.com

p1-14:p1-14.qxd 10/01/2013 19:11 Page 9

SATCOMS


II n this magazine we often try to sim-plify the ever changing maritimetechnology environment by compart-

mentalising new developments and inno-vations as into one of a few major sectors –namely satellite communications, soft-ware and navigation systems.

For a number of practical reasons thisworks quite well, and does help to makeour news easier to navigate for those withspecific interests.

However, for the people at a shippingcompany tasked with making sure thatoperations run as smoothly and efficientlyas possible, none of these technologiesexist in separate silos.

Satellite communications act as a con-duit to feed information from shore to shipand back again, and it is that data that isused to run the planned maintenance soft-ware systems, or deliver updates andlicensing information to the electroniccharts used by the onboard ECDIS.

Countless other systems interact in arange of different ways to keep companiesat the leading edge of innovation, to try togain and maintain a competitive advan-tage in an increasingly difficult market.

In the near future, in the deep sea ship-ping sector, one of the areas that lookslikely to have a major impact on this abili-ty to stay competitive is the recruitmentand training of crews.

To date, the application of technologyin this sphere has been focused on thedevelopment of simulators and computerbased training systems that can makingtraining more accessible to seafarers withgreater demands on their time than everbefore.

One of the main limitations in pursuingthis type of training comes when you tryto put these systems onboard the ship. Toan extent they can work very well, but therestrictions caused by communicationover a satellite link mean that allowing theseafaring student to interact ‘live’ with theshore may be impractical.

However, impractical or otherwise inthe current environment, extending e-learning to ships at sea is an inevitable nextstep in the evolution of maritime training,according to Capt Pradeep Chawla, direc-tor of quality assurance and training atAnglo Eastern Shipmanagement.

Working with a company that manages426 ships, and with influence over about500 ships through a new joint ventureagreed with Teekay earlier this year,Anglo Eastern employs around 18,000 sea-farers – and with the changes that havetaken place in shipping over the last cou-ple of decades, the need to be able to offer

effective training to those crews onboardship has never been greater.

“In those old days, training reallymeant onboard training. The Master tookon the crew he liked and he made theirlife miserable – they were taught likethat. It took maybe 20 or 30 years tobecome a senior officer on a sailing ship,”said Capt Chawla.

“In the modern era, we moved mainlyinto classroom based training, with a fewgadgets thrown in. Basically, it’s knowl-edge being given out of somebody speak-ing – maybe using PowerPoint or videoclips, but it’s pretty much classroombased.”

“Then we came into these futuristicdays that the communications companieswould like us to get to, where we broad-cast lectures from our Mumbai college allthe way to the ship, having people listen-ing in and interacting in groups withMAN BMW engine experts in Trondheim.We have started dreaming of these thingsas communications has become easier –and the communications providers aredreaming of how many dollars they aregoing to make.”

Capt Chawla believes that the recentsuccess of modern e-learning systems intraditional universities has raised the pro-file of the technology as a potential driverfor future education and training.

“It’s a growing market in universitiesand schools and colleges, and people say

that it’s going to grow to $50 billion in thenext few years,” he said.

“One of the reports I saw on the inter-net said that the market would be $107 bil-lion by 2015, but if the rest of Google issaying $50 billion then they can’t be right.”

“Venture capitalists in the US and else-where are pouring money into the e-learn-ing market, things like blackboard.com.There are close to 30 major e-learningproviders around the world right now,who are mainly working in the universitysector though some of them are in the cor-porate area.”

As Capt Chawla notes, there are someimmediate obvious benefits involved withusing this type of technology.

“Those that have teenage children willrealise the fees that they pay to the col-leges for the very little teaching that theydo. So it reduces costs, and you don’t haveto get people to the classroom,” he said.

“This is something that’s attractive toshipping companies as it’s expensive tobring people to the classroom. That’sprobably the biggest driving factor.”

“Self-paced learning is another possiblebenefit, though it also has the disadvan-tage that the learner has to also be moti-vated. If he wants to learn, then he’ll usethe e-learning courses.”

The ability to deliver the courses to awider audience than is possible using tradi-tional methods is also something that couldprove particularly beneficial in maritime.

“This is very important for shipping,because when new regulations come inyou want to spread it all over your work-force,” said Capt Chawla.

“In shipping, we are 1.5 million seafar-ers, so at any given time with roughly halfof them out at sea, you’re looking at750,000 seafarers. It would be nice if wecould do some training while they are onthe ship.”

Learning typesThe effectiveness of various approaches toeducation is dependent on how the stu-dent is able to assimilate the informationbeing presented to them. Understandingthe process of learning is imperative iftechnology is to be effectively applied toimproving the situation.

“In the training world, they talk about,making somebody competent, withknowledge, skills and attitude. I won’t talkabout attitude, because even with all themoney spent on knowledge and skills westill have accidents in the world. So letsleave that out,” said Capt Chawla.

“Then transfer of knowledge andacquisition of skills are the two main parts.

How does transfer of knowledge happen?For most people it has been school andcolleges, classroom learning. Typically inshipping it’s a six-month kind of prepara-tory course for each of the competencyexams that are given.”

“The systems in different places may beslightly different, but in order to get com-petency to a level of Master or chief engi-neer you’re looking at something like twoto four years of college time.”

From Capt Chawla’s point of view,there is a limit on how far e-learning canreally go in aiding people in the acquisi-tion of ‘skills’ – fundamentally, he believesthat practical, hands-on experience in thisaspect of education cannot be substituted.

“With the acquisition of skills, you aresort of training people in a really hands-onway, opening machinery and closing itand so on. You can’t really do this toomuch using e-learning media,” he said.

“You can have blown up diagrams ofmachinery and you can tell them to virtu-ally open this machine using a tool like ascrewdriver on the screen, and you canobserve the process to see if they do thingsthe right way.”

“There are other new ideas that we aretrying out – but to really take out a pistonfrom an engine on a 400,000 ton ship, youcan’t learn it virtually, you have to learn itonboard. So I don’t see this affectingfuture training in this area.”

On top of this initial core level of edu-cation it is important that what is learnedis reinforced and built on in the future,through ‘continuous learning’.

“This is where I think there’s a lot moreopportunity for things like satellite sys-tems etc,” said Capt Chawla.

“If you’re doing six months in the col-lege, why not reduce that to three monthsand give him the learning material on theship? Each of the experts, in theory, couldinteract with the seafarer onboard. It couldbe experts in any field as well as the col-lege based teachers. That would be afuture goal in how learning is changing.”

However, Capt Chawla believes thatthere will continue to be, for a long time tocome, a significant gap between the kindof data that would need to pass over thesatellite link to enable these systems andwhat can more easily be delivered to theship in a physical form.

“Would people really send that materi-al over satellite, or will it go preloaded ontablets, iPads, servers or whatever else,some kind of storage media?” he said.

“If we’re looking at data sizes, we’retalking about big data sizes. I would saythat the jury is still out at the moment, but

Live training over satellite – the next wave?

As pressure increases on crew availability in the maritime industry, companies are looking to apply new technologies to seafarer training to increase the availability of education. Capt Pradeep Chawla, Anglo Eastern,

spoke to Digital Ship about the potential of using satcoms to push the boundaries even further

‘With roughly 750,000 seafarers at sea at any one time, it would be nice if wecould do some training while they are on the ship’ – Capt Pradeep Chawla,

Anglo Eastern

p1-14:p1-14.qxd 11/01/2013 11:13 Page 10

p1-14:p1-14.qxd 11/01/2013 11:13 Page 11

SATCOMS


is probably more in favour of preloadingstuff and sending that onboard.”

“In Anglo Eastern our need would be toget 18,000 seafarers to learn somethingquickly, like new regulations. For that, Iam interested in learning about how wecan use modern communications to reachout to the seafarers.”

The use of online simulators is anotherarea that Capt Chawla believes could holdpotential for internet connected training,though to a limited extent.

“(Simulation) is a field that seems to behaving some interest in the market, withpeople trying to put these things on to theweb. The natural extensions of that wouldbe that we could do that on the ship oncewe have the super speed systems that thesatellite guys are going to sell us in thenext five years,” he said.

“However, I don’t think that’s going tobecome too popular because it’s veryheavy stuff. The most recent thing thatI’ve seen in the market is ECDIS trainingbeing put on the web. The lobby forECDIS training seem to have been able tochange shipping quite a bit, introducingtype-specific learning, which is a verysmart move for the manufacturers.”

“In all these years we never had typespecific training for a JRC radar or aKelvin Hughes radar but all of a suddennow we need specific training for X and YECDIS units. I see some interest in it, but Idon’t see much in doing it over VSAT orwhatever.”

Present systemsAnglo Eastern has been a keen earlyadopter of learning technologies in mar-itime, having begun to use computerbased system in the education of its sea-farers as far back as 2006.

As Capt Chawla notes, the use of thesesystems developed out of necessity, giventhe huge numbers of people involved.

“Whenever there is a new regulation,typically we will do something with e-learning so we can get to many seafar-ers quickly, because bussing 18,000 peo-ple into classrooms would take three

years,” he said.Besides regulations training, there are a

number of other specific areas where CaptChawla finds e-learning to be particularlybeneficial.

“Accident case studies are a good areathat a lot of training companies are gettinginto, recreating accidents so that people canlearn from them. Again, if you have an acci-dent in the fleet you want the whole of therest of the fleet to learn from it. That’s anarea of e-learning that is useful,” he said.

“Assessments is another, the world isasking for more and more proof that thepeople that are onboard are competent,and there is more assessment happeningfor the seafarer.”

“This is a sector which sits very nicelywith multiple choice questions on theweb. Examinations for things like medi-cine in the US are also now done usingmultiple choice questions, so this is triedand tested in other areas and marine peo-ple will also adapt to it. Though there’s notmuch of it happening at the moment (inshipping).”

Virtual classrooms are another area towhich Anglo Eastern has been applyingtechnology to extend the reach of its train-ing facilities using the internet.

“You can have people sitting ashoreand having 20 or 30 people logging infrom anywhere in the world, or 20 or 30people on the ship logging in and trying todo an interactive learning session,” saidCapt Chawla.

“We’ve been doing all of these thingssince 2006.”

These experiences have put CaptChawla in a good position to judge thepotential of connecting similar systems toshore via satellite – however, the datarequired by the systems Anglo Eastern hasbeen using would seem to be far frompractical in this environment.

“An average 20 to 40 minute session isin the region of 550 MB, because of thevideos and animations you’ve got to makeit interesting,” he said.

“There are many ways that we try tomake it interesting and engage the learner,

so they’re not switching off from what’shappening on the screen.”

“PDF documents shown on screen,people have tried that for a long time andthey’ve already realised that the next gen-eration of people are visual learners – theydon’t like to read books, they don’t like toread newspapers, they like to be given tel-evision ads of 20 seconds where theyabsorb the knowledge.”

Capt Chawla believes that it will be dif-ficult to reduce the data required to runthese courses in an engaging way, withoutreducing their appeal significantly – andthus defeating the purpose, to an extent.

“The design of an e-learning course isvery different from the design of class-room teaching. It’s very different, there’s adifferent set of people – ex-mastermariners and ex-chief engineers are notnecessarily the best people to write theseprogrammes for the e-learning market. Itrequires a lot of thought going in,” he said.

“In the e-learning world people arethinking about new techniques to drawthe learner in, things like gaming whichwill be even more data heavy in terms ofthe programs.”

“There is also the major disadvantageof the loss of peer based learning. Studentslearn from each other in schools and col-leges, and when you take that away andput it on a computer screen, which theyare supposed to do as self-paced learning,typically there will be a loss of peer learn-ing. That’s considered by educationists asa very good way of learning, as there is noteacher-student relationship, it’s one stu-dent asking another student.”

To date, Anglo Eastern’s use of e-learn-ing has not involved extensive use of satel-lite communications to transfer data – asituation Capt Chawla expects to continuefor the foreseeable future.

“Presently, we do not transport muchof this data over Inmarsat or VSAT. Wekeep it preloaded,” he said.

“All of the companies that are doingthis are doing it by putting a serveronboard which is preloaded with theheavy duty data files that are required –we don’t send a video file over Inmarsat orVSAT, we send it on a thumb drive orhard disk or DVD or whatever. That gets

loaded onto the shipboard server.”“Right now, in terms of education and

training, not much is happening overVSAT etc.”

Future developmentsThere are a number of developments in thesatellite communications and wider tech-nology market that Capt Chawla believeswill be necessary before shipping compa-nies will be able to seriously look at movingto the next level of onboard training.

“First thing I need is high connectionspeeds, for a satisfying user experience if Iwant to transfer big amounts of stuff or ifI want to stream a video of me speaking tomy seafarers. That’s going to be very highconsumption of the bandwidth,” he said.

“What are we going to end up with,how many MB per second will we reach in2015 or 2020? I hear a little bit aboutwhat’s happening, but I don’t see thismoving fast enough to really realise therole of shipboard e-learning.”

Beyond the speed, the other standardcomplaint about satcom availability alsoapplies to e-learning – that it costs toomuch to be viable – and Capt Chawlabelieves that expanding budgets to incor-porate additional spending on trainingcommunications will prove very difficult.

“This comes up all the time – moneycomes up all the time, and that’s a prettycritical thing,” he said.

“I’ve seen all the new plans with unlim-ited data and so on, but today you’re look-ing at most of the ships, for their businessneeds, needing less than 200 MB. Most ofthe shipmanagers, I would assume, are inthat region – there are specialised shipswhere it might spike, but for most I thinkit’s around there.”

“How are we going to move from200MB per ship per month into 10 GB or20 GB, which is what we would need if weare going to get into education and train-ing over satellite on the ships? In thefuture, are we going to get unlimited data,at a fixed price, at good speeds? This iswhat is relevant to e-learning.”

Capt Chawla notes that this is a symp-tom of the wider issue of a general lack offunding for training in the maritimeindustry.

Anglo Eastern has introduced a number of new technologies to expand its trainingcapabilities, including the use of ‘virtual classrooms’

Anglo Eastern today runs its own training centres, where e-learning plays a significant role

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SATCOMS


“The budgets in the industry for trainingare typically only one per cent of the payrollcosts. If you check any high hazard indus-try, like chemical or nuclear, people in thatindustry are spending three to five per centof their payroll cost, minimum,” he said.

“Then we hear about the depressedfreight market and when is it going to goup. That’s a challenge for the next fewyears.”

“And then there’s something that is notnormally considered by the technologyproviders – who is going to do this? There isa huge shortage of e-learning practitionersall over the world, not only in shipping.”

Compounding the problem caused bythe lack of e-learning experts in maritimeis the further lack of support for any tech-nology-based training that is installed onthe vessel.

“We all assume that everybody is ascompetent or incompetent as we are in theoffice with our machines. But we have anIT department who comes to support us,”said Capt Chawla.

“On the ship there is nobody to helpthem, so whatever system we design hasto be robust. We hate it when any IT sup-pliers to us say ‘please ask the master tocopy this file from this folder to that andsend it to us’.”

“Nobody has the time onboard, nobodyhas the inclination onboard to do that.Management of this infrastructure would

need to be stabilised before we can moveinto the e-learning world on ships.”

Beyond the practicalities of running adigital training network on the ship, CaptChawla is also concerned that the timepressure modern seafarers are underwould make proper learning onboard aclose to impossible task.

“Will they do their eight hours ofwatch, do three hours of extra work main-taining the ship, and then sit and do a nicee-learning module because the companyhas asked for it?” he said.

“In reality, it depends on the ship type,if you’re on a small chemical tanker run-ning around in Europe you can forget it –the man barely has enough time to sleep,he’s not going to do e-learning no matterwhat satellite system you put onboard.”

“Fatigue and rest hours today is amajor issue in the industry, and thatstops us from putting a lot of new stuffonboard because there is just not thatmany people to handle the extra jobs thatwe have been creating on the ship in thelast twenty years. In the old days we hadmore than enough time to mentor ourjuniors and took pleasure in teachingthem while they were on the ship. Allthat is gone.”

ConclusionsTechnology in training is a wide rangingtopic, and there is no doubt that there is

the potential for significant improve-ments that could introduce a range ofbenefits. But the restrictions necessarilyimposed by having remote students inlocations far from conducive to fast,cheap communications will continue tofrustrate those wishing to apply thesesystems to shipping.

In Capt Chawla’s opinion, use of e-learning in maritime will certainly grow –however, the connectivity component ofthe equation will not be significant in thenear future.

“E-learning in the maritime sector, inmy opinion, will grow at a fast paceashore. We will all have learning manage-ment systems,” he said.

“Today, out of my competitors, maybe50 to 60 per cent of them have similar sys-tems to us. But there is another 40 per centwho will also adapt as these systemsbecome cheaper and more user friendly.Those of us who are doing this withservers and so on, we will take a long timeto adapt to using satellite if they are goingto charge us a lot of money to transport the data.”

“Growth in communication needs cre-ated by e-learning will not be very signifi-cant in the short term – in my definitionthat means the next three to five years. I’mhoping the providers are going to bringdown the costs to the extent that I’m goingto rush to put e-learning onboard, but I

don’t see that happening at the moment.For communication needs to grow fortraining, speeds and costs must be morefavourable, and there is a huge need forteachers for e-learning.”

As it stands, Anglo Eastern will contin-ue to pursue its own e-learning projects,and will use technology to try and meet its ever growing demand for training –with or without a satcom connection to the ship.

In the modern world, Capt Chawlabelieves that this is the only way to keepup with the pace of business in the ship-ping sector.

“In my sailing days I changed betweeneight companies and sailed with 18nationalities – but rarely did companiessend us on special courses for training.Today, any of the big ship managers, thegood ones, are likely to have 50 to 60 valueadded courses running in their trainingcentres,” he said.

“The big change that has happened isthat, rather than ship owners supportingcolleges, it’s the ship managers that arenow supporting colleges and runningtheir own colleges like us.”

“We had to go down that route becausewe found that the ship owners were typi-cally no longer supporting the colleges,and the national governments hadstopped funding colleges so the equip-ment was out of a museum.”

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NAPA Speed Optimiser software wasimplemented to enable efficiencyimprovements to the vessel’s speed pro-file, reducing the standard deviation of thespeed profile from 1.6kn to 0.7kn.

Using a range of normalisation calcula-tions NAPA says that it was able to factorout the difference in average speed, theeffect of wind, and constant rpm mode tocombinator mode from this result, andthat the process showed that speed opti-misation alone created a 5 per cent reduc-tion in fuel consumption, with potentialfrom trim optimisation providing another0.8 per cent.

Through this normalisation processand data analysis, NAPA says that it couldalso verify additional savings of approxi-mately 10 per cent through the use of WETech Solutions’ Variable Frequency DriveShaft Generator (VFD SG) application.

“We are exceptionally pleased withthe outcome of this trial of NAPA forOperations SEEMP systems," said JörgenMansnerus, VP marine management,Bore.

"We challenged NAPA to prove that anelectronic SEEMP could provide measura-ble and tangible fuel and cost savings toour fleet and this study does just that.During the benchmarking period, we sawthat the business-as-usual annual con-sumption of M/V Bore Sea would bearound 5,600 tonnes."

"Given the 5.8 per cent savings affordedby implementing two elements of theNAPA package, we should see significantfinancial savings.”

Matti Salo, executive vice president,NAPA for Operations, noted that, basedon his company's calculations, the savingsachieved on the M/V Bore Sea equate to a1,000 tonne annual reduction of CO2 emis-sions for the vessel.

"There is also potential for further sav-ings to be achieved aboard this vessel withother elements of NAPA for Operationssoftware, such as route optimisation,cargo positioning, ballast and foulingamongst other measures,” he said.

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Finnish shipping company Bore hasannounced that it has verified a 5.8 percent reduction in fuel consumption fol-lowing a trial of an electronic SEEMP(ship energy efficiency management plan)software system.

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SENER has launched the newest versionof its FORAN shipbuilding CAD/CAMsoftware, with the release of V70R2.0.

The company says that the new releaseaims to strengthen the links between basicand detailed designs, and between the shipdesign and the running PLM solution.

This has been achieved by improve-ments such as unifying input data win-dows, opening the electrical data to gener-ic pipe and HVAC fittings, and controllingthe equipment position in the ship withregard to the maturity of the already con-nected cables.

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Further changes in the Hull Structureapplication allow for quicker generation ofa 3D model of the structure, while a newmodule called FNEST, for the manage-ment of nestings, has been added, alongwith new profile definition options and aclash detection command to calculateinterferences between structural parts.

FORAN CAD/CAM updated

vessels in any given zone, and since they are searching based on physicalpositions no exclusions are required.Results contain all vessels, includingnon-market vessels.

AIS activity is also shown in DWTsearch results when users search throughtheir saved proformas.

using the fixture module has also beenadded to the launcher menu, includingoptional rates and multi-grade entries.

The second new feature is an AIS tabinside the ships register, which allowsusers to see 90 day trading histories, mapsand vessel traces.

With AIS search, members can search

A ship model, created by the FORAN system

www.axsmarine.com

Shipping software company AXSMarinehas announced the release of AXSTanker3.1, an enhanced version of itsAXSTanker product which will allowtanker brokers to access AIS and Fixturesinformation.

The first new feature is a fixture option,which offers supplementary informationto users in their bottom panel. This infor-mation is proprietary to their company,which means no other AXSTanker member can see the fixture informationthey enter.

The ability to enter and search fixtures

Latest version of tanker broking software announced

www.intergraph.com

COSCO Shipyard Group Co (COSCO)has extended its five-year master agree-ment with Intergraph, the companiesreport.

COSCO has previously deliverednumerous offshore projects usingIntergraph’s SmartMarine Enterprisesoftware, and will expand its use of the applications following the new deal.

“We have been using Intergraph tech-nology for many years, and we arepleased to extend our long-term strategicrelationship with Intergraph,” saidCOSCO, in a statement.

“We have achieved great successthrough the implementation ofSmartMarine Enterprise for our engi-neering projects, and we are confidentthat SmartMarine Enterprise will contin-

ue to deliver tremendous value to our company.”

The package features the SmartMarine3D offshore and shipbuilding design sys-tem, which uses knowledge-based andrule-driven technologies to improvedelivery schedules and offers improveddetail and manufacturing design produc-tivity of up to 30 per cent.

“Since first implementingSmartMarine 3D in 2006, COSCOShipyard Group has seen significantgains in productivity and qualitythrough the use of our next-generation,rule-driven offshore and shipbuildingdesign solution,” said Gerhard Sallinger,Intergraph Process, Power & Marinepresident.

“Intergraph is a long-standing, trust-ed partner in China, and we are pleasedto see the tremendous success COSCO ishaving with our solutions.”

COSCO and Intergraph extend deal

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The online videos provide details on PortVision technologies

SOFTWARE

The videos are available for viewing atwww.portvision.tv, with video contentalso available on YouTube and on thecompany's public website.

“PortVision TV is our latest initiative tobetter educate our customers, prospects,and industry partners about the power ofAIS-based maritime business intelli-gence,” said Dean Rosenberg, PortVisionchief executive officer.

“This video series offers valuable infor-mation for maritime users across the sup-ply chain, from dock management to fleetmanagement, and beyond.”

PortVision TV launched www.portvision.com

PortVision has created PortVision TV, aseries of online videos designed to informviewers about its technologies.

The PortVision system combines AIS-based vessel-tracking with analytics,reporting and process-improvement tools.

PortVision TV launches with threechannels, and includes segments on AISvessel monitoring with historical play-back, marine terminal optimisation(including dock management), and fleetmanagement.

Fast, intuitive route planning and navigation monitoring

www.furuno.comFURUNO ELECTRIC CO., LTD.

Multifunction dislay capability, featuring ECDIS, Conning Information Display,

Radar/Chart Radar and Alert Management

Instant chart redraw delivered by FURUNO’s advanced chart drawing engine,

making redraw latency a thing of the past

Task based operation making the ECDIS operation simple and intuitive

Fast, precise route planning, monitoring and navigation data management

FMD-3200 [19" LCD] FMD-3300 [23.1" LCD]

FURUNO provides thoroughgoing ECDIS training programs:

Proper ECDIS training is available at FURUNO’s own training centers, INSTC and at the NavSkills network of training centers. The training programs consist of:

• Generic ECDIS training in accordance with IMO ECDIS Model Course 1.27. Available at INSTC Denmark only.

• FURUNO type specific ECDIS training, available at INSTC Denmark, INSTC Singapore and at the NavSkills facilities: FURUNO Deutschland GmbH, OCEAN TRAINING CENTER (Turkey), GMC Maritime Training Center (Greece), COMPASS Training Center (Philippines), A.S. Moloobhoy & Sons (India) and at FURUNO Shanghai.

Please contact INSTC Denmark at [email protected] for details


www.amarcon.com

Amarcon, a member of the ABB group,has received an OCTOPUS-Onboard orderfor the newbuild Dockwise Vanguard.

Dockwise Vanguard is the largestheavy lift vessel ever built. The vessel waslaunched in November 2012 and is cur-rently undergoing sea trials.

The Dockwise Vanguard shall beequipped with OCTOPUS-Onboard forthe purpose of motion monitoring,response prediction and heavy-weatherdecision support during heavy cargotransportations.

The vessel will also feature a three sen-

sor motion measurement set-up to allowmultiple critical locations on the vessel, forinstance the cargo, to be measured anddisplayed on the bridge.

The OCTOPUS product line is part ofABB’s Vessel Information and Control(VICO) systems package, which incorpo-rates a range of automation and advisorysolutions specifically for marine applica-tions, based on ABB’s process automationtechnologies.

Dockwise was founded in 1993 as amerger between Wijsmuller Transportand Dock Express Shipping, and has nowordered seventeen OCTOPUS-Onboardinstallations from Amarcon.

Octopus order for Dockwise

The Dockwise Vanguard will implement the system

p15-28:p1-14.qxd 10/01/2013 18:41 Page 4

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SOFTWARE


II n an economic climate where energyprices are dramatically increasing,companies need to be creative in find-

ing new solutions to save on energyexpenses. Since 2007, fuel oil prices haveincreased substantially and with the cur-rent economic depression the problemsfor shipping companies have grown assinking demand for goods and maritimetransport have hit the world market.

This situation has been aggravated fur-ther by the avalanche of vessels ordered inthe boom times. Now delivered, they havecreated an imbalance of supply anddemand with regard to the carrying capac-ity of the global fleet. This imbalance hasresulted in a slump in charter rates and ledto fierce price competition among vesseloperators, particularly container lines.

Maersk Line’s head of global optimisa-tion, Nils Bruus, explains his take on thesituation.

“The shipping market is in a very diffi-cult position. As a result of high fuel pricesand freight and charter rates being underpressure, we are experiencing a fleet utili-sation reduction, as well as a higher andfiercer competition in the market,” he says.

“Shipping companies have investedsubstantially over the last years into newbuilds. Consequently, and especially nowwith the low freight rates, there is a lot ofdebt in the existing fleet. Shipping compa-nies striving to operate profitably in astrained market need to focus on maximis-ing their energy efficiency as well asthrough-life costs.”

“Ship efficiency, which comprises bothfuel efficiency and financial efficiency, isinfluenced by a number of factors: vesseldesign, system integration, equipmenttechnology, fuel flexibility, vessel operationand vessel maintenance. Upgrades andretrofits as well as strategic partnershipscan help achieve a new efficiency target.”

The measures that shipping compa-nies adopt in order to stay in business are diverse.

Bunker costs are among the largest costfactors for shipping companies, and sincevessels sailing at lower speeds use signifi-cantly less fuel and are thus more eco-nomical, the most prominent way of opti-mising resources is slow steaming, wherethe average vessel speed is throttled fromaround 20 knots to 17 knots and less.

With the deepening of the crisis in theshipping industry, some shipping compa-nies have adopted ‘super slow steaming’ –sailing at 15 knots or less. Effectively, thishas seen the carrying capacity of the glob-al fleet artificially reduced, which isexpected to result in stabilisation of sup-ply and demand.

However, conventional vessels are notdesigned to sail at such slow speeds, and

some experts consequently fear that suchan approach may lead to damage to theengines.

“The shipping industry has reacted tothe difficult developments with a signifi-cant reduction of the average vesselspeed,” explains Mr Bruus.

“So far so good. However, the shippingcompanies are facing another problemnow – the existing vessel structures andtechnology are not adapted to steaming atslow speed.”

Shipping companies now face a diffi-cult decision: should they order new-builds, adapted to sailing at slowerspeeds, or is retrofitting the existing fleetat considerable cost a viable alternative?

In addition, there is also the question ofwhat happens when the effect of slowsteaming is maximised – what can ship-ping companies do then in order to opti-mise their fleets’ performance?

The Maersk exampleMaersk Line, part of the Danish globalshipping and energy corporation, A.P.Moller Maersk, is continuously striving tooptimise its cost base in order to sustain acompetitive edge. Reduction of the com-pany's fuel oil consumption, which is thesingle largest annual cost for Maersk Line,is consequently at the forefront of itsendeavours.

“Constantly increasing fuel prices anddramatically reduced freight rates meanthat shipping companies wanting to stayin business need to work on their costbase,” Mr Bruus says.

Maersk Line has implemented a greatvariety of measures for performanceimprovement and optimisation in thepast. Prominent amongst them is thereduction of average vessel speed – inother words, slow steaming.

Additional measures include optimisa-

tion of operations, trim optimisation, opti-mum weather routing, the utilisation ofwind power, as well as changes to hulland machinery. For many of these meth-ods, the support of maritime technology isessential.

In times where supply is exceedingdemand, Maersk Line decided that it wasimportant to adjust the capacity of thecontainer fleet rather than entering intoendless price wars and competing on thedramatically reduced freight rates.

A considerable reduction of the averagevessel speed, which at the same time wasexpected to result in significant fuel oilsavings, was deemed to be an efficientmeasure to achieve this.

As such, in 2007, as a consequence ofthe steep increase in fuel oil prices, theDanish shipping company introducedslow steaming. Despite a notable decreasein its energy expenses following thismove, a further change to super slowsteaming was introduced in the recessionyear of 2009, both on the company’sowned and chartered vessels.

Over the last few years, Maersk Linecontainer vessels have reduced their aver-age speed from over 20 knots to below 15knots. Now, the average speed ranges ataround 14.5 knots.

Gas carriers in the A.P. Moller MaerskGroup have seen a smaller reduction, fromjust above 15 knots to below 15 knots, andcrude oil carriers and product carriershave also reduced their average speed bya moderate amount. The effect of thespeed reduction is considerable.

“At Maersk Line, we have come a longway with regards to fuel efficiency,” saysMr Bruus.

“Over the last 7 to 8 years we have man-aged to increase our relative efficiency byover 50 per cent. Responsible is mainly areduction of the fuel oil consumption.”

The effectiveness of slow steaming is sub-ject to good ship to shore communication.

Normally, vessel operators specify thearrival time of their vessels at port. Inorder to reduce the ship speed, the opera-tor has to work closely with the master onthe vessel.

Information on weather conditions andport congestion, for example, is exchangedregularly. In addition, the port agentneeds to be notified if the estimated arrivaltime is delayed and the operator needs toadjust the schedule.

The slow steaming and super slowsteaming strategies have led to a numberof operational improvements for MaerskLine, according to Mr Bruus.

“The initiatives,” he says, “have helpedus to control the capacity of the containerfleet in times where supply is exceedingthe demand. That is probably the mostimportant outcome of the slow steaminginitiative.”

“In addition, the slow steaming initia-tives have helped the container industry toreduce their cost base – an absolutely nec-essary achievement in order to survive therecession.”

Optimising for slowsteaming

What do shipping companies need to donow in order to make their fleet fit forslow steaming? In the current strainedeconomic climate, every shipping compa-ny has to decide whether to optimise itsexisting vessels, originally designed forhigher average speeds, or whether to optfor newbuilds.

A vessel has a life-span of 20-30 years.Consequently, many older vessels usetechnology that has long been outdated.Today, newer and better technology isavailable, which enables vessels to operatemore profitably and efficiently.

“Whatever was put on the vessel backin the day it was built may not be the lat-est and most optimal solution,” Mr Bruusnotes.

“There is technology available todaythat can help save a lot of fuel. It is possi-ble to build vessels today that are moreefficient than what you have in the fleet,we think that 10-15 per cent savings arerealistic through new designs. So, whydon't we get rid of the old fleet completelyand build new vessels?”

As Mr Bruus notes, the shipping mar-ket is already groaning under a rising sur-plus of carrying capacity.

“Supply and demand forecasts indicatethat there will be an overflow of tonnagein the near future,” he says.

“Whereas supply and demand werelevel in 2005, the demand has been grow-ing much slower than the supply, even

Performance optimisation at MaerskThe economic downturn and the consequences of fierce competition, as well as all-time highs in fuel prices,

require shipping companies to adapt to changing market circumstances. With ever-increasing supply in carrying capacity meeting faltering demand, drastic measures are inevitable for many firms. Maersk Line’s

head of global optimisation, Niels Bruus, spoke to Digital Ship about his company's future strategies

Maersk Line has reduced the average speed of its ships to approximately 14.5 knots.Photo: Maersk

p15-28:p1-14.qxd 10/01/2013 18:30 Page 6

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SOFTWARE


declining in 2008/2009, and the gap is con-tinuously widening.”

“Considering that, in 2013, furthernewbuilds will be delivered that will addanother nine per cent capacity, or in otherwords 1.5 million TEU, to the world fleetthe gap between supply and demand canonly be expected to increase further.”

In addition, financing options arescarce in the aftermath of the global finan-cial crisis and shipping companies areoften invested so heavily in their assetsthat scrapping is out of the question.Maersk Line estimates that more thanUS$80 billion is tied up in the company'sexisting container fleet.

Consequently, shipping companies aresearching for viable ways to proceed.Retrofitting the existing fleet with moderntechnology could provide a solution –instead of further feeding the already sat-urated market, retrofitting would developthe existing capacity.

“The major question shipping compa-nies need to answer,” says Mr Bruus, “is‘how can we utilise the existing fleet?’How can we improve the efficiency of ourcurrent vessels and how can we ensurethat our vessels operate profitably?”

Maersk Line has decided to opt forretrofitting. The company has alreadycompleted a number of retro fits andequipped existing vessels with up-to-datetechnology.

“There are a number of reasons why wehave chosen to retrofit our fleet. Since wealready have a modern fleet, it doesn’tmake any sense to embark on further new-building schemes now. The calculation issimple: the financing and the funding toscrap the existing and build a completenew fleet is not available,” Mr Bruus says.

“Our way forward is to take our exist-ing fleet as a starting point and optimisethe performance of our vessels until theyare able to compete with newbuildings.”

“We claim that we can apply the sametechnologies and gain the same efficien-cies with our existing fleet than what ispossible with completely new vessels, alsowith regards to the cost of operation andcapital.”

In their endeavour to bring the fleet upto scratch and adapt the vessels to slowand super slow steaming, Maersk’sbiggest issues are oversized engines andpropellers, as well as hull-lines that areoptimised for much higher speeds.

New propellers and other energy saving devices are one way of achievingthe necessary technical changes.Alternatively, the engine can be de-rated,with cylinders cut out, while other poten-tial measures include modification of thebulbous bow.

However, at one point the potential ofslow steaming is maximised. Already, theDanish shipping company envisages diffi-culties in extracting further significantbenefits from this method.

“No matter how slow we steam, wecannot bridge the gap between supply anddemand,” says Mr Bruus.

“Global trade in Q3 2012 grew by amere 0.4 per cent. At the same time thesupply of global container vesselsincreased by 2 per cent after we havetaken out what has been recycled orscrapped. So, the situation is not reallyimproving.”

Operational performanceand ICT

As slow steaming is nearing its maximumbenefit, Maersk Line continues to optimisethe shipping company's operational per-formance through both operational andtechnical innovation. At the forefront ofthe shipping company's measures is datacollection.

Accumulating sufficient significantdata is the basis of determining wherechanges can be implemented effectively.On the basis of the collected information,experts are able to monitor and adjust per-formance optimisation tools.

“Unfortunately, efficiency improve-ments only get harder with each year, sowe have to keep pushing operational andtechnical boundaries to get there, but wemust move even further,” says Mr Bruus.

“For Maersk Line, greater efficiency hasto be a continuous pursuit.”

Measuring the fleet’s performancethrough analysis of data is a key prerequi-site in order to spot room for improve-ment – it is only if such opportunities aredetected that suitable measures can bedetermined. This process is called con-trolled performance management.

A specialised ship technology knowl-edge and competence centre within theMaersk group, Maersk MaritimeTechnology (MMT), is constantly workingon performance optimisation tasks.

The MMT provides specialised techni-cal services and advice on ship technologyissues, on eco-efficiency, performancemonitoring and innovation, as well asenergy consumption, environmental per-formance and safety.

In order to manage the fleet's perform-ance effectively, the MMT has developed aseries of tools. Prominent among them area data collection system, Maersk ShipPerformance Service (MSPS), the VesselPerformance Onboard Analyser (VPOA)and the ECO-Voyage planning tool.

Together, these tools constitute Maersk’sVessel Performance Management Service(VPMS) Programme. The main objective ofthese tools is to drive energy efficiencyacross the entire Maersk fleet and to opti-mise its daily running costs.

Maersk’s Vessel PerformanceManagement Service is a decision supportsystem, whereby decision-makers are sup-plied with relevant information to aid inmonitoring and controlling the fleet's fueloil consumption.

The tool is based on daily reports ofoperational data submitted directly fromthe vessel. In addition, it takes into accountother information sources, such as painttype evaluation, dry docking intervals,hull cleaning intervals and hull efficiency,propeller polishing intervals, the evalua-tion of treatment from dry dockings, hullcleaning, propeller polishing, as well asmain and auxiliary engine efficiency.

As part of the performance analysis, thesystem compares actual normalised val-ues with reference models. Thus, the sys-tem automatically detects any deviationfrom the expected value criteria. It thenperforms a trend analysis and, when sub-optimal performance is spotted, triggersan e-mail alarm.

In addition, the VPMS provides anonboard reporting tool which can be used,for example, to create noon reports or sea

and harbour reports. Data added to thereport is automatically validated and thesystem issues an automatic e-mail warn-ing if important information is missing orclearly different from what it should be.

The vessel data is fed into a centraldatabase from which it is analysed. Fromthere, reports are created for a number ofdifferent stakeholders.

Technical management receives reportson daily communication, auto warnings,hull/propeller efficiency, engine efficien-cy, cylinder oil optimisation and off-serv-ice. Ship operations, on the other hand, isprovided with reports on fuel tables,schedule optimisation, vessel deploymentand off-service, and Maersk MaritimeTechnology gets reports on fuel efficiency,antifouling, machinery, new buildingsand regulatory affairs.

Knowledge sharing is seen as a valuablemeans of performance optimisation atMaersk. Sister vessels are able to access thecentral database and obtain informationand reports, which they can use to improveand optimise their own performance.

The Danish shipping group relies on acontinuous cycle of monitoring (the actionof the vessel), analysis (of existing struc-tures and procedures), decision support(on the basis of the collected data), deci-sions (on the basis of the information pro-vided by the decision support service) andimproved action. Subsequently, the cyclestarts again with the monitoring of thenew and improved action.

The decision support service is operat-ed across a large number of different ves-sels. Thus, the expert team is able to collectstatistical feedback and operational expe-rience across different business units andprovide individual vessels with advice ona great variety of topics.

Besides energy efficiency, the MMTalso advises on technical issues, extraordi-nary operational issues, off-service days,DRC and safety.

Maersk ShipPerformance System

As part of Maersk’s Ship PerformanceSystem (MSPS), the shipping companycollects key performance indicators (KPIs)from its vessels. Developed under closecooperation between Maersk Line vesselmanagement, Maersk MaritimeTechnology and its ships, the system wasimplemented on the vessels in 2009.

The MMT is responsible and in chargeof the MSPS, which has been designed inorder to boost overall vessel performanceas it helps to facilitate decision-makingamongst the various stakeholders.

Today the overall scorecard consists offour parameters - energy, safety, daily run-ning costs and cooperation (best practicesharing). So far, only the energy KPI hasbeen evaluated in terms of profitability.

Over the last three years, the key per-formance indicator system has led tonotable performance optimisation –160,000 tons of fuel oil have been saved asa result of higher propulsion efficiency,with savings of US$90 million having beenrealised overall (not including savingsfrom other energy initiatives such as trimoptimisation and basic load reduction).

The system of key performance indica-tors has proven to be a valuable tool forMaersk. Since its implementation in 2009,

the scheme has been expanded to includethe entire fleet of Maersk Tankers’ ownvessels, as well as other business units.

In addition, new key performance indi-cators are planned with energy, safety andfinancial indicators prominent amongstthem. Other business units, such asMaersk Supply Service, which currentlyhas around 70 vessels reporting datathrough MSPS, are focusing predominant-ly on environmental KPIs.

At the beginning of 2011, Maersk Linealso introduced a new vessel performanceoptimisation tool called ECO-Voyage.This voyage planning tool, developedthrough collaboration between MaerskMaritime Technology and a number ofMaersk Line captains, uses real-timeweather data to improve the reliabilityand fuel efficiency of the vessels.

ECO-Voyage continuously analysesinformation about unexpected ocean cur-rents, depth, as well as wind and wavesalong a planned route, and calculates themost efficient power and speed neededthroughout the voyage. The information isstored on a central server and can beaccessed by other vessels sailing on thesame route.

The ECO-Voyage system enables thecaptain of each respective vessel to runseveral alternative routes before embark-ing on a voyage. It takes into account thedifferences in fuel oil consumption andenables large vessels to plan a dual speedvoyage in order to optimise the use of thewaste heat recovery system.

The voyage planning tool is also fullyintegrated with other efficiency programsalready on board the vessels. MaerskMaritime Technology estimates that fuelsavings of 0.5 to 1 per cent per year can berealised through the use of ECO-Voyage.

OutlookThe Danish shipping company has decid-ed to optimise its existing fleet and intro-duce slow steaming for all vessels. In addi-tion, Maersk is expecting its 18,000 teuEEE vessels to be delivered during 2013.

“We believe that the global containerfleet is trading at average speeds that arearound two knots higher than our aver-age,” says Mr Bruus.

“There is still a huge potential in slowsteaming and there is still a lot to begained through slow steaming.”

“We do not see a reason why thespeeds should go up again. Despite thefact that there might be variances – oneknot up or down – we believe that thefuture will bring a further downwardtrend and speeds will remain low acrossthe whole industry.”

However, at one point the beneficialeffects of slow steaming will be exhausted.Then, further performance optimisationthrough technical and operational changesmay be necessary.

“There has been and still is a lot ofwaste in the way we operate our fleet,”says Mr Bruus.

“And although the super slow steam-ing initiatives have supported our efficien-cy drive and resulted in notable costreduction, we definitely see a need to pushthe potential even further. This shows usthat there is still room for improvementand optimisation in the way our fleet is operated.” DS

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SOFTWARE

II t’s hard to argue with the classicsong from the musical Cabaret pro-claiming that Money Makes the

World Go Round – and I think it’s a sen-timent with which most ship ownerswould agree.

In the modern maritime industry how-ever, getting your hands on that moneyinvolves running your business at a highlevel of efficiency. If you aren’t optimis-ing your operations there is a competitorout there that will. And once that com-petitor starts winning more business itcan make life very difficult indeed.

In any business serious about optimi-sation, the control of information must bea major focus. That you can’t managewhat you can’t measure has become acliché at this stage, but the underlyingtruth remains – accessing, analysing andacting upon the data produced within anorganisation is the first step in makingoperations as efficient as they can possi-bly be.

In shipping, the ability to manage datahas often been constrained both by the inherent infrastructure limitationsimposed by the oceans as well as the traditional methods of working that have seen paper transactions as the basisof business.

Technology is slowly helping mar-itime companies to get a better grasp oftheir data, with systems like electronicpurchasing and planned maintenancesoftware improving an organisation’sability to efficiently manage essentialprocesses, but is only able to assist to acertain degree.

Stylianos Siafakas, operations andassurance manager at OceanBulkMaritime in Greece, has spent manyyears working on information control,and as he notes, the demands are increas-ing all the time.

“There is so much information that wehave to control on a daily basis in ouroffices, as everybody knows,” he said.

“This information comes from our ves-sels, the industry, customers, charterers,oil majors, legislation, IMO, US CoastGuard, company strategy, internal proce-dures, financial needs – and there are somany others.”

In Mr Siafakas’ mind, the basis ofeffective information control is creating awell defined relationship between theoffice, the ship and the industry.

“We have the information input, fromthe vessel, from outside in the industry orinside the company, and then we havethe process within the office or the shipwhich leads to a decision, and we haveresults from that decision,” he said.

“Then we need to do a gap analysis –to see the gap between what we expect to

have and what we actually have after thedecision has been made.”

“Finally we need to make any corrective actions in order to meet ourexpectations.”

This might seem relatively straightfor-ward, but it is important to realise thetype of environment that the shippingcompany is working in, and how that hasevolved over time.

“In the past, shipmanagement anddaily operations were based on very basiccommunication. We had radio, telex andcommon mail systems, but no real timedata. Later we had Inmarsat, with phoneand fax and very slow data exchange,”said Mr Siafakas.

“For navigation, it was based on celes-tial observations, bad performing radars,paper charts that were not always updat-ed, difficult to use position fixing systemslike LORAN and OMEGA before satellitenavigation later appeared, and some basicweather forecasts.”

“Between the office and the ship we had too much paperwork, startingwith typewriters before some PCs laterappeared – with printing facilities. Olderpeople will also remember the Telexroom.”

Comparing that type of infrastructureto what is presently available on ships,with advanced communication throughmodern satellite systems and real-timedata, the improvements have been signifi-cant – yet issues remain.

“Today, navigation is based on mod-ern systems and accurate satellite naviga-tion, we have very good bridge integrat-ed systems and electronic charts that canbe fully updated on a real-time basis,”

said Mr Siafakas.“We have accurate weather forecasts

with voyage optimisation, and so manyother facilities.”

“However, we still have too muchpaperwork, everybody knows that, mostlyof the offices operating with those PCswith their printing facilities. And of coursewe now have amazing mail software. Butit’s still difficult to control information.”

Different systemsFrom Mr Siafakas’ point of view, one ofthe biggest issues with information controlin modern maritime organisations is thewide range of different systems that pro-liferate across the industry.

“Let’s look at the office first. We havehardware, software, mailing systems,monitoring systems, we have perform-ance monitoring, planned maintenancesystems, crew integration – everything,”he said.

“On the ship’s part, we have naviga-tion systems, cargo monitoring systems,performance and speed monitoring,engine room controls, everything – it’s ahuge amount of data that we have toexchange on a daily basis.”

“In every single company we are usinga different kind of software for each typeof monitoring or other information weneed to have. Some companies are luckyand have just one system, or a couple ofsystems, but others, for example, mayhave software for planned maintenance,another software for crew management,another software for the operations, andat the end of the day you have at leastfour or five different systems you have touse on a daily basis.”

Mr Siafakas believes that the industryis in need of a greater level of standardis-ation, and would like to see a single inte-gration point that would allow data toflow between all of these separate soft-ware packages.

“The problem we appear to havetoday is that there is no core process orcore monitoring system that will handleall this information and take care of theinterrelation between the office and thevessel,” he said.

“From my personal point of view thisis the most important process for theshipping company.”

So what would this unified systemlook like? Mr Siafakas has some of his own ideas on the essential elementsthat he would like to see included in the system.

“We need a continuous flow of trustedand accurate information from the ship tothe office – but the problem is, who con-trols this information? Who decides whatthe next steps are, what kind of proce-dures will they follow? What kind oftools do we have in our companies forthis?” he said.

“We need more automated informa-tion exchange systems, some systems thatwill not require user action, either fromthe vessel side or from office personnel.There should be no user interference inroutine tasks. Of course, there are someother tasks which will be more complicat-ed so a decision or a meeting will berequired, or some other actions, but onsome routine tasks it should not berequired for a simple user to do anything– he should just have information in frontof his eyes.”

“This integration may result in us hav-ing less communication between theoffice personnel and the ship’s crew, andwe may even need less personnel – and,we hope, less cost. But everybody isexpecting that we will require more andmore training for these new systems thatwill appear in the future, not to mentionthe current systems as well.”

As an example of where such integra-tion could be useful, Mr Siafakasdescribes a typical daily shipboard proce-dure which could easily be improved.

“The master, every day he has toreport to the owners, the charterers, verysimple things like consumption orbunkers onboard,” he said.

“He has to ask the chief engineer to goto the tanks and get information, then hehas to prepare an e-mail, then he has toselect the people from his address bookand send the e-mail.”

“This is time consuming, for a simpletime consuming task. You could have themonitoring system automated with the


Unified systems for better shippingThe management of data is a critical component in managing a shipping company, and is key in making operations

as safe and efficient as possible. Stylianos Siafakas, OceanBulk Maritime, shared his views with Digital Shipon how integrating and unifying the various data systems used within the organisation could go a long way

towards making this process as simple as possible

The cockpit of the Falcon 7X – a model for integration and unification of data systems

p15-28:p1-14.qxd 10/01/2013 18:31 Page 10

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tanks and the gauges so the informationgoes automatically.”

Developing integrationThe scope of such a system is not lost onMr Siafakas, who realises that the rangeof different data sources within a ship-ping company is vast indeed.

“The integrated data system has to, ona daily basis, integrate and process dataregarding the management systems andprocedures of the company, for examplecargo control information, voyage proce-dures, financial data, navigation data,weather information – so many things,”he said.

“It also has to cover data exchange andbackup and routine communication andcorrespondence. Maintenance monitor-ing and ship performance monitoringalso need to be part of it.”

“Then there are crew requirements, wehave new MLC regulations that are com-ing and will require more and more infor-mation exchange, and we have training,which is one of the most importantthings. We have to control it, from theoffice side, onboard the vessel.”

One example Mr Siafakas points to as an illustration of a well integrated collection of data sources is in the cockpitof the Dassault Falcon 7X jet airplane(pictured).

“This is supposed to have the bestintegration of information under the fin-gertips of the pilot,” he said.

“I’m sure that, in the future we will seesomething similar onboard our vessels as well.”

“The most important thing (in the 7Xcockpit) is that you have all of the infor-mation in front of you, you don’t need tochange anything – you have it in front ofyou, you can process it immediately onmultiple monitors, and you can have dif-ferent kinds of information. You can lookat the engines, horizon, charts, navigation– everything.”

Mr Siafakas suggests that, as part ofthe process of improving system devel-opment, those involved in creating new technology need to spend more timegetting to understand the mindset of the user.

“Today it appears that many develop-ers ignore what I’d call ‘the engineeringbehind the user’s mind’. It’s very impor-tant for the software or hardware devel-oper to put themselves in the shoes of theend user that will use this software or thistool on a daily basis,” he said.

“I’m afraid that even today sometimeswe forget who is behind the PC. It’s asimple operator or a technical guy in theoffice or a superintendent – they mightnot have any serious knowledge of PCsor information technology but need tohave access to accurate information.”

“Sometimes developers provide soft-ware that is fantastic and can do amazingthings, a thousand different things – butthe common user needs just two verysimple things, and those two simplethings are hidden behind others.”

As a starting point, Mr Siafakas sug-gests that developers begin by findinganswers to the following questions: Whatis the knowledge level of the commonuser?; What are users’ daily processes?;What do users need to see?; How do

users want to see it?“The human is behind all of this soft-

ware. The human is behind the develop-ment, the user interface, the process –everything. It is the human element thatis going to process the data to make thedecision and create results,” he said.

“How do humans make sense ofthings? How do we take risks, take deci-sions, make mistakes? How do we gettired and stressed, learn and develop,work and communicate with others?”

“Everybody knows that, for example,when a developer wants to make soft-ware he might go to the technical super-intendent to create the PMS software. Hehas to get into the mind of this person.But when he is creating the software ofthe simple operator he has to be in the mind of that person, not staying withthe options and tools wanted by thesuperintendent.”

Next stepsFor Mr Siafakas, the future of maritimetechnology lies in tying all of the variousavailable systems together and simplify-ing the process of sharing data.

“Today we are facing a problem ofintegrating all of this information. If yougo to a company you can see, for exampleat a company that has decided to changeits mail software, somebody goes thereand proposes a new software program.Either the previous software wasn’t cor-rect or isn’t complying with their require-ments, or their needs change,” he said.

“They are facing a serious problemwhich is quite common to everybody –how do we transfer the data from the oldprogram to the new one? In some cases itwill be easier than others, but sometimesyou will find that the data hasn’t beentransferred correctly or the integration isnot correct.”

The obvious potential solutions to thislie in customising the IT infrastructure ata company to create its own integrationprocess, or introducing a single commondata point – and it is the latter of thesetwo that Mr Siafakas sees as the moreattractive option.

“I’ve seen some customised solutionsin the past, and they were not 100 percent accurate in transitioning data fromone system to the other,” he said.

“It could help if the software develop-ment companies could decide to cooper-ate amongst each other and decide to atleast have a common meeting pointsomewhere. I think this is the only way itcan work, maybe some kind of commonmodule. It’s like Windows, where youhave thousands of different softwaredevelopers making systems that areWindows compatible – maybe somethinglike this is the solution.”

“All these problems, that appear on adaily basis, have to be resolved in thefuture. Maybe a core software can bedeployed and developed in order to givethe ship owners and operators the abilityto combine different software and differ-ent data between systems. The developerthat manages, in the future, that managesto create a software or piece of hardwarethat will take care of all of this kind ofinformation and exchange the informa-tion between the different systems, willbe very successful.”


DS

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SOFTWARE


Weather routing vs voyage optimisationTraditional weather routing, while serving its purpose of avoiding bad weather in the past, has reached its

limitations as shipping companies attempt to minimise fuel consumption by slow steaming and virtual arrival. It should be supplemented by more advanced voyage optimisation– for the sake of safety,

efficiency and the environment, writes Henry Chen, Jeppesen Marine

Regulatory requirements, coupledwith higher fuel prices and lowfreight rates in the foreseeable

future, have placed the spotlight on fuelefficiency in the shipping industry.

Post voyage analysis has compared thehistorical passages of ships that sailedusing weather routing to see how theywould have performed, in terms of savingfuel if they had used a voyage optimisationtechnology instead. The results show anannual improvement of up to 5 per cent.

Furthermore, ship owners who makethe switch not only yield a higher returnon their investment, through increasedoperating efficiency and safety, but alsoreduce their GHG emissions.

Unlike traditional weather routing withits inherent limitations, voyage optimisa-tion also supports new operational tacticssuch as slow steaming and virtual arrival.

A closer look at the disadvantages ofweather routing shows why the time isripe for ship owners to embrace moresophisticated technology.

Ship responseWeather routing does not take intoaccount ship responses.

A ship slows down either involuntarilydue to increased resistance from the windand waves, or voluntarily due to naviga-tion hazards or fear of heavy weatherdamage from excessive ship motion, pro-peller racing, slamming or boarding seas.

The weather routing advisory servicemust take both of these into account whenestimating dead-reckoned ship positionsin relation to the movement of weathersystems. Otherwise, the best route chartedby the unknowing planner could lead to adangerous situation.

Some weather routing companies havestarted to realise the limitations of theirmethods and are trying to develop shipresponse prediction capabilities.

To predict ship motion, voyage optimi-

sation tools digitise the ship’s body plan,bilge keels and other appendages as wellas calculate its loading conditions in termsof fore and aft drafts and GM.

A sophisticated hydrodynamic pro-gram then computes added mass anddamping coefficients and solves the equa-tion of motion.

The results are the so-called ResponseAmplitude Operators (RAO), which arecombined with forecast wave spectra topredict ship responses.

Only during the last few years, thecomputing power of a desktop PC hasbeen able to run such computationallyintensive programs in less than a minuteas part of onboard software to provideseakeeping guidance and safe operatinglimits.

Engine overloadWeather routing does not take intoaccount engine overload.

Shipyards use sophisticated finite ele-ment models and high tensile steels toreduce weight and production costs inorder to be competitive. Similarly, propul-sion systems are often optimised for calmweather trial conditions in order to satisfythe recent IMO requirement on the EnergyEfficiency Design Index (EEDI).

One such design consequence for slowspeed diesel engines with direct-drivefixed-pitch propellers is high pitch coupledwith minimum acceptable sea margin.

With calm weather and a clean hulllightly loaded, the vessel easily makes thecontracted speed and good EEDI.Unfortunately, such a practice leads to fre-quent engine overload when the shipencounters high wind or seas or increasedhull fouling as ships age.

Again, if such events cannot be predict-ed by the weather routing tools, this canlead to over-optimistic ship speed andmistaken diversion decisions when facingheavy weather, not to mention inaccurate

estimates of fuel consumption and time of arrival.

Speed managementWeather routing algorithms ignore speedmanagement.

There has been substantial researchover the years in the area of ship routingalgorithms, with most of the weather rout-ing software using variations of theDijkstra’s Algorithm, in which the pro-gram simulates a vessel departing withfull power toward the arrival port withdifferent headings.

After each time interval (e.g. six hours),the ship’s dead-reckoned position forms aso-called ‘isochrone’ until it arrives at thedestination.

A route is then traced back from theearliest arrival time, and fuel consumptionis estimated using a tonnes-per-day rate.The claim is that minimum time results inminimum fuel consumption.

The calculation is fast, especially whenonly using speed reduction curves and nottaking into account ship motion responsesor engine overload.

Unfortunately, the problem with suchan approach is that the algorithm ignoresone important option: speed management.

As storms move across the ocean, it ispossible for the ship to slow down and letthem pass and then catch up, instead ofsailing a longer distance to go around, or‘hove-to’ in bad weather.

Such a strategy not only significantlyreduces fuel consumption for a givenarrival time, it also reduces the risk ofheavy weather damage when fully imple-mented with ship response and engineoverload.

The simple speed reduction curvesused in weather routing algorithms cannotfind the optimum route since they operate

only in one dimension.Without modelling the ship perform-

ance from first principles, it is not possibleto minimise the fuel consumption for agiven arrival time without exceeding thesafe operating limits.

Speed and heading are both integratedinto route optimisation, making the prob-lem multi-dimensional.

An algorithm called 3-D DynamicProgramming can be used to minimisefuel consumption for a range of arrivaltimes subject to the constraints of safeoperating limits imposed by the captain.

The optimisation is performed on auser-defined grid for safe navigation. Thisallows trade-off between fuel costs andarrival time in a complex inter-modaltransportation network.

The computation effort is obviouslygreater since the algorithm must evaluatethousands of speed and heading optionscompared with hundreds in the case ofheading-only weather routing.

With computer processor speeds dou-bling every year, the time to solve theproblem is reduced from several hours toa few minutes, including the full imple-mentation of ship responses and engineoverload.

Such systems can be implemented atrouting centres shore-side, or onboard shipswith daily updates of forecast environmen-tal conditions via satellite communication.

RPM v speedmanagement

Constant RPM is not as efficient as speedmanagement.

A strategy often used by weather rout-ing services is advising the ship to useminimum RPM to arrive on time, sincehorsepower increases with the cubicpower of ship speed.

Voyage optimisation systems can take ship responses into account and adjust their predictions

The accuracy of weather reports can vary due to a number of factors

p15-28:p1-14.qxd 10/01/2013 18:31 Page 12

However, this only makes sense incalm weather, because in severe head seaand wind conditions, the added resist-ance from the wind and waves couldresult in 50 per cent or more horsepowerthan that required for calm sea in order tomaintain speed.

With voyage optimisation, the speedprofile on a single route is optimised toarrive on time by slowing down in headseas and speeding up in beam/followingseas to catch up after a storm passes.

In addition, using a minimum RPM or engine power strategy can precludebetter options, such as passing in front ofa storm.

For example, a ship could speed up topass in front of a storm in the Gulf ofAlaska, so that the rest of the voyage canhave following seas and calm weather inthe Bering Sea. This is a well demonstrat-ed routing strategy for crossing the NorthPacific from the US West Coast to Asia.

The alternative route, even with shorterdistance at lower latitude would face headseas all the way, resulting in hundreds oftons more fuel for a large container vessel.

Data sourcesWeather routing typically relies on onlyone weather forecast source.

The advent of supercomputers andnumerical models has significantlyimproved the accuracy of weather fore-casts over the past decade.

National centres such as NCEP/NOAA, US Navy, UKMET, JMA andECMWF are routinely producing long-range wind and wave forecasts 15 daysahead and beyond.

However, the accuracy of each modelvaries due to model resolutions, how the physics is implemented, and manyother factors.

The centres tend to calibrate theirmodels to perform better when stormsthreaten their own countries, but pay lessattention to mid-ocean storms passingshipping lanes.

None of the models can consistentlyproduce accurate forecasts for tropicalcyclones due to their complex physics andrapid development.

Human forecasters are employed dur-ing the typhoon/hurricane seasons toissue track and intensity forecasts basedon consensus of model outputs as well aspast experience.

In any case, accuracy starts to deterio-rate after 3-5 days, leading to even largeruncertainties between 5-7 days.

Most of the weather routing serviceproviders use products from only oneforecast centre.

In the US, surface pressure, wind andsea state forecasts are available as freedownloads over the internet from NOAA.While the quality of such forecasts may begood enough for weather routing, theirlevel of detail is not sufficient for shipmotion response prediction and voyageoptimisation.

This is particularly true in predicting thesea and swells generated by tropicalcyclones since meteorologists at typhoon orhurricane centres often issue vastly differ-ent forecasts from the model predictions.

Currently, the best approach to oceanweather forecasts is to adopt a ‘man-machine’ mix, in which experienced fore-casters quality-control the sea surfacepressure forecasts, including the windfields derived from the track and intensityforecasts from various forecast centres.

This forms the input to a marineboundary layer wind model and the out-put drives a numerical wave directionalspectra model.

The ‘Super Ensemble’ forecastapproach takes the best of each nationalcentre’s forecast and quantifies the uncer-tainties in wind and waves.

At each grid point in every forecasthorizon extending to beyond 15 days, thevalues for mean and standard deviationcan be used to judge the accuracy levels ofthe forecast.

The spread between minimum andmaximum typically is smaller in shorter-range forecasts, as various models are morein agreement. The spread will increase asthe forecast horizon increases and the accu-racy of the forecast models differs.

This type of consensus knowledge willprovide greater insight in selecting theoptimum route, taking into account therisk of heavy weather damage as well aspredicted fuel consumption for virtualarrival due to forecast uncertainties.

Besides the more accurate wind andwave forecasts, voyage optimisation alsotakes into account sea surface currentssince they can significantly impact shipspeed and fuel consumption.

High-resolution global circulationmodels enhanced by satellite measure-ments can now produce accurate dailydepictions of major currents and eddies.

Benefits of voyageoptimisation

The benefits of voyage optimisation can befurther extended to ship design, fleetdeployment, and operational logistics.

In this regard, the technology is able to:� Determine ship design criteria such as

speed, sea margin, maximum ship motions, and bending moment by repeatedly simulating voyages using historic wind and wave hindcast databases.

� Optimise the deployment and sched-ule of vessels for the trade route taking into consideration schedule reliability, fuel cost, and seakeeping capability.

� Estimate the probability of on-time arrival so that shore-side operations such as loading and unloading of trucks and trains can be efficiently scheduled.

� Extend the fatigue life of ship struc-tures by predicting stress cycles and providing ship officers with seakeep-ing guidance to reduce ship stresses.

Digital Ship


About the authorDr. Henry Chen is chief naval architect at Jeppesen Marine, and is anAssociate Boeing Technology Fellow. He has 37 years of experience in themaritime and offshore industries and a Ph.D in Marine Systems from MIT.

www.bassnet.no

Indonesia-based logistics and shippingcompany, PT Pelita Samudera Shipping(PT PSS) is to install the BASSnet soft-ware package to assist in managing itsoperations.

PT PSS operates a fleet that includesFloating Loading Facilities (FLFs), tugsand barges, and Floating Bulk Unloaders.

“After an extensive evaluation of thevarious fleet management software in themarket, we are very pleased to have select-ed BASS’ software solutions to futureproof our operations,” commented PT PSSdirector, Hans Peter Glipman Jorgensen.

PT PSS is deploying the BASSnetMaintenance and Procurement modules.BASSnet Maintenance will be used in theplanning and execution of maintenanceacross the fleet, while BASSnetProcurement will be used to streamlinepurchasing activities and optimise thepurchasing cycle.

BASSnet software is built on theMicrosoft .NET platform, which BASSsays should also make it easier to adaptthe systems to any enhancements in thefuture.

“BASS is dedicated to providing a holistic solution to the diverse needs of ship owners and operators. We pro-vide a business solution that streamlinesand automates processes across theorganisation and fleet for achieving theefficiency gains that can make or break a business in the current turbulent envi-ronment,” said BASS’ regional sales man-ager, Derrick Lee.

“We have been working on theIndonesian segment for a while now. Thiscontract gives us an entry point to a vastfield in shipping, crew management, rigs,floating production, storage and offload-ing facilities and offshore units.”

“With PT PSS in our portfolio, we seemany others seeking to enjoy the benefitsof our future-proof software solutions.”

BASS catch in Indonesia

Buss Data updates softwarewww.buss-data.de

Buss Data, a subsidiary of OrganizationReederei Buss in Germany, has launched anumber of new updates to its maritimesoftware applications.

One of these is FuelStar, a graphicalanalysis tool used to monitor fuel consumption based on different draughtsand trims.

The system allows various configura-tions to be analysed and revised to opti-mise performance.

The relevant data can be provided in alist for export to MS Excel, or analysedwithin the tool.

Buss Data has also added a new insur-ance tool as an additional component to itsClaimStar software module.

The insurance tool aims to streamlinehandling of insurance claims, offering arange of templates - for example, a 'warrisk calls' template - that includes claimscommentary and all relevant data. A sec-ond template is then used to show rele-vant analysis.

This new tool will be added to existingguarantee claims and stevedore damagestools in the software package.

The third new product is a registrationmanagement and analysis tool for the nau-tical and technical operational sector,named SupportStar.

This tool is used to manage supportrequests for navigation and communica-tion equipment. It provides options like an overview of all equipment, man-agement of claims histories, control of warranty timebars, organising of certificates, and records of all suppliesand services.

Additionally, the software can be usedto control all maintenance and surveyintervals, such as radio surveys, and annu-al performance tests of voyage datarecorders or gyrocompasses.

Equipment lists can feature reminderinformation, processed by e-mail. Thisreminder system provides updates on allupcoming repairs, surveys and relatedwork onboard, so all respective data canbe analysed and recorded.

www.spectec.net

SpecTec has announced the launch of new online product support services forAMOS users.

“We have looked very carefully intowhat we provide in terms of services andsupport and how we provide it,” saidGiampiero Soncini, CEO of SpecTec.

“We have made some significantimprovements to our product supportservices, in order to ensure that our cus-tomers experience not only improvedservice delivery but also an improvementin the effectiveness of AMOS within theirdaily business.”

The new services aim to assist those whoalready work with AMOS and related solu-

tions in optimising their software usage.These users will have access to

SpecTec product managers, softwarearchitects and business analysts, and willhave the opportunity to talk to themabout any issues or concerns they haverelating to the software.

The services will be provided throughwebinars and web conferences, whichSpecTec clients can subscribe to using anonline subscription form available on theSpecTec website.

The company says that it also plans toinclude new software releases in theonline product support service. TheProduct Development department atSpecTec has planned new releases for bothAMOS and AMOS2 during 2013.

Online support for AMOS

DS

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www.kongsberg.com

Kongsberg Maritime has launched a newECDIS Instructor Training course,designed to train captains and senior per-sonnel, so they can train other officers andcrew members in familiarisation ofKongsberg ECDIS on board vessels.

Offered in Norway and Singapore, thecourse meets the requirements of theInternational Convention on Standards ofTraining, Certification and Watchkeepingfor Seafarers (STCW), and has been devel-oped as a response to new IMO regula-tions and demand for certification in theuse of ECDIS, resulting in an increasing

requirement for ECDIS training.“We have developed a new training

course that includes both technical ECDIStraining on our systems as well as peda-gogical components,” said TommyEdvardsen Hvidsten, product managertraining, Kongsberg Maritime.

“The course enables Captains to traintheir own officers and crew, which signifi-cantly reduces training and travel costscompared to each crew member attendingseparate ECDIS training courses.”

In addition to certificated training,course participants receive a kit of exercis-es to use when training their own staff.

Although those who take part in theinstructor course are cleared to conductKongsberg Maritime familiarisationECDIS training, Kongsberg Maritime isstill responsible for testing the skills ofofficers and crew that have been trainedby the course participant, and for issuingthe ECDIS competence certificate.

“While the participants of the ECDISInstructor Training course complete thetest at our training centres, those who aretrained by someone who has taken thecourse must complete an online test,” saidMr Hvidsten.

“Based on the results of this test we willissue the necessary certificate. This givesus the possibility of controlling qualityand ensuring course participants have infact received the required training accord-ing to the standard.”

‘Train the trainer’certified on Kongsberg ECDIS


ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION Digital Ship

“The goal of this and all of our coursesis to provide realistic training in a safeenvironment, in order to give the partici-pants the necessary confidence to operateour systems in all conditions.”

In other news, Ukrainian crewing com-pany Lerus Ltd in Odessa has opened anew training centre outfitted with aKongsberg Offshore Vessel Simulator.

The new Lerus Training Centre, estab-lished to meet growing training demandin Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Lithuania,Latvia, Romania and other Europeancountries, is the first in the Ukraine to offerfully integrated offshore vessel operationstraining.

The Offshore Vessel Simulator at thefacility features a 240 degree field of view,for courses covering: Ship Handling(AHTS, OSV, ROV, DSV, VLCC, MPSV),Dynamic Positioning, Crane Operations(Stage 1, 2, 3), Anchor handling and

Towing/Rig Move.Different teams may interact within the

same exercise, with a Dynamic Positioningsimulator integrated alongside an offshorecrane simulator to more accurately repre-sent real life operations. A standalonecrane simulator for training on harbouroperations is also included.

“Kongsberg is a clear leader in simula-tion for the offshore industry and sinceour crews mostly work on vessels withKongsberg systems, it’s also beneficial thatwe use Kongsberg equipment for train-ing,” said Ruslan Gromovenko, managingdirector, Lerus Training Centre.

“Investment in the new training facilityand inclusion of the most sophisticatedoffshore vessel simulator available todaywill help us to maintain a strong positionin the market, by supplying crew withhigh levels of training and competence forthe oil and gas industry worldwide.”

The Marinestar Manoeuvring System provides high accuracy position, course and speed - both in the forward direction and athwartships.

Marinestar assists manoeuvring in restricted

calculation aids berthing of large vessels.

Marinestar can be integrated within ships bridge systems to provide stable accurate, position course and speed data. This is especially valu-able to ships using electronic charting.

Fugro Satellite Positioning, NorwayTel: +47 21 50 14 00 Fax: +47 21 50 14 01E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.fugromarinestar.com

KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING...

Those who take part in the course will be cleared to conduct ECDIS

familiarisation training

The new Offshore Vessel Simulator at Lerus

p29-36:p15-25.qxd 10/01/2013 18:21 Page 1

ELECTRONICS & NAVIGATION


www.lr.org

A new state-of-the-art marine technologyand research centre of excellence at theUniversity of Southampton, which incor-porates the Lloyd’s Register’s GroupTechnology Centre, has reached the mile-stone of “topping out” as developmentcontinues on the facility.

This collaboration between the univer-sity and Lloyd’s Register aims to create a£116-million research hub, providingworld-class facilities for marine-relatedresearch and development.

“The collaboration between industryand academia is vital for technical innova-tion. We want our new Group TechnologyCentre to lead the world in helping todevelop the solutions that will supportsafer, cleaner, more efficient shipping andoffshore activity,” said Richard Sadler,Lloyd’s Register’s chief executive officer.

“A fundamental understanding of newtechnology is essential in solving theworld’s technical challenges. Putting our

practical experts next to the university’slearning and research facilities will stimu-late technical innovation and I believe, infuture, it will allow us to broaden our rela-tionship into areas as diverse as the foodand information security sectors.”

“Our investment in this unique collab-orative venture will benefit the UKemployment market, its reputation fortechnology development and UK busi-nesses in general.”

When it opens, the new campus willbe home to the Lloyd’s Register GroupTechnology Centre, where 400 staff will form part of the organisation’s globalresearch and development network.

“With the completion of our new cam-pus, the range of expertise in the marineand maritime sectors in Southampton willbe unparalleled in the UK, and among the best in the world,” said Professor Don Nutbeam, vice-chancellor of theUniversity of Southampton.

The first phase of the development isscheduled for completion in 2014.

www.furunousa.com

Tidewater Inc, a provider of OffshoreService Vessels to the global energy indus-try, has agreed a deal with Furuno USA toact as its primary supplier of BNWAS(Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System).

With hundreds of vessels included inthe agreement, varying from PlatformSupply and Fast Crew Supply Vessels toOffshore Tugs and a variety of other spe-cialty vessels, the companies say that theinstallation project will take the majorityof 2013 to complete.

The Furuno BR500 BNWAS system tobe installed is a casualty avoidance systemthat monitors the watch officer's presenceon the bridge. The system will initiate apredetermined sequence of alarms if itsenses inactivity on the bridge for a setperiod of time.

The watch time can be reset using anumber of different methods, includingoperation of either ECDIS or radar withappropriate outputs, pressing a timer resetbutton, or activating an optional motionsensor during normal bridge activity.

If the OOW (Officer of the Watch) does-n't respond to the alarm, the system trans-fers the alarm to Cabin Panels installed inother areas of the vessel in order to inform

backup officers of the OOW’s incapacity.Up to twelve Cabin Panels may be

installed in these areas using Furuno’s sin-gle-cable installation method.

“We are excited to continue our long-standing working relationship withTidewater by assuring that their vesselsremain in IMO compliance with ourBNWAS solution,” said Dean Kurutz,Furuno USA marketing manager.

“We feel that our Global Support & Service Network, coupled with our flexible BNWAS architecture, led toTidewater’s decision to purchase Furuno’sBR500.”

UK marine research facility ‘topped out’

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Tidewater in Furuno BNWAS deal

Thomas Gunn Navigation Serviceshas announced that Doug Anderson, thecompany’s customer service director, isto retire after 18 years with the Group. MrAnderson has headed up Thomas Gunncustomer service and support since 1994,having joined from Brown and Perring,where he also held the position of direc-

www.thomasgunn.com

The Furuno BNWAS will issue alerts if the OOW is incapacitated

www.transas.com

Italian shipping company NavigazioneMontanari has signed an agreement toimplement Transas’ TRANSERV pro-gramme for 11 vessels.

Nine of the vessels are alreadyequipped with Transas Navi-Sailor 4000Dual ECDIS, using the Transas AdmiraltyData Service TADS (Official SENC) to sailpaperless.

The two additional vessels will be fittedwith the ECDIS and TADS in the spring of2013.

TRANSERV is a Support andMaintenance programme for the manage-

ment of the ECDIS set-up onboard, incor-porating service coordination, chart order-ing, software updates and preventivemaintenance.

This will be used to ensure that the nav-igation systems onboard NavigazioneMontanari vessels will always be up-to-date and compliant with regulations,while supporting any changes in chart for-mat and creating an interface to otherbridge systems.

The onboard crew will also receivetraining on new functionalities and guidance on how to improve vesselroutines in using and maintaining the system.

Italian company signs for TRANSERV

www.jeppesen.com

Jeppesen reports that it is now distributingofficial Electronic Navigation Charts(ENCs) for Malaysia, a recent addition tothe company’s worldwide ENC portfolio.

Jeppesen will distribute the RoyalMalaysian Navy (RMN) ENCs through itslocal partner Okenos.

Included in this newly available ENCcoverage is the Strait of Malacca, the mainchannel between the Indian and PacificOceans. The Strait of Malacca links themajor Asian economies of India, China,Japan and South Korea and carries an esti-mated 25 per cent of all oil transported bysea.

“This is a significant development forJeppesen, as well as for our shipping clien-

tele around the world,” said MichaelBergmann, Jeppesen maritime industrydirector for affairs and services.

“We want to express our gratitude tothe Malaysia Hydrographic Office and ourlocal partner Okenos for working closelywith us on this important partnership.”

In related news, Jeppesen has alsorecently signed a direct ENC distributionagreement with the Korea Oceanographicand Hydrographic Association (KOHA),further expanding coverage in Asia.

“This agreement with KOHA is fur-ther evidence of our commitment to bringmaritime customers the ENC coveragethey need, with affordable, flexiblelicensing options that make sense fortoday’s changing shipping industry,”added Mr Bergmann.

Jeppesen adds Malaysian ENC coverage

tor of customer service. Responsibility for Group customer service has beentransitioned to Gareth Kirkwood, chiefoperating officer of Thomas Gunn ownerGNS Group.

p29-36:p15-25.qxd 10/01/2013 18:15 Page 2

What do these market leaders have in common?

www.teromarine.no – [email protected]

TM Master...Fleet Management Solutions

Maintenance & Inventory - Docking Management - Centralised Procurement - Crew Management - Voyage e-Log - HSSEQA

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As the infrastructure that will form the basis of IMO’s e-Navigation programme continues to evolve, it is important that technology standards are introduced if the initiative is to truly fulfil its potential,

writes Fred Pot, Marine Management Consulting

e-Navigation infrastructure –should we care?

IIMO’s Correspondence Group on e-Navigation (CG) is on schedule to rec-ommend a Strategic Implementation

Plan (SIP) by December 2014. The SIP willprobably specify the dates by which vari-ous classes of SOLAS ships and shore-sideentities will be required to implement e-Navigation solutions.

These solutions will address many ofthe ‘gaps’ that the CG formally identified(see NAV 58-6 Annex 2[1]).

Currently the CG is estimating to whatextent each of the 50 or so potential solu-

tions[2] will improve the likelihood thatships complete their voyages safely,securely, efficiently and in an environ-mentally friendly manner.

The CG will then subject the highestranked solutions (in terms of their efficacyin mitigating risks) to a rigorouscost/benefit analysis and, at some point intime, develop minimum performancerequirements for those solutions thatmake it all the way through this ‘FormalSafety Assessment’ (FSA) process.

Many of the potential solutions involve

information exchanges between ships andshore-side entities.

Some information exchanges will makedecision support information available tothe mariner that wasn’t available before,for instance information from shore-basedwater-level, current, wind and other sen-sors. Other information will likely includereal-time bathymetry, bridge clearances,lock openings, etc.

Information exchanges are also beingconsidered to provide shore-based VTS[3],MRCC[4] and other users with decision

support information from ship-board sen-sors, bridge alarms and other sources.

AIS[5] already provides them with basicinformation but e-Navigation will likelycomplement that with more detailed infor-mation, for instance about the accuracy ofthe ship’s navigation instruments, thehealth of the ships’ systems, its voyageplan, its cargo manifest, etc.

Other information exchanges are beingconsidered to automate updating ENCs[6]

and nautical publications and to stream-line reporting to coastal and port authori-ties. The intent of these informationexchanges is to lessen the administrativeburden on mariners and thus allow themmore time to conn the ship.

Other potential solutions will providemariners and shore-based users with anindication of the accuracy and health oftheir sensors and make the human/machine interface of their instrumentsmore intuitive and ergonomic.

Automated informationOne of the potential e-Navigation solu-tions is to completely automate informa-tion exchanges, relieving mariners andshore-based users from having to operatecommunications equipment.

What is currently not clear is which ofthe many potential e-Navigation solutionswill be adopted by IMO member states.

It is, however, quite clear that develop-ing detailed specifications for each solu-tion to estimate its costs and (risk mitiga-tion) benefits will take time and thatdeveloping a minimum performance stan-dard for each solution once it has made itall the way through the FSA process willtake more time.

Decision support information is typi-cally presented to the user on a screen.Radar and ECDIS screens on-board andshore-side VTS screens are examples.

The software that presents decisionsupport information on screen and thatgives the user control over what and howinformation is presented is an ‘applica-tion’. The application software relies oninformation that is stored in a database(i.e. ENC), directly received from sensors(i.e. GPS, AIS, Radar, fathometer, etc.) andfrom the instrument’s knobs and controls.

Historically, instruments were inde-pendent from each other and only pre-sented information from a single sensor(i.e. radar, fathometer, GPS, Gyro, etc.). Itwas left up to the user to gain situationawareness by combining informationfrom different boxes.

Gradually applications have becomemore task-oriented. They soon will pres-ent users with all information that theyneed to perform a particular task.

Any User Device with intuitive Human Machine Interface including Audio (i.e. INS, Workstation, Heads Up Display, Tablet, etc.)

Secure connection to e-Navigation Applications running on the Private Computing Cloud

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or • Collision Avoidance/Passage Planning • ISM/SMS Application • MSI Publication Management

• Route Monitoring • Trim & Stability • Traffic Organization Service (TOS)

• Route Planning/UKC/Airdraft/Weather/Fuel • Fire Fighting • Remote Inspection of Quality of Ships’ Instruments

• Conning (Mooring/Anchoring/etc.) • (SAR) Messaging • Navigation Assistance Service (NAS)

• Alert Management • Etc. • VTS Services Advertising

• Systems Monitoring/Trouble Shooting • MRCC Incident Management

• Ship Reporting to Authorities (FAL Reports) • Marine Domain Awareness (MDA)

• Information Subscription Management • Information Subscription Management

• CBT including equipment familiarization materials • Database Search Engine that allows geo-

• Database Search Engine that allows geo- referenced and other searches

referenced and other searches • Etc.

• Information Management System (IMS) with S-10X format subscriptions to Information Services from local &

remote sensors and other equipment/sources (i.e. Radar, AIS, GNSS, MSI's, Voyage Plan, Manifest, ENC &

Nautical Pubs updates, SAR Sources)

• Ship/Shore Radio Communications Network Router to automate wireless digital information exchanges via

any network

• Ship/Shore Network Connection Status Updates for all available communication networks

• Security Key Manager for encrypted communications

• Any Data Base Management System and any other Application Services

Engine (Service Broker, Port, Context, HAL, UI Framework)

Middleware (Any Operating System, Containers, Discovery & Peering, Communications, Load Balancing, other

generic services)

Virtualization Layer

Redundant Physical Servers (Any CPU, Any Storage Hardware or Device)

Networking & Firewalling, Connections to local Sensors, Radar, Radio Communications Equipment, User Devices and

other equipment, using any network protocol (i.e. TCP/IP, all versions of IEC 61162 and all proprietary protocols).

Data Center Mechanical & Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS)

Required Characteristics of the e-Navigation Open Source Reference System Architecture (similar to AUTOSAR for the auto indus-

try and SAVI for avionics)

1. To make the architecture future proof for industry innovation and to avoid vendor lock-in, it should be technology neutral and thus

allow certified e-navigation applications to be deployed on any server hardware, any operating system and any user device

without interfering with legacy systems. Also to allow “Mixing and Matching”, certified e-navigation applications from different

vendors should not interfere with each other.

2. To achieve redundancy, multiple reference architecture instances should be hosted on each physical server with automatic load

balancing and failover.

3. To avoid the need to customize e-navigation applications for the local portfolio of sensors and other information sources, these

sources should comply with Universal Plug-n-Play (UPnP) standards (IEC 29341-1). Sensors and information sources should be

replaceable on-the-fly with automatic discovery & peering.

4. To securely manage complex information exchanges and to allow encryption where necessary, a Pub/Sub messaging pattern

should be used.

Proposed e-Navigation System ArchitectureDerived from a proposal for e-navigation shipboard technical architecture presented by Woo-Seong Shim, KIOST, Korea

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Digital ShipExamples are collision avoidance in

congested waters, mooring/anchoring,voyage planning, alert management on-board; and traffic organisation, SAR[7]

incident management and managingMSI[8] publications ashore.

Users will no longer have to go frombox to box to gain situation awareness;they can call up relevant decision supportapplications on ‘their’ screens for whatev-er the tasks at hand are. The INS (integrat-ed navigation system) workstation is agood example.

E-Navigation will most likely affectalmost all existing decision support appli-cations. E-Navigation solutions will alsorequire a number of new software applica-tions to automate information exchanges,for instance.

E-Navigation will furthermore changethe information that sensors provide to add details about their accuracy andtheir health.

StandardsUnlike the automobile, aviation and manyother industries, there currently is no stan-dard system architecture for the marineindustry that covers electronic bridge andshore-side systems.

Instead, each vendor builds his ownproprietary equipment with a CPU (com-puter processing unit), an operating sys-tem, his own system architecture, his ownHuman Machine Interface (HMI) anddevelops his own complement of propri-etary decision support applications to runon his equipment.

Most vendors also bundle their sensorswith their system and often use propri-etary connections between their sensorsand the rest of their system. Each individ-ual sensor typically has a CPU, an operat-ing system, a database and runs its ownproprietary sensor specific software.

Electronic equipment and systems aretypically selected by the shipyard andoffered with the ship as a package that canbe changed, but the change order fees tendto be significant.

The result is that ship owners andoperators typically are prevented fromusing their own criteria (cost, features,intuitiveness, quality, reliability, main-tainability, etc.) to select their decisionsupport applications and their sensors.Ship owners and operators cannot easily‘mix-and-match’ electronic equipmentfrom different vendors.

The IEC 61162[9] digital interfaces stan-dard should make that possible, howeverit can only process sensor values and itcannot process video. It is not suited forreporting sensor health and accuracy, itcannot be used to remotely (i.e. shore side)monitor, trouble shoot and upgrade sen-sor system software, nor can it process themessages using the verbose e-NavigationS-100[10] standard protocol.

The situation for shore-side equipmentis very similar.

The result is that ship owners andcoastal and port authorities are typicallylocked into a single vendor for supportand upgrades. That suits vendors becausethey can, and often do, charge a premiumfor their support and upgrades.

Partially due to this vendor lock-in,ship owners and coastal and port authori-ties typically delay a major refit of elec-tronic equipment as long as possible. Yetthe pace of technology development is, ifanything, speeding up rather than slowingdown.

It appears that the CG doesn’t intendto change this situation, because it will likely rely on vendors to add e-Navigation solutions to alreadyinstalled (shipboard and shore-side) elec-tronic equipment through softwareupgrades and, where that is not possible,to develop and market new stand-aloneequipment that has the functionalityrequired by the various solutions.

It doesn’t have to go that way. With theintroduction of e-Navigation solutions,the CG has a unique opportunity toimprove the situation.

It has an opportunity to mitigate theeffects of vendor lock-in. Specifically, ithas an opportunity to unbundle applica-tions from their computing platform bysetting a standard for the platform’s sys-tem architecture that can accommodateany operating system, any database andany CPU.

Such system architecture will also pro-vide the CG with an opportunity to allowany application to use all local and remotesensors and other sources of informationwithout interfacing issues.

Future-proofRoll-out of e-Navigation solutions will notlikely occur before the 2015-2025 time-frame and technology can be expected tochange drastically between now and then.Therefore the CG should anticipate tech-

nology improvements and the direction ofindustry innovation as much as possible tomake e-Navigation future proof.

In other industries the trend towardsindustry-wide reference system architec-ture (RSA) standards is clear (forinstance AUTOSAR[11] in the automobileindustry and SAVI[12] in the avionicsindustry) and has proven to increaseavailability and quality of solutionswhile reducing their cost.

The marine industry stands at the cuspof realising the same benefits if it adoptsan industry-wide system architecturestandard.

If the CG adopts an RSA[13] then it willprovide the framework within which anysoftware application (i.e. e-Navigationsolution) can run on any operating systemon any CPU using any data storage deviceand use any source of information on anycommunications network.

The framework will also allow shipowners and port and coastal authorities toadopt better, more reliable and less expen-sive technology without having to wait fora major refit, because all components willbe ‘Plug-n-Play[14]’ (see IEC 29341-1[15]).

A major reason why the CG shouldconsider adopting a standard RSA is thatit will assure interoperability betweenshipboard and shore-side systems.

It will provide the framework for auto-matic seamless and secure e-Navigationinformation exchanges irrespective of thesystems that are involved in theexchange, as long as they adhere to theRSA standard.

The aviation industry’s SAVI RSAallows it to use fly-by-wire technology andmeet all relevant performance standards.

The automobile industry’s AUTOSARRSA allows it to run several mission crit-ical applications on a car’s computingplatform:1. Break by wire (i.e. ABS)2. Steer by wire3. Accelerate by wireAll of these comply with the automobileindustry’s stringent performance and reli-ability standards.

The computing platform that runsthese applications is also used to integratesmart telephone and music playback func-tionality into the car’s sound system usinga Bluetooth connection, for instance.

For safety, security and performancereasons, the RSA should be the overarch-ing standard for all applications and allcomputing platform layers will need to beclearly defined (‘abstracted’).

Most ships already carry a computingenvironment for business purposes suchas e-mail, stores inventory and purchas-ing, HR, payroll & time keeping, onlineforms, etc. Using a robust RSA as the over-arching standard, and with a fewCommercial Of The Shelf (COTS) addi-tions to increase its reliability, the alreadyavailable computing environment (i.e.servers, LAN, database management sys-tem, etc.) could host both business appli-

cations and e-Navigation applicationswithout affecting each other.

Using a private cloud for all applica-tions greatly reduces the need for propri-etary and expensive single function elec-tronic equipment.

An RSA will also provide a commoninfrastructure to remotely monitor, trou-bleshoot and upgrade software for (theremaining) electronic equipment. An RSAprovides the necessary secure(ship/shore) real-time communicationsand access security that will allow vendorsto remotely service their electronic equip-ment in most cases before it fails and with-out having to dispatch service engineers.

A developer of an (e-Navigation andother) application that is designed to run in an RSA cloud doesn’t have toworry about customising it for the portfo-lio of sensors and the particular comput-ing environment that application will run on the ship or ashore. The RSA cloud insulates developers from suchcomplications.

IT industry experience shows that morethan half of the effort to develop an appli-cation is spent on adapting it to the com-puting environment it will run in ratherthan on the application itself. This is thereason why RSA cloud applications areless expensive and of higher quality.

The number of choices of applicationsthat perform similar functions also typi-cally increases because development isno longer limited to those who areemployed by a particular electronicequipment vendor.

ConclusionShipowners and port and coastal authori-ties would be major beneficiaries if the CGwere to adopt an RSA for the e-Navigationinfrastructure.

Doing so would have the effect ofchanging the market for electronic equip-ment from a sellers’ market to a buyers’market. It would give you a way to avoidvendor lock-in and allow you to mix andmatch applications and sensors withoutinterfacing issues.

It would increase competition amongvendors to provide you with the best pos-sible (e-Navigation and other) solutions.

It would not only significantly reducethe cost of providing the required e-Navigation infrastructure but, beyondthat, it would allow you to future proof allyour systems, limiting their total cost ofownership while increasing their quality,reliability and maintainability.

Shipowners and port and coastalauthorities are encouraged to verify theclaims that this author makes about theadvantages of an RSA by consulting theirsoftware engineering experts.

If, as expected, your experts agree, thenthe author urges you to ask your CG representatives with the IMO, theInternational Chamber of Shipping (ICS)or IALA[16] to encourage the CG to adoptan RSA for e-Navigation.

DS

About the authorFred W. Pot is principal of Marine Management Consulting and canbe reached at [email protected]. For further information visitwww.enavsolutions.org

References:

1. http://e-nav.no/media.php?file=1212. http://e-nav.no/media.php?file=1203. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vessel_traffic_service4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_coordination_centre5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_navigational_chart7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_and_rescue8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritime_safety_information9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_6116210. http://icaci.org/files/documents/ICC_proceedings/ICC2009/html/nonref/3_26.pdf11. http://www.autosar.org/12. http://savi.avsi.aero/13. http://www.enavsolutions.org/e-�avigation_System_Architecture_v1.11.docx14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Plug_and_Play15. http://webstore.iec.ch/preview/info_isoiec29341-1%7Bed2.0%7Den.pdf16. http://www.iala-aism.org/iala/index.php

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The advent of ECDIS may seem like a significant shift in ship navigation, but traditional skillscontinue to be important – and will remain so after ECDIS itself becomes a ‘tradition’

in watchkeeping, writes Natalie Robson, ECDIS Ltd

Changing traditions for thePlayStation Generation

AA s an ECDIS instructor I am oftenmet on a Monday morning by anew batch of trainees grumbling

about traditional methods being the best.I know ‘change’ is a dirty word at sea so

I wanted to share my opinion as a relative-ly young mariner on these changing times.

As a cadet I did my navigation trainingusing the traditional paper chart.However, once qualified I was forced tomake the transition to digital navigationas the ships I was operating on were fittedwith ECDIS.

I have to admit that at first I hatedECDIS.

In fact, I loathed going up on the bridgeknowing that I would have to deal with theECDIS alarms, but of course that was in myearlier ‘uneducated’ days. I know now thatone has to experience new methods so as tomake an informed judgement, rather thandiscounting a new technology outright.

Once, whilst on passage as a cadet fromSouthampton to Bogen in northernNorway, we lost our GPS signal that fed theIntegrated Bridge System (IBS). At the timewe only had one GPS unit fed into the sys-tems and myself, the second mate and thelookout had to man the alarms...and OMGhow the systems alarmed!

The loss of GPS caused the IBS to alarm,the GMDSS was alarming which causedthe IBS to alarm, the GMDSS repeater wasalarming, which caused the IBS to alarm,the ECDIS was alarming which caused theIBS to alarm.

We then switched the ECDIS into DRmode and diverted into Bergen throughthe fjords whilst managing the alarms.This allowed us to navigate through thefjords on our paper charts looking for thered compass roses under the red lighting!

TraditionTradition is the transmission of customs orbeliefs from generation to generation, orthe fact of being passed on in this way.Our traditional charts (that I so often hearabout when I am teaching ECDIS) haveevolved to be what we use today.

So, would Captain Cook be able to usehis traditional methods of navigation onour traditional charts? I can’t answer thatfor you, but what I can tell you is that in

time ECDIS will become the traditionalmeans of navigating.

In 10, 20, or even as little as 5 years’time given the rate of technologicaladvances, we may be discussing whetheror not we should keep ECDIS as the tradi-tional way of navigating. The regulationshave already changed to force ECDISupon us, but is this really a bad thing?

Ships weren’t traditionally built withGPS, RADAR or AIS, but would we go tosea without them in this day and age?Well no, because we are required to havethem fitted and we have now learnt howto use them in order to aid the execution ofnavigation and collision avoidance.

Imagine being able to have all thatinformation in one place so that you canjust glance at the screen and see the vol-ume of traffic in relation to the land, yourpassage plan and then get back to lookingout of the window.

It is a fact that, when applied properly,the enhancement of spatial awareness pos-sible when using such aids to navigationare immense.

The routine that I adopted on thebridge was always to look out of the win-dow as much as possible, and fix at a fre-quency appropriate to the environment.When fixing on a paper chart, say every15-20 minutes in coastal areas, I wouldalso check the radar and the AIS to ensurethat the ship’s position correlated.

With the advent of ECDIS the fixingroutine is less verbose. In principle, all youhave to do is prove that the position dis-played on ECDIS is correct periodically.This is particularly quick if correlatingRadar Information Overlay (RIO).

My routine stayed the same but fixingcould be as quick as correlating the RIOwith the ECDIS position and noting in thenavigation record book ‘ECDIS correct’.

Of course, when your ECDIS is config-ured correctly the time for looking out ofthe window is vastly increased givingyou spare capacity to conduct collisionavoidance.

Traditionalists always cite the inabilityto look out of the window when usingECDIS, but the opposite is true if used andconfigured correctly. Remember, there isnot a warning on the paper chart to ‘look

out of the damn window’!

The futureUnfortunately, whether we like it or nottechnology is the future. I just about fallinto the category of a technology native,whereas the majority of seafarers still fallinto the category of a technology alien or‘a traditionalist’.

Traditional ways of navigating can stillbe achieved on an ECDIS, it is just know-ing your system’s capabilities and whereto find the tools to achieve it.

ECDIS allows you to insert alarmableno go areas, Limiting Danger Lines (LDL),Parallel Indices (PI) and clearing bearingsinto the system. Some systems even facili-tate the plotting of HSAs and VSAs!

These are in keeping with traditionalmethods of navigation and importantlyallow the watchkeeper to spend more timelooking out the window during the watch.

Traditional skills will still be needed fora long time into the future, yet some flagStates still require vessels to carry up-to-date paper charts for back up, even whenthe entire voyage is conducted in ECDISmode (no need for RCDS mode).

Moreover, when operating in RCDSmode, some flags require the paper chartto be prepared with the route on it, for thechart to be on the chart table and the ship’s

position to be updated regularly in addi-tion to the ECDIS.

Remember, some vessels will still notbe required to have an ECDIS fitted untilafter 2017. So traditional skills are still rel-evant and will continue to be so for sometime to come.

Like I have already said, tradition isevolving and what we class as traditionalmethods now will have thousands ofmariners turning in their graves. ButECDIS is still in its infancy and is evolvingto be what we want and need it to be.

If you don’t like your system then isthat down to the fact that: � The person purchasing it has never

sailed with ECDIS? � Your equipment is made by the lowest

bidder? � Those who are sailing with ECDIS are

only grumbling amongst themselves? � Lack of training and understanding? � All of the above? Manufacturers want to make systems wewant to use but it is a two way process.

Manufacturers need to utilise theknowledge of mariners experienced innavigating with ECDIS at sea to developtheir software. This will allow mariners toget the functions they need, instead ofwhat engineers can provide.

In turn, mariners must provide no BSfeedback to manufacturers about theirsoftware. If this process of evolution canbe made to work, then, coupled withmeaningful training, ECDIS can trulyevolve into the excellent navigation aidthat it has the potential to be. �

…..will be replaced by a new vision of ‘traditional’ for the next generation

What seemed ‘traditional’ in the past…..

About the author�atalie Robson is an instructorat UK-based ECDIS trainingcompany ECDIS Ltd.www.ecdis.org

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Documents

DIGITAL SHIP MAGAZINE (Jan/Feb 2013)