Date: December 19, 2011 Tags: Admiralty, ECDIS, ENCs, Marintec, Shanghai, training

The Admiralty team recently returned from Shanghai, where the shipping community gathered for the largest ever Marintec exhibition. We took our ‘Are you ready for the ECDIS regulations?’ workshop to the show, running sessions simultaneously in English and Mandarin over three days.

Initially we had planned three sessions, but due to popular demand we added an extra one to the schedule. Over the course of the show around 100 maritime professionals attended the workshop; most attendees were ship managers keen to get more information about how to introduce digital navigation into the ships they manage.

Some of the questions that arose during the interactive sessions are included below with answers provided by Master Mariner and ECDIS consultant Capt. Paul Hailwood, who worked with us to develop the workshop.

Q. ‘What problems are liable to arise if the organisation I intend using for ECDIS generic training has not be approved by the flag State?’

A. The generic training may not be approved by the flag state but could be accepted if it is approved by another flag state. This should be confirmed by contacting the flag state of your ships. If not approved or accepted, the certificate is not valid and the officer is not qualified to keep a watch with ECDIS. This could be considered a breach of the carriage requirements for nautical publications under SOLAS.

Q. ‘Is ECDIS type- specific training the same as ECDIS familiarisation?’

A. Type specific training will cover all aspects of the particular type of ECDIS. This should be approved by the manufacturer and may take 2 days to complete. Familiarisation training is ship specific and identifies the key elements of the ECDIS on that particular ship which the officer needs to be familiar with. This can be conducted by another officer in accordance with ISM procedures.

‘Why must you also use paper charts when operating ECDIS in Raster Chart Display System (RCDS) mode?’

A. The requirement is to use an appropriate folio of paper charts when operating in RCDS mode. The reason given for this is the reduced functionality of the raster chart compared with the vector chart such as alarms and safety contours.

Attendance and feedback at the workshop highlighted the high demand for information about ECDIS and ENCs. Throughout 2012 Admiralty will be working to support the industry as it prepares to integrate digital technology into navigation procedures – we are running further sessions of the workshop in Singapore in March and Tokyo in April, and our experts are happy to receive questions on email at any time: ask.admiralty@ukho.gov.uk

You can watch a highlights video of our attendance at the show here, featuring comment from Bogerd Martin and Sweethigh Navigation Technology.

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