Tag: Paul Hailwood

The Admiralty team has recently returned from Asia where our ECDIS experts presented the ‘Are you ready for the new ECDIS regulations?’ workshops.

Captain Paul Hailwood spoke to 85 delegates in Taipei who seemed well informed of the mandatory carriage of ECDIS and its requirements. However, feedback from the workshops suggested that Taiwanese shipping companies are still in the early stages of their transition to digital navigation, in comparison to their European counterparts. Many attendees were particularly interested in hearing about the cost effectiveness of implementing ECDIS on board; a key concern for the region’s maritime industry.

It’s been an eventful voyage through the nine stages towards ECDIS compliance. But having navigated using the waypoints provided by Admiralty, the passage should have been smooth, if not without some challenges along the way.

As the journey has progressed, Admiralty has supported the process with a programme of workshops around the world, bringing the nine stages to life and helping shipowners, managers, superintendents and navigators understand what the changes will mean for them and how they can prepare.

We’re nearing the end of our series looking at each of the 9 stages in Admiralty’s guide for getting ready for the new ECDIS regulations

The eighth stage of ECDIS transition is the transition itself, when all the training, procedures, installation and approvals come together onboard ship. From here, there is no turning back but our ECDIS expert Paul Hailwood says the process to date should mean that the company and the ships are prepared for the changeover.

Next in our series of posts looking at the 9 stages of preparation for ECDIS (from Admiralty’s ECDIS guide) is stage 7: individual risk assessment.

The individual risk assessment is the point when the focus turns to specific ships in an owner’s fleet and the ECDIS outfit is given its first real-life test.

Next in our series of posts looking at the 9 stages of preparation for ECDIS (from Admiralty’s ECDIS guide) we turn to Chart Supply and the importance of having a simple and reliable solution for managing and maintaining ENCs.

Moving from paper charts to digital navigation is not just a process of swapping one source of content for another. Certainly, owners and operators need to understand the necessity of sailing on official ENCs to be ECDIS-compliant, but the digital transition means ensuring that chart management is adapted to reflect the new environment.

Admiralty recently held ‘Are you ready for the ECDIS regulations?’ workshops at two private events in India (in partnership with C&C Marine Combine) and at the Sea Japan exhibition in Tokyo. Around 150 people attended the workshops to hear Captain Paul Hailwood and experienced mariner Joe Collins present Admiralty’s 9 stage guide to digital navigation.

Feedback from the sessions was that the guide helped attendees feel more confident about the challenges of installing and operating ECDIS. Some audience members were well advanced in the process, but many were still at planning stage.

Everyone in the maritime industry understands the importance of training and training for ECDIS is perhaps the biggest issue surrounding the digital transition.

It’s not for want of discussion – training has rarely been off the agenda over the last few years – and feedback from Admiralty seminars and anecdotal evidence suggests that training remains one of the biggest obstacles to a smooth implementation.

A ship owner planning to install ECDIS from scratch has a mountain to climb. But as we are finding out through Admiralty’s digital integration workshops and the nine steps programme, knowing where to start need not be a mystery.

Once a company has established flag state requirements the first internal process should be to conduct an initial risk assessment – a process that shipping companies understand and are probably already using.