Fairway 30 - Royal Institute of Navigation

Nuclear reactors from at least 18 nuclear submarines and icebreakers were also dumped
in the Barents sea.
The availability and condition of ports in the Arctic must also be considered as the
shipping activity in the Arctic increases. Presently there are only 13 sizeable ports in the
arctic circle which is not many considering that the Arctic is 5 times the size of the
Mediterranean and the vast number of support vessels that will be needed for the
economic exploitation that is surely coming. The majority of these ports are in need of
repair and upgrading. There are no facilities for dealing with oil spills and the fleet of ice
breaker are ageing.
Finally the navigational and hydrographical services are very poor. Charts are sparse and
limited in their accuracy.
Taking all the factors into account the exploitation of the Arctic will be no easy task and
will require extraordinary new capabilities in all the marine fields of navigation,
seamanship, ship and port design and above all else, training for those who are to
venture there.
But we have the technology, the ice is melting and the ships are going. The vast
storehouse of mineral wealth of the Arctic, which is estimated conservatively at 2 trillion
dollars, is waiting to be shared by those who are ready to provide the knowledge, ships
and the men. Other nations are already starting to prepare. We must hope that our own
Marine industry realises the potential.
Small Craft Group Annual General Meeting
The Chairman, Cynthia Robinson, opened the meeting, held at the Royal Thames Yacht
Club by welcoming the members present. Apologies for absence were taken and the
minutes of the previous meeting were discussed. At this stage the Secretary, Peter Eddis,
acknowledged a mistake in which page two of the minutes had been omitted from the
copies distributed to the meeting. Page two was read out from his own copy and the
Minutes were agreed. Cynthia then expressed her grateful thanks to two members of the
Committee, Bob Harrison-Page and Robin Payne, who were standing down following
years of valuable service.
Next came the election of the new Committee. The members of it are:
Cynthia Robinson, Chairman. Peter Eddis, Secretary.
Paul Bryans. Carl Calvert. Peter Chapman-Andrews (ex officio).
Roger Grimsdick Keith Langridge. John Hasselgren, (Editor, Fairway).
Simon Jinks.
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