SSG No 4 - Shipgaz

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IT & COMMUNICATIONS original engineering trials of the Norcontrol IT AIS equipment was run on the Dover Straits. The next technology The next big technology, believes Guest, will focus on Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT). “The way we see it going, we are pretty much bound at the moment by coastal VHF ranges. The next technology that is going to impact us will be LRIT, which is being driven by the EU’s Maritime Navigation Information Services (MarNIS) project. A far wider range of data will be acquired by an expanded range of censors”, says Guest. Vessel Management Systems will be taking feeds from satellites, underwater censor suites, over the horizon HF radar, electrooptic sensors, cameras, thermal imagery and laser designators. People will need to look at what the threat is and what they are out to achieve. For some waters clearly they will need a different censor suite. The game however will always be to pull all that information together and making it available on this Purchasing Asset Management Maintenance & Stock Control Personnel Management Quality & Safety Management E-mail & Communications Consultancy & Training Maritime Navigation Information Services highway. Langdon Battery operates with 30 people in the operations room, divided into four watches. Each works a 12 hours shift with an hour and a half for meal breaks. The operations room has 11 different screens and processors, each of which is multifunctional. In the event that more than one or two of the workstations ceased to function, the training machines above the operations room could be brought into use and switched into the main system. These machines can take the same real time datafeeds as the operational stations below, but normally instructors working from an adjacent soundproof room can put in test scenarios from their own workstations to challenge the students. At the moment on any standard day, the screens, even on close ranges, can seem cluttered with radar plot and data from Class A transponders. When regulations requiring yachts and other pleasure craft to fit Class B transponders are finally introduced, the screens are set to become even busier. Nevertheless watch officers will be SpecTec AB Tillgängligheten 1 SE-417 01 Göteborg Sweden able to filter out all the data that they do not currently need. Last year 59,919 vessels with a total deadweight of 1.48 billion tonnes moved down the British monitored Channel lane. When yachts and other pleasure boats are finally added to the mix, the clutter is likely to be extraordinary and test the Norcontrol IT systems. “I think MCA regard the arrival of the class B transponders with something approaching dread”, said the London consultant. “That’s not because they will have so much more information to handle – I cannot see that itself being a problem with their VTMIS set up at CNIS, but because they may end up with the job of actually regulating sub-300 tonnes craft movements, which is not what they see themselves as being about.” The crackpots Dover CNIS already has one regular headache to cope with every year – people who choose to swim, pedalo, canoe, water ski or paddle themselves across the Channel in bath tubs. There are 150 swimmers each year and between 20 and 30 people SpecTec – your global IT Partner Congratulations Tarbit to M/T Bit Okland, equipped with AMOS! Tel. +46(0)31 65 53 00 Fax. +46(0)31 65 53 05 info@spectec.se www.spectec.net 26 SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • FEBRUARY 23, 2007
who choose to make unorthodox crossings. Mike Toogood confesses frankly: “The presence of these people in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world is a nightmare. We have frequently had vessels go around swimmers, even though the onus is on the swimmer to stop and wait with his or her support boat.” Toogood notes that the French do not experience the problem to the same extent, since it is illegal for anyone to set off to swim the Channel from France. Even the two-width swimmers (double-headers) who immediately turn around to swim back to England are not allowed to let their feet touch a French beach, on pain of arrest. “It would not be so bad if they wore AIS transponders on the swimming caps”, comments a ferry captain, “preferably very heavy ones that made it difficult for them to stay afloat.” When the MCA decided to update the automatic data processing system that has been running since 1983, the French Coast Guard were invited to take part in the formulation of the specifications and the actual building and purchase of the installation. Unfortunately, explains Toogood, in Star Project Management software for docking, repair & conversion Generate Docking specification Compare Quotes from yards Manage Agreements and contracts Organize Change orders Control Progress and cost Settlement The yard bill Update Maintenance history 2002, at the time that the UK decided to press ahead with its VTMIS upgrade at Dover, the French were unable to join in because they did not have the budget. They have since got finance, both for new traffic management equipment and also for the expansion of their still limited AIS monitoring. The contract was however let to Sofrelog, now part of EADS, senior partner in the currently troubled Airbus consortium. The new VTMIS systems have not yet come live. There is currently no specified link between the British and French VTMIS. No agreed protocol At the moment there is a Norcontrol IT workstation installed at Cap Gris Nez, so that French watch officers can see what their British colleagues are looking at. But there is no exchange of data, which runs automatically into either system. (The two Coast Guards once exchanged ship reports by fax but now do so by email.) A microwave communications link now points from Langdon Battery to Griz Nez, but it is used at present mostly for phone calls and updating the MCA workstation IT & COMMUNICATIONS in France. Norcontrol IT’s Steve Guest does not however see that once the French VTMIS system is up and running, there will be any problem setting up an automated exchange of data that can then be displayed as desired on French and British Coast Guard screens. “It is merely a case of agreeing protocols, which is no big deal”, says Guest. If exchanging data has yet to be established, the exchange of experience has long been under way. British and French Coast Guards spend up to a week at a time working with their colleagues on the other side of the Channel. It is, said Toogood, an important and beneficial exercise in maintaining professional relations and operational understanding. There was however, he confessed, one problem about which the Langdon Battery staff always felt guilty: “At Cap Griz Nez, the French have their own chef and mess and the food is excellent. We have no such facilities here. Unfortunately the best we can do to feed our French guests is to send down into Dover for some sandwiches.” nigel ash This could be you… Smiling after completing dry-docking with Star Project Who: Robin Dravid What: Superintendent Assignment: Dry-docking dwt 380 569 VLCC Duties: Full project management responsibility,, Star Project management software reduced my workload tremendously, providing me with reliable dry-dock plans, accurate specifications and streamlined communication with all suppliers. Star Project is an important tool for technical superintendents and engineers. It kept control of costs and analysis of actual progress, enabling me to complete this project on time and according to budget. www.sismarine.com SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • FEBRUARY 23, 2007 27
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SSG No 4 - Shipgaz

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