A need for clarity with ECDIS

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Sep 2011

Everyone is getting concerned about ECDIS – the Electronic Chart Display and Information System that will eventually become a mandatory carriage requirement for all merchant ships. Two P&I clubs – the Standard and the UK P&I Club – have issued comprehensive

warnings to owners and managers about these important upcoming changes. The inference is that this represents a major change in navigation that needs action to deal with if ships are not to be detained, or worse still, the “ECDIS assisted accident” is not to become a grim feature of inquiries into incidents.
So why is the coming of ECDIS such a big deal? Why is it so very different to all the other advances in equipment that have miraculously appeared on the bridges of ships over the past 40 years or so? ECDIS is different because the leap forward in navigation is rather larger than anything that has come before – like the arrival of radar or automated collision warning equipment, AIS or suchlike. And most importantly, it will require mandatory training before a watchkeeper is able to operate the equipment that is fitted to the ship to which he or she is appointed.
This issue of training is something that has the potential to make this useful new electronic assistant to safe navigation into something of a nightmare. As Karl Lumbers of the UK Club notes “it will in many cases restrict the flexibility owners/managers currently enjoy to switch officers between the different ships in their fleets.....” So not only are ships’ officers going to be required to undergo the “generic” training that will expose them to the theory and practice of navigation with this new equipment, they will have to be trained in use of the specific type of equipment with which their ship is fitted.
And this, of course, is more complicated than it might first appear. Flag states are still in a certain amount of disarray as to whether the “type-specific” training can be given on the ship itself or whether it must form part of a shore-based course, perhaps immediately following the generic training. Some flag states clearly incline to the former, suggesting that the manufacturers, or specially appointed “trainers” can provide the necessary training. Others, including the UK, Marshall Islands, Australia and Bermuda, are quite insistent that the training must be undertaken as part of a course rather than as a familiarisation exercise. As the Standard Club makes clear “The legislative requirements for ECDIS training are daunting. The sheer numbers and scale of the training required is going to test many companies’ ability to complete the training in time and interpret the varying flag states’ requirements.”
The owner/manager’s dilemma is increased by this indecision (think of those owners/managers which use a number of flags), but also by the sheer number of different systems which are still being produced by manufacturers intent on securing a sizeable market share of this new and important development. As with every piece of equipment aboard a ship, each manufacturer claims that his system, software and controls are the best and will not countenance any element of standardisation that might make it easier when moving from one type of equipment to another.
There is a lot of confusion about this major change, at a time when there ought to be clarity. The Standard Club suggests that the practice of having an ECDIS aboard ship which it is claimed is not the “primary” means of navigation, and thus obviating the need for training is “short-sighted”. It is a major change, to “convert” those officers who have grown up as competent “paper” navigators into the all-electronic world. There is a lot at stake.
Source: BIMCO