P&O Nedlloyd in ECDIS debate http://www.ponl.com Shipping line P&O Nedlloyd is currently debating whether or not to install official electronic chart display systems (ECDIS) on all of its fleet, commented fleet marine manager Stephen Bligh at the recent Communications and IT in Shipping (CITIS) conference in London. "The problem is not the equipment, it's the petty debate which is stopping it being used effectively," he said. "We are not going to get full coverage of ENCS (electronic navigation charts) in my lifetime. We're going to have to carry paper charts." "This equipment is there, we can use it, there are ENCS but because of the problems, we aren't able to use it," he said. "Why should we continue to fit this equipment if we have to carry on with paper charts?" One shipping company, Carousel Marine, was using the Navmaster (PC Maritime) electronic chart system; the company decided to remove it from ships because as a non-standardised piece of equipment it would cause more problems than it solved, despite being very popular with the seafarers. CHRIS BOOKER AS shipmanagers we'ree looking to not spend money and comply with the regulations Unfortuantely a significant industry has built up where safety is seen as a tool to generate sales. You have to take with a pinch of salt this "approved by GL" or whatever. The classification societies didn't reaslie they were recommending any of these products. Teeting this kit takes a hell of a lot longer than you realise Our masters were pleaed to demonstrate their technical skills and they split in to 2 groups, those who were semi-techies and those who wqere scrared. Some ended up with fat finger, others were too scared to touch the ke4yboat. I strongly recommend that you spend quite a lot of money on training. We didn't tell them what the price was beceasue we wanted clear abopinion about what they thought was the bost produt. Fortunately, they blindly chose one of the least expensive products, Navmaster. It was excellent, advice, backup and troubleshooting over the phone You really need good backup, you can't do that from the office Having ship masters made the choice put me in a luxury position. Involving the masteres motivated them It was a tremendous advantage to have their input It was great for the manufacturers. Some wanted to flog a produt with no backup/ If you tell the industry your interested in buying lots of kit you'll be flooded with offers for demos The sales man makes it easy, but athe minute he walks around the door, it's a dfiffernet story. Supplies lacked appreciationg of what ...... FROM TEKXT 90 per cent of what seafares had to say was contstuctive, useful information. ECDIS is cast in stong, they're not going to change it becauee that's not welcome. An electronic chart system: you can amend it as you go along I prersoanlly see no reason to buy ECDIS, The minute its called ECDIS they put a zero on the end. Why do you need the ? of an ECDIS system if you still hve to use paper charts? Think carefully about what you want We bought the software, supplied the hardware and supplied the fitting The software was economic, the hardware was cheap. I don't think the price of a marinised computer system would be justified because it gets out of date so quickly The hardware installation was not cheap We failed to survey each ship properly and find problems with compatibility of outlets We could not rely on uniformity of product You should survey what you're going to do and need to fit all this equipment Try and het the same guy to fit all your ships, there aren't too many people who've fitted this stuff Do a big budget in for training Shipmasters aren't able to use instructions books and help screens, they expect it to work stragith waway. I strongly recommond that you bite the bullet and pay for training We have got a trainer onboard 24 h, then tried to transfer the knowledge from one to another. Get all your hardware together in one place and be organised We had a scale model of the ship shown on the chart This gave us many of the advatantages of stern radars You can have monitors anywhere you like How can you build a ship for 25 years life ahead of it and not put this on. Think what nationality on the telephone will be talking to your crew you can do it cheap and cheerfully I would recommend this You end up with a customised system at an attractive final cost.