Martek says that Navgard is the only system available which has type-approval from all major classification societies.

The company notes that this can be important for fleets using different classification societies because getting additional certification for unapproved BNWAS can prove onerous and expensive.

Lyall Smith, Tidewater’s regional technical manager, said: “I chose Navgard for our African fleet of offshore support vessels because the system had no hidden costs – our own engineers fitted them, the installation did not disrupt our operations at all, it already had type approval under ABS and all our flag states, including USCG and Martek were able to obtain blanket plan approval quickly and at very little cost.”

Martek says that Navgard is designed to be easily installed. Screwed connections avoid the need for soldering and a bridge motion sensor is built into the device’s control panel.

The company says that, while many systems require separate interface modules to be wired to the panel using different wire types, Navgard’s alarms and resets are wired directly to the control panel using a single wire type.

Martek explains that it started the installation project for Tidewater by training the fleet’s engineers while the first few vessels were in dry dock in Las Palmas. It then supplied the equipment for the engineers to continue the installation.

Navgard uses real-time data logging, providing operational evidence in the event of an incident, and requires a master password to be disabled. The system also notes when it is switched on and off so that checks can be made to ensure it is being used continuously.