ECDIS can integrated into bridge procedures for safer and more efficient navigation
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office held a free workshop on the subject of ‘implementing your ECDIS procedures’ at the IMO Headquarters during the London International Shipping Week
The workshop was led by Captain Paul Hailwood, an internationally respected expert in ECDIS and bridge procedures, and delivered to a packed audience of shipowners, training providers, chart agents and other maritime organisation representatives.
The topics covered included how best to ensure compliance with international rules and regulations governing the implementation of ECDIS and how ECDIS can most effectively be embedded within the bridge team and integrated into bridge policies and procedures in order to deliver safer and more efficient navigation.
Captain Hailwood also stressed the importance of understanding ECDIS to not only shipowners, operators and serving bridge officers, but also to the providers of professional services to the shipping industry that are so well represented in London as a global maritime hub, including maritime lawyers, insurers, brokers, investors, surveyors and others.
Speaking after the workshop, Captain Hailwood said:
“The aim of this workshop was not just to answer the questions that delegates brought with them, but also to give them the answers to the questions that they didn’t know they needed to ask about ECDIS. In my experience, the challenges typically come from an under-reliance on ECDIS, rather than an over-reliance. Our goal is to explain the merits of the risk-assessment approach to implementing ECDIS and to give delegates the guidance that they need in order to properly embed ECDIS within their bridge procedures, so that they can maximise the value of ECDIS as tool to enhance situational awareness and deliver improved navigational safety.”
Source: LISW