A need for clarity with ECDIS
ECDIS tend to eventually become a mandatory carriage requirement 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 ...
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