The West of England P&I club- Loss Prevention Bulletin
The West of England P&I Club issues Loss Prevention Bulletin regarding The use of ECDIS Alarms as follows:
Although many vessels have been fitted with Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) on a voluntary basis, the use of such equipment will increase significantly once passenger vessels, tankers and dry cargo ships begin to comply with mandatory SOLAS requirements for ECDIS which are due to be phased in as from 1 July 2012. ECDIS equipped vessels have been involved in a number of groundings which may have been avoided had it not been for failures in the set-up and use of ECDIS alarm systems.
IMO performance standards require the equipment to include a function whereby the user can select a safety contour from the depth contours available on the Electronic Navigation Chart (ENC). ECDIS should permanent-ly display this contour, empha-sised by a thicker line and a prominent change in colour for the depths on either side. If no safety contour is selected, the depth should default to 30m in keeping with International Hydrographic Office (IHO) recommendations.
The performance standards also require ECDIS to sound an audible alarm, which may be combined with a visual alarm, before a safety contour is crossed. The time interval between the alarm sounding and crossing the contour is set by the user.
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Source: The West of England P&I Club
