The regulations of IMO for e-navigation brought significant changes on the daily operation. Is paperless navigation more efficient and cost effective from the traditional paper charts?
Undoubtedly. Navigation charts can now be available onboard in a few minutes following a route plotting in the voyage planner program and online ordering of suggested charts. No more dispatching of paper charts to remote areas or paying for transportation and customs clearance costs or, in case of late voyage orders, not having the required navigation charts at all.
Charts and publications are now automatically and easily corrected resulting in less workload for deck officers.
Continuous real time navigation without any user intervention is possible and the setting of grounding and collision alarms enhances safety. According to a Formal Safety Assessment study conducted by DNV, e-Navigation has a risk reducing effect on grounding and collision related risks of around 36 per cent.
ECDIS is the only equipment on the bridge that has an overall view of all navigational sensors and that can supplement navigating officer's situational awareness.
With the implementation of ECDIS, direct & indirect costs are clearly known to decrease.
What was the key element to select SRH Marine as provider for the Digital Services?
SRH Marine has traditionally been a leader in the Greek market in the sector of marine navigation and communication equipment. SRH has established a series of strategic partnerships with well-known manufacturers and providers, thus offering a global sales, service, technical support and training network. This one stop solution for the shipping companies combined with attractive pricing, high technical expertise and 24/7 support constitute a package offer that is hard to resist. Furthermore, the introduction of innovative and reliable solutions that have a competitive advantage in the Digital Services area facilitated the selection .
Could you please describe the competitive advantage of DELTA Fleet solution? What do you describe as a unique point vs other solutions?
Delta Fleet is a solution that offers automatic update of charts and publications, safe and quick route planning and enhanced security that satisfies security rules through high speed connectivity on a dedicated channel. The operation and bandwidth of the main Fleet broadband channel is not affected during Delta Fleet communication. The unique point of the Delta Fleet solution is this exact dedicated network channel through Inmarsat (CAP) which secures the seamless data exchange between SRH’s ENC server and the onboard systems in an Airtime Traffic inclusive subscription.
Having onboard your vessels the entire solution of Digital Services from SRH Marine, how these have been enhanced and assisted your crew on the daily navigation tasks?
The feedback we get from the crew is very positive and supportive of our decision to install the digital services from SRH . They believe that the system is easy to use and by having automatic updates and corrections of ENCs and nautical publications a tedious task is removed from their daily routine.
Crew can now devote more time to navigational safety and operational monitoring. Passage planning is quicker with more transparency of voyages.
Navigators also receive timely information on the latest regulations for the territorial waters their vessels are sailing in, i.e. MARPOL and environmental requirements.
DELTA Fleet incorporate a dedicated network channel through Inmarsat (CAP) L-Band Has this affected your communication cost?
No. The data traffic for the updates of ENCs and all digital publications is exchanged through the dedicated (CAP) Inmarsat channel and the relevant cost is included in the Delta Fleet annual flat fee Subscription. Therefore, communication costs are kept under control and can be better budgeted without any surprises.
ECDIS is a critical navigation equipment. How does DELTA Fleet secure and protect ECDIS equipment and your data?
The data channel that is used by the Delta Fleet system is a dedicated channel peer to peer (M2M) between shore server and onboard system and is separated from the primary business and crew data channel. In addition, both ECDIS are connected via USB protocol instead of LAN with the SRH Plug.
With these two features , firstly the data are protected in an Inmarsat certified data channel and secondly the ECDIS units are not visible to the outside world to risk any unauthorised access.
Will you suggest DELTA Fleet as a unique solution in the market?
Definitely . The Delta Fleet platform provides automated real time ECDIS chart, digital publications and NTM updates and corrections. It reduces the workload of the bridge officers and of the people ashore and is a cost-efficient solution for paperless navigation that satisfies all security rules.
As published in DIGITAL SHIP: https://thedigitalship.com/news/item/6282-q-a-with-shipowner-andreas-vamvakaris
