Navigation News

Orca AI celebrated a milestone as Seaspan Corporation, a global containership powerhouse, integrates its SeaPod digital watchkeeper across its entire fleet to support safety improvements and operational cost savings.As part of its digitalization strategy, Seaspan began using Orca AI's SeaPod digital watchkeeper on select vessels to enhance situational awareness for navigation. An analysis of Seaspan’s fleet performance from 2023−2024 revealed positive results: a 35% increase in the minimum average distance between vessels in open waters and a 37% decrease in close encounters.By using Orca AI…

German navigation specialist Anschütz has developed a navigation and command system for autonomous and unmanned maritime operations. The approval-ready system has undergone extensive testing in autonomous operation and is currently being prepared for use in prototypes, according to the company.The autonomous navigation and command system from Anschütz provides navies with a sustainable capability and safety enhancement for unmanned systems. It ensures autonomous navigation and control and operation of unmanned platforms…

The Pilots' Association of the Bay and River Delaware has welcomed Pennsylvania, the latest pilot boat built by Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding. The Chesapeake Class launch is equipped with a full suite of Furuno marine electronics, installed by Cay Electronics of Rhode Island.At the heart of the navigation system are dual NavNet TZtouch3 TZT9F Multi Function Displays (MFDs). Delivering chart plotting and Radar overlay, these 9” MFDs integrate navigation and communication systems.

It’s late in the season so Captain Duke Snider, sailing on a resupply voyage from New Zealand to Antarctica, is expecting virtually no sea, just glacial ice.Snider has been an ice navigator for decades, and he has seen the ocean change, not just here in the polar south, but in Arctic waters as well.“Variability is much greater than in the past when we could expect an ice breakup to occur within a calendar week, year after year, whether it was the Arctic or the Antarctic,” he says.

An anchor chain failure, followed by a navigation failure, led to the grounding of the cargo vessel Bonnie G in the Caribbean Sea, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has concluded.On October 4, 2023, the Bonnie G was anchored, waiting out poor weather about 1 mile south of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, when its anchor chain parted and the vessel began to drift toward land.As the captain attempted to navigate the vessel away from shore, the vessel grounded.The 12 people on board abandoned the vessel and were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

FLIR announced its next generation of marine thermal monoculars – the FLIR Ocean Scout Pro. Designed for public safety professionals and to provide enhanced situational awareness for professional and recreational mariners, the Ocean Scout Pro is deisgned to be intuitive, easy to use, and available at a price point, making it an accessible and beneficial addition to any mariner’s safety equipment kit.Designed around an advanced 640 x 480 thermal detector, the Ocean Scout Pro's intuitive design provides an extended 500-meter detection range and a 32-degree field of view lens.

Professor Kjetil Nordby, head of Ocean Industries Concept Lab at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, has announced the launch of the latest version of the open source OpenBridge design framework, built to deliver consistent, modern and regulation-compliant user experiences for maritime bridges and other safety-critical applications.‍Ship bridges are made up of systems from many suppliers that deliver individual implementations to each bridge. This leads to fragmented workplaces with a large number of different user interfaces…

International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) member states have adopted the first set of operational standards within the S-100 framework.The S-100 framework enables the integration of diverse datasets within a single Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS). Mariners will now be able to combine various data layers such as Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs), detailed depth information and dynamic information on water level and currents to enhance situational…

Iridium Communications Inc. announced the service launch of Iridium Certus GMDSS, a generational advancement in maritime satellite communication safety services.Iridium Certus GMDSS, the only truly global GMDSS service available, features distress alert, safety voice, and Maritime Safety Information (MSI); includes additional regulated services like Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) and Ship Security Alert System (SSAS), and provides the fastest weather-resilient broadband service available for conducting ships' business when other systems are blocked or unavailable.

HMNZS Manawanui grounded and sunk off the coast of Samoa as a result of human error, an interim Court of Inquiry report shows.The Royal New Zealand Navy ship grounded on a reef on the southern side of Samoa, on October 5, 2024, while conducting survey operations.Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding stood up a Court of Inquiry following the incident. “The direct cause of the grounding has been determined as a series of human errors which meant the ship’s autopilot was not disengaged when it should have been…

Locally supported, high-quality navigation systems for demanding vessels.In accordance with the regulations of the Chinese Classification Society, Anschütz is supplying a comprehensive Integrated Bridge System (IBS) for two newly built heavy-lift crane vessels at Jingjiang Nanyang Shipbuilding Co. Ltd in China.The IBS is equipped with five Synapsis NX multifunctional workstations for Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS), (chart) radar and conning applications, as well as a NautoPilot 5000 NX autopilot, X- and S-band radars and a Standard 22 NX triple-gyro compass system.

Coach Solutions, a leading SaaS provider in the shipping industry, has upgraded its Valid Voyage optimization solution to include live weather conditions and forecasts.The Weather Viewer functionality is available to both crew onboard ship and shoreside managers simultaneously. Data is included in a live map view and can also be accessed as a PDF if the ship is operating in a low bandwidth environment.“We are able to predict the majority of vessel performance parameters with increasing accuracy…

New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) has released an interim report into the grounding of the passenger ferry Aratere in Titoki Bay, Picton, on June 21, 2024, citing lack of knowledge about the steering system.The Aratere had been in service for about 26 years, and in May 2024, KiwiRail installed a new steering control system in four of the five command consoles on the bridge. It wasn’t installed on the autopilot console, which was part of the original track pilot integrated bridge navigation system by a different manufacturer.

ClassNK has issued an Approval in Principle (AiP) for Autonomous Navigation Assistance System ‘SAS’ developed by Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI).Samsung Autonomous Navigation Assistance System (SAS) is partially Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) including the functions of situational awareness through sensor fusion and electronic navigational chart information, collision and grounding risk assessment, collision and grounding avoidance.ClassNK is involved in various demonstration projects and continuously works to develop necessary safety standards…

The International Hydrographic Organization - Singapore Innovation and Technology Laboratory (IHO-Singapore Lab) is conducting trials of next generation IHO S-100 standards and dual format Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) on a prototype S-100 ECDIS [2] aboard the Italian Navy's training ship, Amerigo Vespucci.This is known as the “dual fuel” mode within the international hydrographic community, where S-100 ECDIS supports both current S-57 and new S-101 ENC formats.This trial marks the first time that the dual format mode is used for navigation in the Malacca and Singapore Straits.

New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) has released its report into the collision between the passenger ferry Waitere and the recreational vessel Onepoto in Paihia, Bay of Islands, on April 13, 2023.The Onepoto collided with the passenger ferry Waitere, known locally as the Blue Ferry, while the ferry was on its way from Russel to Paihia.The TAIC report describes catastrophic damage to the Waitere, which later sank. The Waitere's master was seriously injured, but its 19 passengers were largely uninjured.

A partnership between Iceland's TM Insurance and Hefring Marine promises to bring the 'big brother is watching' mantra foward faster in marine operations.Touted as an AI -driven ‘digital assistant’, the primary target for this offering are the helm stations of fast craft, and according to Hefring Marine, IMAS Helm addresses both accident prevention and fuel efficiency, aiming to provide fast craft operators with guidance such as a maximum advised speed, based upon the vessel’s route…

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its preliminary assessment of the grounding of the general cargo vessel Baltic Arrow which ran aground on June 25, 2024 near New Dyke Farm on the River Nene while enroute to Wisbech, England.Baltic Arrow had set sail from Riga, Latvia, carrying a cargo of timber. The day before the grounding, the vessel anchored at the Wisbech anchorage off the east coast of England. At 0540 the following day, Baltic Arrow weighed anchor and proceeded to the pilot station where two pilots boarded at 0700.

Lloyd’s Register (LR) has released a new report indicating that alarms on ships must be rationalized to support crew welfare and avoid the safety risks associated with alarm fatigue.Consequently, LR and a selection of partners have created an industry task force to research industry approaches and assess their suitability for managing alarm systems funded by the Danish Maritime Fund.The report states that digitalization of maritime operations has led to the number of bridge alarms…

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has released its preliminary assessment of the grounding of the bulk carrier Indian Partnership on April 23, 2023, and implicated voyage optimization planning.The UK-registered bulk carrier ran aground at 0409 off the coast of Misool Island while transiting the Indonesian archipelago. The grounding caused significant breaches to the hull, leading to water ingress into the duct keel and five ballast water tanks.Indian Partnership had set sail from Skardon River…

Anschütz launched a new version of its SYNAPSIS NX software for the Integrated Navigation System (INS), Radar NX and ECDIS NX applications. This new software version 05.07 will also be presented at SMM 2024 in Hamburg, Germany next month.With the new SYNAPSIS NX update, Anschütz has aimed to improve the user-friendliness and stability of the software and has created the basis for the bridge systems to comply with current and future standards. In addition to the requirements of the latest display standard IEC 62288 Edition 3…

Fred. Olsen Express, a Canary Island-based ferry company, is installing SEA.AI anti-collision technology on its ships to boost navigational safety at sea. The move is a world first for fast passenger ferries.At present AIS can display and identify maritime traffic superimposed over an electronic chart that in turn indicates fixed features such buoys, beacons and other navigational marks.SEA.AI can alert navigators and officers on the bridge to everything else floating on the water that has not been identified by these other systems.

A bulk carrier came within 200 m of grounding in the Great Barrier Reef after a GPS unit onboard the ship began providing false information to the pilot and crew on board, an ATSB final report details.The near grounding occurred early on the morning of May 4, 2022, when the 225m bulk carrier Rosco Poplar was transiting Hydrographers Passage under the conduct of a coastal pilot.Unknown to the pilot and crew, one of the ship’s three GPS units began outputting incorrect positional data during the early stages of the pilotage…