SAFETY4SEA Focus - Q1 2018

20 SAFETY 4SEA I issue 01 I Q1 2018 safety4sea.com ARTICLE Taking the crucial elements of chart/publications and planning, the following changes have been occurred: ► Charts/Publications As the delivery of charts/ publications is being made through electronic means (e-mail, CD, USB etc), the availability is out of quest-ion. All available ENCs and relevant electronic publications are available on board. Updating them has become also an easy procedure since there is no need for the Navigation Officer to spend all his available time trying to incorpo- rate notices and temporary and preliminary corrections to all charts. The updating is performed quickly through electronic procedure. However, there are still some points that a PSCO may focus on. It is easy also for him/her to find if the used charts have been updated to latest version. Some corrections that have not been provided to vessel, online or through other electronic means may not be included, as local cor- rections and notices are received by other means (VHF, NAVTEX,fax, etc). If paper charts and publica- tions are still in use, they should be fully updated and corrected and relevant procedures to be available also. ► Passage Planning It is easy to plan the voyage on an ECDIS display but PSCO will check details. Safety parameters such as safety contour, safety depth, UKC, safety sector or anti grounding cone are to be checked. PSCO will check the full passage plan on all available means includ- ing ECDIS backup arrangement. This means that if the vessel is equipped with 2 ECDIS (primary and backup) the passage plan should be available on both displays and OOW should be familiar with the changeover procedure from one to the other. If vessel has 1 ECDIS and paper charts, then the passage plan should be fully marked on paper charts also (as if this was the only mean for navigation). The ECDIS alarm status is also a critical item which will be checked in detail as the history (log) of alarms is available even after the voyage. ► Equipment Condition Working status and maintenance procedures need to be checked. ECDIS connections (Radar, AIS, GNSS, NAVTEX) are subject to inspection and relevant informa- tion should be clearly available on display. Additionally, the ECDIS equipment should be included in vessel’s record of equipment, as per instructions provided in IMO MSC. 1/ Circ. 1496. ► OOWs Issues Certification and documentation regarding generic ECDIS and type specific training and familiarization should be available for inspection. PSCO may also require, from all or some OOWs, to show in practice their knowledge on using ECDIS, by asking them questions regard- ing ECDIS parameters, passage planned on display and how to require information from different layers. A good tip for companyies is to have their own competence evaluation procedure and all OOWs to be familiar with in order to be ready for PSCO questions. ► SMS related procedures As per IMO MSC.1/Circ.1503 gui- dance, companies should develop standard operations procedures regarding ECDIS along with the responsibility of ECDIS familiariza- tion as per ISM clause 6. For PSCO satisfaction on issue, documented procedures should be available as part of SMS or a stand-alone ECDIS management manual, in order to address the issue. Many PSC organizations have issued relevant guidance on the above items. The most important is the AMSA Marine Notice 7/2017 which provides through a flow chart a step by step PSC approach on ECDIS inspections onboard and may be used world widely.