The future of UK Deep Sea Pilotage
Op-Ed by Captain Antony Tibbott, deep sea pilot for Deep Sea and Coastal Pilots, UK
Ships of increasing size equipped with electronic charts and manned by relatively inexperienced officers present a continuing challenge to the safety of shipping and the marine environment. Add the increasing development of offshore wind farms and other obstructions in or near port approaches and you have a heightened potential for a marine casualty. Trinity House licensed Deep Sea Pilots with their considerable experience and local knowledge will remain an essential factor in reducing risk.
During the transition period to adoption of ECDIS and mandatory carriage requirements for existing cargo vessels greater than 10,000 gross registered tonnage by 2018 the Deep Sea Pilot, in the course of his work, will be faced with several configurations of ECDIS systems and paper charts from paperless to both paper charts and an ECDIS in which the latter is for “Training Purposes.”
The roll out of ECDIS has begun in earnest and Deep Sea Pilots are already finding themselves on larger and larger ships without the familiar and perhaps reassuring paper charts. The master and officers of these vessels have undergone the mandatory generic and type specific training for the ECDIS in their vessels and Deep Sea Pilots are required under certification requirements to complete a generic course in the use of ECDIS prior to renewing their master’s licence.
As for type specific training a Deep Sea Pilot usually has time to get to grips with an unfamiliar ECDIS and a manual is always to hand for some light reading during his stay aboard should he feel the need. Many pilots are now using their own approved Admiralty Electronic Raster charts with the added advantage of having a copy of a traditional chart displayed with traditional symbols.
The main advantage of ECDIS is for all to see with real time position superimposed on an electronic chart. However, despite the considerable benefits of ECDIS in trained hands caution continues to be the key word. Today’s officers are computer literate and are able to navigate the ECDIS with great dexterity and with complete and worryingly unfailing confidence in what their display is telling them.
Many of these officers have been fast tracked and may be in charge of a navigational watch in a large vessel after only twelve months’ sea time. This puts an extra workload on the Master already struggling to maintain rest hours as per STCW requirements.
With this, the work of a Deep Sea Pilot remains varied and challenging and will be more so in the future with the advent of larger ships, especially container ships with deeper drafts. Well established routes may have to be revised to ensure adequate underkeel clearance at all times.
The North Sea Region remains in a state of flux with wind farm developments, rig movements and attendant traffic. The use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) which records AIS tracking of ships over an extended period highlights areas of high traffic density and data will now be used in the future planning of wind farms allowing for safer corridors through these areas.
Additionally, the navigator’s seascape is changing with the advent of ECDIS, AIS (synthetic, virtual), e-Loran, and the all embracing concept of e-Navigation. Nevertheless the need to fix (or to be able to in the event of GPS failure with ECDIS) a vessel’s position by all available means remains as valid as ever.
Navigation must not become an exercise in “blind pilotage.” We still have bridge windows (the real VDUs) and will continue to need real lighthouses, light vessels and lighted buoys for spatial awareness. The balance has to be struck between the immense benefits of the electronic (and increasingly virtual) world and the need for reality.
Five hundred years on Trinity House remains committed as ever to striking the right balance and Trinity House Licensed Deep Sea Pilots continue to be a part of that commitment to safe navigation in our waters.