Cruise & Ferry Review - Spring/Summer 2021

1 1 7 to become a truly safe, efficient and environmentally compliant industry. An example is Wärtsilä’s Nacos Platinum system, which facilitates centralised control of navigation and propulsion systems. The system allows for a number of multi-pilots to be located at the conning position, pilot’s position and bridge wings, which ensures a flawless transfer of control throughout the manoeuvre. As we have no glide slope or air traffic control assistance, the use of a predictor – which shows the ship’s predicted path – has been a great advancement in safely piloting a ship through tight turns and manoeuvring to dock the vessel. These predictors consider inputs from controllable forces, such as speed and rate of turn, and uncontrollable forces like wind and current. Wärtsilä has developed a second version of its system, which now addresses more of these controllable and uncontrollable forces, allowing for a more accurate predictor. As the world becomes more environmentally aware, cruise ships must comply with a multitude of regulations. To ensure compliance, accurate navigation is essential, along with clearly defined baselines, sensitive areas and approved discharge areas. Mistakes can result in heavy penalties, so real-time information, which can assist passage planning and monitoring, is vital. All these innovations are aimed at making navigating and manoeuvring these large ships as safe, efficient and environmentally compliant as possible. They are useful, but we should never forget the adage: “embrace the future, but never forget the past”. Traditional seamanship and navigation skills are paramount and must be used alongside – and sometimes even to override – electronic systems. CFR Captain Nick Nash was president of The Nautical Institute from 2018 to 2020 SmartPredict: Wärtsilä SmartPredict uses all of the parameters of automated control, including the vessel’s current heading and position, velocity, rate of turn, manual commands from the coordinated control joystick, and onboard wind sensors. These factors are continually evaluated to provide a constant update of the vessel path. This allows the operator to see into the future, providing a basis for making smarter and safer decisions about ship handling. MTCAS advanced assistance system: Raytheon Anschutz An important innovation for autonomous ship projects is the Maritime Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance advanced assistance system from Raytheon Anschutz. The system analyses targets, positions and routes in order to improve situation awareness and support decision-making in critical traffic situations. PassageManager: OneOcean PassageManager assists in safer navigation passage planning and considers the environmental discharge zones of individual countries. The passage planning solution from OneOcean works in real time, considering changes in weather, environmental limits or warnings associated with maritime geographic areas, which provides smarter situational awareness to mitigate risk. Photo: James Ramos Modern navigation equipment ensures ships like Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess can safely visit natural spectacles such as the Margerie Glacier in Alaska