Online Vessel Navigation Interactive Guide

http://www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/vessel_navigation_tool/nav_home.html

You're the skipper, you're responsible !

Every year there are many preventable accidents and incidents which occur on our waterways.
Many of these incidents occur simply because of a lack of understanding of basic marine navigation techniques and water-traffic rules.

This online module has been designed by New South Wales Government (NSW Maritime) with the assistance of Britain's Royal National Lifeboat Institution to reinforce the boating safety knowledge that you already have as a navigator and hopefully prevent future accident from occuring.

Using animation, boaters can choose to view navigation buoys and marks from a variety of angles and views and then adjust the visibility to see these marks in both daylight and at night.

So, let's gain a better understanding of the various colors and configurations of lights by responding to a series of different scenarios in interactive quizzes, manipulating all a variety of vessels including motor boats and sailing boats.

Holiday on ice for former French sailing racers

After an early sporting carrier spent in ocean sailing races, some French famous sailors seem to have fallen in love navigating close to North or South poles of our planet.

• Philippe Poupon ('Philou') winner of two single-handed transatlantic (Ostar and Route du Rhum) races more than twenty years ago has achieved with all his family the Norwest passage on his ketch 'Fleur Australe'.
  Maurice Uguen, who worked with Philou in ham radio communications during 'Fleury Michon' period, routed 'Fleur Australe' during the passage from East to West. Maurice is preparing from his side a project called 'Captain Hatteras' whose aim is to leave Paris in 2011, sail through the Northwest Passage, and reach Korea, to be exhibited at the Yoesu Expo 2012.

• Jean-Louis Etienne, former crew member (with Philou) of Eric Tabarly with Pen Duick VI (1978), who becomed the first man to reach North Pole alone (1986) is now leading a new project called Total Airship, which aims to fly a blimp over the Artic ocean and the North pole, measuring the thickness of the sea ice.
  

• Christophe Auguin, today the only man to have won three times solo races around the world - 2x 'Round Around Alone' BOC Challenge (1991/1995) / 1x Vendee Globe (1997) - is organizing sailing travels around Cap Horn, Patagonia and Antartic

• Isabelle Autissier first woman to complete the BOC Challenge (1991), who recently became President of WWF France, is leading with her boat Ada 2, "Nomansland project", a sailing and mountain climbing expedition in Antartica (also testing Safran's anti-UFO system for the detection of icebergs and growlers beneath the surface of the water).

• Eric Loizeau, another former Eric Tabarly's teammate moved from offshore sailing races to alpinism (climbing Mount Everest in 2003). He is now invested in events organization with his company ELO. He organizes sailing and skiing trips with Bernard Audrezet (his former teamate on 'Roger & Gallet' catamaran) who manages 'Escales Polaires' a fleet of boats navigating in Artic and Spitzberg Sea.
  

• Guy Delage, ex skipper of prao, who crossed the Atlantic drifting/swimming but also in microlight aircraft organizes trips in Patagonia
  

Meanwhile Olivier de Kersauzon (ex recordman of the solo trip around the world and winner of the Jules Verne trophy) has chosen warmer latitudes for navigating and living a part of the year in Moorea island (French Polynesia).

Same preference for Laurent Bourgnon in Bora-Bora on board the Jambo catamaran after crossing Patagonia for a world tour with his family.

"Never give up your dreams."
All know more than anyone what these words mean.

Sat-nav systems under growing threats

Technology that depends on satellite-navigation signals (GPS/Glonass/Compass) is increasingly threatened by :

• attack from widely available equipment : while "jamming" sat-nav equipment with noise signals is on the rise, more sophisticated methods allow hackers even to program what receivers display (see BBC News / Financial Times / NZ Master Mariners articles)
  

• solar activity rising : GPS systems are particularly sensitive to major electric activity in the ionosphere, which interferes with satellite signals. The Northern Lights (or Aurora Borealis) could be messing with GPS satellite navigation systems when the satellite signal passes through the phenomena (see Telegraph article). The Sun is on its way to another solar maximum, which could generate large and unpredictable sat-nav errors (see BBC News other article)
  

Some more reasons to not rely too heavily on an GPS chart plotter which can be inaccurate sometimes (see the recent story occured in Australia : "Fatal yacht crash inquiry blames GPS")

Safety warning for ECDIS with ENC settings

This is an issue that could affect vessels cruising over the world.

Serious navigational dangers could arise from electronic bridge systems including the Electronic Navigation Charts (ENC) and Electronic Chart and Display Information Systems (ECDIS) without adoption of a particular use.

There are particular issues involved with some dangerous shoals encoded in a certain way that may not display on the navigational aids unless the option to display 'ALL SOUNDINGS' has been selected.

There could also be related problems with safety contour and safety depth alarms not working without selection of this setting.

The dangers arising from shoals are particularly pertinent to superyachts, which often venture into shallower water than the commercial fleet.

The UK Hydrographic Organization has issued a Radio Navigation Warning (RNW) repeated in several NAVAREAS ("by no means all") as follows regarding the problem :

NAVAREA I : message#037/10 (151800 UTC FEB 10)

Mariners are advised that ECDIS may not display some isolated shoal depths when operating in "base or standard display" mode.

Route planning and monitoring alarms for these shoal depths may not always be activated. To ensure safe navigation and to confirm that a planned route is clear of such dangers, mariners should visually inspect the planned route and any deviations from it using ECDIS configured to display "all data".

The automated voyage planning check function should not be solely relied upon.

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is leading technical action to resolve this matter. Further information will be made available through Notices to Mariners.

This example of display inconsistency shows that interaction between chart and software inside the ECDIS could lead to unpredictable display on panning and zooming. And as a final result, this difficulty can create for the mariner confusion, frustation and lack of confidence in Electronic Charting.

Link :

• NOAA warns mariners of serious display issue with ECDIS
  

PlanetSolar World Tour 2011

The world's largest solar boat has been unveiled this week at the Knierim Yacht Club in Kiel in Germany. PlanetSolar, a 31m long, 15m wide and 60 ton catamaran has been designed to reach a top speed of around 15 knots, and can hold up to 50 passengers.

Power entirely by up to 500 square metres of photovoltaic solar panels composed by 38,000 photovoltaic cells which have an efficiency of at least 22%.

The boat has been designed for a global circumnavigation planned for 2011.

This extraordinary technological but also human challenge is driven by Swiss skipper Raphaël Domjan and French skipper Gérard d'Aboville, the first person to successfully row across the Atlantic Ocean in 1980.

The project will help to motivate engineers and scientists to develop innovative technologies, inspire people around the world, and show that the impossible can become possible.

Links :

• other electric powered trimaran project : Solar Magister