UK Safety of Navigation Report: Graham Langley

November 25th, 2015 by JCB
Posted in Articles, Technical and Training | No Comments »

I represented the Association by attending the UKSON meeting on the 4 February 2015 at the MCA offices in Southampton. As the name suggests the purpose of the group is to bring together those from different areas of the UK maritime industry. At the meeting were delegates from the MCA, Chamber of Shipping, Trinity House (General Lighthouse Authority), ports bodies and others with a maritime interest.

The meeting was informative, with a number of new items of interest to our members. It was announced that MCA, in conjunction with the Meteorological office, are to run a joint space weather exercise to investigate the disturbance of objects in space on the reception of global navigation systems. Other short reports included a report on the number of complaints to UKSON about poor bridge team management, the issue of safe manning which MCA are to investigate further, and the possible revival of the Port Communities working group.

There was a lively discussion about IMO circular 2013 regarding AIS activated search and rescue transponders on lifejackets. The signal works on line of sight, so the range would be dependent on the height of antenna; it is anticipated that the range would be at best two nautical miles. The AIS unit on lifejackets would have to be armed to be activated. The MCA has been requested to publish an M Notice about this.

A report on the Port Marine Safety Code, given by David Turner, proposed that the MCA visit eight ports every year to conduct ‘health checks’. He continued that the visits have been successful, helping ports to comply with the code in a number of areas, such as defining ‘Duty Holders’, staff roles and responsibilities including those of Harbour Masters and risk assessments from post incident reports. A guide to good practice is to be issued shortly on the examination of PECs and the renewal process. VTS training for operators is under review, especially regarding those operators who are from a non-seafaring background.

Looking at coastal issues there was discussion on wind turbines, giving facts and figures for present and future development around the British Isles. This included proposals for ‘First Flight’ Northern Ireland and ‘Galloper Extension’, both withdrawn due to lack of finance. Also mentioned were proposed wave and tidal power sites and whether crossing of electrical cables may affect magnetism on vessels. An interesting discussion followed on phasing out the Annual Notices to Mariners, listing all TSS schemes. It was noted that all necessary information already exists in Mariners Handbook, Sailing Directions and charts and therefore may no longer be needed.

The meeting was informed that for some time now there have been reports about the incessant habit of vessels ‘following the red line’ at sea. Those with experience said that the red line mentality was partly due to Masters being instructed by their owners not to deviate from the red line and how an alarm is activated at the company’s headquarters when the vessel deviates a few cables from the line. This directive followed from the Costa Concordia incident. Very close quarters situations, especially when overtaking, endanger navigation. Different ideas arose in the discussion, including how hard it would be to accomplish enforcement. But the problem would not go away: micro management from head office is on the increase. Some solutions suggested were to write an article for the Nautical Institute’s journal or the Telegraph that Coast Stations report on vessels using bad practice, and the use of CHIRP reports. Unfortunately, there were no MAIB officers present at the meeting, which was unusual, but the delegates were asked for input. I mentioned that our Association was not happy with the report on the Key Bora, but we had aired our feelings at our conference in Chester. Chris Hallam of Strategic Marine Services brought up the concerns of numerous accidents on small vessels servicing wind farms.

There were also concerns if, considering the level of operations, the required RYA certification is of an acceptable standard.

James Fanshawe CBE, chair of MASRWG (an ex-RN Commander), gave a long presentation about the development and future regulations regarding Marine Autonomous Systems. The aims of MASRWG are to formulate a regulatory framework to be adopted by the UK and to identify the issues related to operations of autonomous UK vessels. These meetings have been set up by the UK Marine Industries Alliance, overseen by BIS and Dft, and are supported by the MCA. It is planned to have six meetings per year in London. There was a discussion where these MAS vessels could operate during the experimental and research period, and whether unmanned lanes could be adopted for their use. This group are to set up a website at the end of February and send the minutes of their meetings through the MCA, with updates from the working group.

It was noted that the terms and reference of UKSON have not been reviewed since 2008, so the old terms of reference will be circulated before the next meeting in order to consider updates. The Honourable Company of Master Mariners has asked to join the UKSON committee, which I think is a good request, because of their wide spread nautical expertise.

 Graham Langley is a Manchester Ship Canal Pilot.