Nautical Science and Navigation
Navigation portal: COLREGs, bridge watchkeeping, passage planning, ECDIS, radar and AIS, GNSS, IALA buoyage, tides, seamanship, mooring and anchoring.
This portal covers the conduct of the ship at sea: the COLREGs, bridge watchkeeping, passage planning, celestial and terrestrial navigation, ECDIS and electronic charts, radar and ARPA, AIS, GNSS and its vulnerabilities, IALA buoyage, tides, seamanship, mooring and anchoring.
The governing instruments are the COLREGs 1972, SOLAS Chapter V on safety of navigation and Chapter IV on radiocommunications, the STCW Code watchkeeping standards, the IMO performance standards for bridge equipment, the IHO chart standards S-57 and S-100, and the IALA Maritime Buoyage System.
Trade routes, canals and chokepoints belong to Maritime Geography, Routes and Chokepoints; navigation electronics as a data and connectivity topic belong to Technology, Digitalization and Smart Shipping.
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- COLREGs Convention
COLREGs is the IMO Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972, governing vessel conduct to prevent collisions worldwide.
- GMDSS: Global Maritime Distress and Safety System
How the GMDSS works: sea areas A1 to A4, DSC, satellite alerting, EPIRB, SART, NAVTEX, operator certificates, maintenance and the modernization of the system.
- AIS and ECDIS
AIS and ECDIS are the two mandatory shipboard navigation electronics under SOLAS V/19.
- Voyage Data Recorder (VDR and S-VDR) under SOLAS V/20
Which ships must carry a VDR or S-VDR under SOLAS V/20, what MSC.333(90) makes it record, how long data is kept, and how the annual performance test works.
- BNWAS: Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm System
BNWAS carriage under SOLAS V/19.2.2.3: ships covered, phase-in dates to 2018, the 3 to 12 minute dormant period, MSC.128(75) alarm stages and IEC 62616 testing.
- Ship Anchors and Anchor Handling Equipment
How the IACS Equipment Number sizes a ship's anchors, stud-link chain grades, windlass and chain stopper, and why that outfit is a harbour standard only.
- Weather Routing
Weather routing is the operational practice of selecting and adjusting a ship's voyage route in real time based on weather forecasts.
All articles in this portal
21 articles, plus 69 in preparation.
- AIS and ECDIS
- AIS-SART: AIS Search and Rescue Transmitter for survival craft
- BNWAS: Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm System
- COLREGs Convention
- COLREGs Lights and Shapes: Rules 20 to 31
- COLREGs Sound and Light Signals: Rules 32 to 37
- COLREGs Steering and Sailing Rules: Rules 4 to 19
- EPIRB: 406 MHz Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon
- GMDSS: Global Maritime Distress and Safety System
- Heavy Weather Operations at Sea
- Just-In-Time Arrival
- LRIT Long-Range Identification and Tracking: SOLAS V/19-1 ship tracking
- Marine Bridge Equipment and Integrated Bridge Systems
- Marine Mooring Equipment and Winches
- Marine Voyage Planning and Routing
- Pilot Ladders and Accommodation Ladders
- Search and Rescue: How Maritime SAR Works
- Ship Anchors and Anchor Handling Equipment
- Ship Squat: Shallow-Water Sinkage and UKC
- Voyage Data Recorder (VDR and S-VDR) under SOLAS V/20
- Weather Routing