A FREE navigation service for planning voyages with internet technology will be available to shipowners from early 2010.
The UK Hydrographic Office’s Admiralty e-Navigator is designed to bring together all the information in one place. “Whether on the bridge, or in the office, users everywhere will have instantaneous access to all the navigational information they need from one source,” UKHO CEO Mike Robinson told Fairplay.
It will provide a real-time view of paper and digital chart holdings, real-time ordering and product delivery and consistent tide, weather and other data for mariners and shore staff.
The service resulted from talks between UKHO and shipping companies. “This has allowed us to develop e-Navigator in direct response to their demands,” said operations chief Michael Cauter, who added: “Shipping companies are facing an increasing amount of administrational requirements as well as being forced to focus on the cost-effectiveness of every decision.
“Addressing this directly, e-Navigator automates much of the selection and ordering process … to reduce operator workload,” he declared. Its simplified processes mean that a mariner will need to spend less time planning voyages, ordering charts and updating routes.

Source: Fairplay International Shipping News