First Chinese language DP system

The step has been taken in support of increasing sales of Navis equipment in China. The company believes that the move will make a significant contribution to improving the safety of DP operations onboard the growing fleet of Chinese-flagged offshore vessels manned with Chinese-speaking crew.

As well as the GUI, the NavDP4000’s voice alarms – believed by the company to represent a unique feature in the DP system market – have been translated into Chinese, further enhancing safety.

Recent NavDP4000 deliveries to Chinese ship owners include a DP1 system installed on a suction hopper dredger ordered by CCCC Tianjin Dredging, DP1 systems for a series of 77m long AHTS built at Zhejiang Jiantiao Shipyard, and a DP1 system for a heavy lift vessel built at CCCC Bomesc Marine Industry.

“Ever since we started working closely with Chinese shipyards in 2008, we have been aware of a problem of interaction with shipyard engineers on technical issues,” said Vladimir Antonenko, project director, Navis Engineering “It has been an issue of language alone. We came to realise that this was a market reality that had to be accepted: the majority of shipyard staff and the crew of vessels under the flag of China are Chinese-speaking only and we had to adapt to this situation. Developing a Chinese language version of our DP GUI made perfect sense.”

Navis Engineering is a Finnish company manufacturing dynamic positioning and ship automation systems, with a branch office in Shanghai.