Wallenius embraces ECDIS

At the beginning of March, Wallenius Lines AB became the first ship operator to allow one of its vessels to navigate using Official Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) only, albeit with the back-up of a relevant folio of paper charts as required by SOLAS.

The 57,018g, 5,850-car PCTC vessel Mignon, which was built by Daewoo last year, is in world-wide service with the company. It has been equipped with newly type-approved ECDIS EC 1000 hardware from Finland-based Navintra Ltd (previously known as ASPO Systems Oy).

Capt Goran Lindstrom of Wallenius says that the company has embraced the new chart technology because “it is the future.” The vectorised S-57 ECDIS charts are gradually replacing the scanned ARCS charts, and currently the company is upgrading all its older vessels with the ECDIS system, he explains.

The ENCs are provided by PRIMAR, the first regional Electronic Navigational Chart Service Centre, based in Norway, which acts on behalf of Hydrographic Offices by gathering their output of Official ENCs and coordinating a distribution and updating service to users.

Contact: Rune H Johnson

Primar

Fax: +47 51 939501.