Hydrographic Society of South Africa

News
Besides its regular monthly get-togethers, the Society has had a busy time planning a Hydrographic Course, the Technical Awareness Seminar (TAS 05) and an outing to a locally based Training Facility, the South African Maritime Training Academy (SAMTRA).

Hydrographic Course
The HSSA, in conjunction with the Cape Town Technicon, is planning to run a Hydrographic Course over a 3 month period in the first half of 2005. This course will be open to second and third year diploma students at the Technical College as well as anyone from the marine industry who would like to brush up on their survey knowledge and techniques. The Society will contribute some funding towards the costs of running the course and ensuring that the course is offered to students and the industry on a continuing basis for the next few years. The course will draw on a number of available resources form the Society, the most important being the expertise of the members, who will be overseeing the course content, preparing the lectures and setting the examination standard. Being modular in nature (3 full days in February, March and May 2005) makes the course very attractive to industry and we expect to have a full capacity of students by the end of December. The TAS 05 will form the practical part of the course, with all the high tech equipment at the TAS being available to the students for their practical boat work sessions.

TAS Planning
Due to the success of TAS 03 and the decision to hold the Seminar in alternate years to Oceanology International, the TAS Workgroup has already started planning the event for May 2005. This 3 day event will consist of a number of technical lectures (12 in total) from major equipment suppliers, as well as afternoon equipment demonstrations in the naval dockyard. The static exhibition part of the TAS will be expanded with more space and facilities available to exhibitors as well as more time allocated to delegates who want to view the exhibition and talk to manufacturers. The Institute for Maritime Technology (IMT) in Simon’s Town will again be the popular host for event.

SAMTRA Visit
A very interesting afternoon was spent by members visiting the South African Maritime Training Academy in Simons’ Town (SAMTRA). This ultra modern facility has three Bridge Simulators, Reefer Training Simulators and a number of well equipped classrooms for maritime students who wish to experience the marine world without having to actually go to sea. The HSSA members were asked to navigate into the Port of Cape Town and steer the anchor handling tug into the Waterfront complex. Besides the incident at the inner quay wall (the wall seemed to be constructed in a very awkward position, so our group eventually went through it) and the number of submarines and frigates that the simulator control room managed to throw in at unusual times, the Society did very well and tied up alongside one of the waterfront pubs with no further incident! We disembarked and were thankful for the cold beers and a stable floor to stand on (or was it the images that were moving?)
The Society’s thanks go to General Manager Andy Maclennan ([email protected]) for a very interesting and unusual experience.
For further information on the HSSA and planned activities, please contact Aubrey Price ([email protected]) or Steve Smith ([email protected]). General meetings are held in Cape Town at Royal Cape Yacht Club, every last Tuesday of every month, except December. Visitors are most welcome to attend.

Contact
The Hydrographic Society of South Africa. (HSSA)
P O Box 487
Paarden Eiland 7420
Cape Town, South Africa
T & F: +27 21 702 1870