Octans for Survey Training

Hydrography students at the Maritime Institute Willem Barentsz (MIWB) in the Netherlands deploy former Rijkswaterstaat survey vessel Octans for many practical exercises in accordance with FIG/IHO guidelines. Formerly based at Amsterdam, training possibilities at Terschelling have been much enhanced since the vessel became available last summer. At least once weekly Octans leaves her berth for nautical and hydrographic training sessions. The vessel is well maintained and slowly but surely becoming equipped with mainly secondhand but fully operational survey gear. Rijkswaterstaat provided the use of a Simrad EM950 multi-beam echosounder, which was re-installed by Radio Holland. Precision surveys are carried out using KART GPS with a reference system at the MIWB radar tower. Dredging companies Royal Boskalis Westminster NV and Van Oord NV have provided various equipment such as gyro compass and digital single-beam echosounder. Various survey software packages are available for free non-commercial use, such as Fugro's Starfix and QPS' QINSy.