UKHO Chart Data for Arklow Crew

Short-sea dry cargo specialist Arklow Shipping is increasing its use of ECDIS in step with a major fleet expansion programme. Company marine superintendent Dave Elliot says that cost savings of around 10-15% a year are far from being the only benefit so far. Investing in ECDIS has allowed Arklow to respond to changing trading patterns and cope with pressure on manpower.  

With 25 years at Arklow Shipping under his belt, Capt Elliot has long been a keen advocate of ECDIS, even in the face of early teething troubles. As it turned out, for the first couple of years ECDIS actually proved more costly. "Now I'd say we're probably saving about 10-15% against the costs of paper. And we expect those savings to grow, as ECDIS gets cheaper while the cost of paper continues to go up."

Arklow Shipping sails in the European short sea trade, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. With 35 (20 Irish managed & 15 Dutch managed) vessels at sea and a further ten under construction, the company is investing for the future, despite difficult trading conditions.  Using the Admiralty Vector Chart Service from the UKHO, Arklow ships have the complete chart database pre-loaded, with new charts and folios available on demand.

What the officers appreciate he says, is that navigating on ECDIS gives them flexibility too, for example using filters to keep the screen clean and uncluttered when visiting a familiar port or adding extra data layers on a maiden call to a new port. Filtering has other benefits too, such as the ability to set the ECDIS to display only the draught relevant to the ship. "Officers of the watch and masters will have their own preferences for what information they like to have in front of them and the system makes it easy to set it up the way you like it, without interfering with the safety parameters of ECDIS " he adds.

Arklow took its first steps in electronic navigation 14 years ago, using raster charts on its newbuilding Arklow Castle and today has a type-approved dual-ECDIS and official Electronic Navigation Charts from the UKHO. The company considered alternatives for its ENC data - "We're a business after all and we have to keep the accountants happy!" - but in the end followed the advice of long-time supplier Todd Chart Agency in Bangor, County Down to select AVCS.

Arklow now has Sperry Naviecdis running on most of its fleet, with SAM equipment going into the new ships being built in Korea, something Captain Elliot views as the next stage in the learning process.