PAYS provides a different ENC strategy for owners

There are several ways of having the right electronic navigational charts (ENCs) on an ecdis, including the pay-as-you-sail (PAYS) method and the traditional ordering of charts. During the transition to paperless navigation, ship operators need to know how they are going to order the right ENCs and how to manage the process.

Nautisk Forlag offers ENC management services as part of its Neptune solution. The Norwegian company distributes Admiralty and Primar ENCs, including the Admiralty overlays of temporary and preliminary notices to mariners. Nautisk Forlag project manager Peter Johan Pran says shipowners can ease the transition to paperless navigation by organising the ENCs in the right way. “A clean break from paper charts can have risks, such as issues with familiarity. But we help our customers make the transition by ensuring they can use the same software to manage and update both their paper and their digital portfolio of charts, as well as to access digital publications,” he explains.

“By having gradual transition you ensure that the crew can show proficiency and streamline their ecdis procedures. It is important for us to make it as simple as possible to manage portfolios and reduce the administrative burden for the crews. Our Neptune solution simplifies this process. By using Neptune, operators can standardise procedures up to the point of installation of the charts on ecdis. And the onshore personnel can check a vessel’s navigational status using Neptune Manager, so they know their vessel is maintaining their chart portfolios.” Fleet managers can use the Neptune Manager web portal to access the navigation status of the fleet. This includes a tracking solution and is used to ensure the vessels’ ENCs are up to date.

There are several ways of updating ENCs, but the most efficient is to transfer the data directly to the ship. However, one of the issues that can occur is the loss of data if the ship-to-shore connection is disrupted. Nautisk Forlag has a solution for that, Mr Pran explains: “We created our own transfer protocol to transmit data during updates because we saw that frequent connection disruption was a common issue. With our protocol, if the connection is broken, operators can use the data the ship has already received. Once the connection is back online, the downloading will continue where it left off, ensuring there is no double downloading or unnecessary data transfer.” To keep the Neptune solution up to date, Nautisk Forlag issues quarterly updates that have program improvements, patches and new functions. The next update is scheduled for the second half of May 2014.

Nautisk Forlag has recently started its PAYS service covering the Primar ENCs database and will soon offer PAYS for Admiralty charts. “We have just had our Neptune PAYS solution approved by DNV GL and we are seeing a lot of interest in this service,” says Mr Pran. “With PAYS, operators can download all the ENCs to the ecdis for planning purposes, and then we track the vessel. The shipowner is only charged for the ENCs of the areas that the vessel sails through. There is no need for hardware installations to use this service. The PAYS service has a premium price for the individual ENCs used during the voyage. However, the benefit becomes apparent when the ship operator needs a lot of ENCs for planning purposes.” Nautisk Forlag is a global distributor with offices in Europe, Asia and North America and more than 1,000 vessels use the Neptune services.

Suppliers solutions for ENC management issues

There can be an underlying complexity to electronic navigational chart (ENC) management, which frequently frustrates and challenges onshore staff and mariners. But ENC suppliers have developed solutions to reduce this complexity. Jeppesen has recently launched its FlatFee service which ensures that ecdis always has updated ENC chart data on board for both planning and navigation.

“We decided to simplify the entire ENC process, from ordering, licensing and installing the charts, to updating, administering and budgeting – to create a service that would take care of this for shipowners for a fixed price,” says Jeppesen managing director John Psychas. FlatFee helps mariners improve safety and ENC handling, while simplifying port state controls. It provides predictable charting costs by enabling operators to forecast the exact annual chart costs for all departments, from operations and chartering to finance and administration.

Norwegian shipping company Rederiet Stenersen was one of the first to use Jeppesen FlatFee on its vessels. Its experience so far has been positive, says marine and training superintendent Stian Haugland. “It has been well accepted by our sailors, because now they can just sail instead of dealing with ENC management.” The ability for sailors to focus on their core functions also has a tangible effect on the vessel’s navigational safety.

The main advantage, according to Mr Haugland, is the ease of use and flexibility the service offers. “With traditional direct licensing, you only have a small corridor of charts available when you are ordering charts. If you then suddenly have to deviate from the planned route, you have to order new charts again.” Another advantage lies in the way FlatFee simplifies budgeting through a fixed fee on a company level, Mr Haugland adds.

According to Mr Psychas, cost predictability is an important aspect of choosing ENC suppliers. “For most ENC solutions today invoices arrive from all vessels, as they are licensed. This makes tracking the actual chart cost and predicting an annual budget pretty complex. While there are specialised pieces of software in the market to deal with that problem, the training in, and handling of, the software also requires time and money,” he explains. “Companies calculate an average of the amount of time they are currently spending on handling ENCs.”

Navtor has devised a way of seamlessly distributing and updating ENCs that reduces the administrative workload. The ENCs are distributed on the pre-loaded USB-based NavStick, allowing navigators to instantly access global charts and licences on ecdis consoles, says Navtor business and communications manager Willy Zeiler. Once installed, the service can be updated on a regular basis, using the same USB stick and the NavSync online synchronisation feature.

“This ensures that all charts, updates and licences are the most recent versions,” he explains. “This high-tech approach negates the need to apply for individual charts and licences prior to voyages, download a series of CDs to ecdis, and manually check for updates. Everything is available, delivered instantaneously and with no charge for any charts used for planning purposes but not utilised for voyages.”

Navtor has also introduced an application on smartphones for ENC management across a fleet of ships. “NavTracker gives fleet managers a full overview of ship location, chart usage and management. This includes a detailed insight into which charts have been updated and when,” says Mr Zeiler. ECDIS