Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 2, 2005)

22 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

On any given day, a fleet of four giant tankers operated by Alaska Tanker

Company (ATC) — each capable of car- rying from 800,000 to1.3 million barrels of North Slope Alaskan Crude — can be found navigating from Valdez, Alaska, through the waters of Prince William

Sound on their way to deliver their vital cargo to ports up and down the West

Coast.

Important among the advanced tech- nologies is providing the latest in elec- tronic navigation — a necessity to guide these ships safely along.

ATC tankers — Tonsina, Kenai and

Prince William Sound — are outfitted with bridge navigation electronics fea- turing the advanced Raytheon

Pathfinder system running C-MAP's

CM-93 professional electronic chart database. A fourth ATC tanker, the

Alaskan Frontier, is outfitted with the latest in marine technologies including twin screws, medium speed electric diesel propulsion and advanced machin- ery and cargo control systems. The

Alaskan Frontier also features C-MAP

CM-93 at the heart of her integrated electronic navigation system. "C-MAP's electronic chart database, with its comprehensive portfolio of vec- tor charts in the CM-93 format, is very important to our safe navigation," said

John A. Miller, Electronics Engineer for the ATC fleet. "The quality of the

CM-93 data and its accuracy in terms of content and structure offer our ships' deck officers a high level of confidence in C-MAP as an aid to navigation,"

Miller said. Integrated with radar over- lay, ARPA and AIS, C-MAP electronic charts provide deck officers with a wealth of information and help them stay on top of navigational situations which change from minute to minute. "With the recent implementation of

AIS equipment in each tanker's electron- ic suite, we have an even higher level of reliable ship data integrated with the already powerful CM-93 charts, provid- ing real time ship information and traffic overlays," Miller added.

ATC bridge crews can't overempha- size the importance of accurate, up-to- date electronic charts to meeting the specific challenges of piloting an oil- laden tanker through dangerous waters. "The charts' safety contours assist in defining for us the vessel's "no go" areas (shoals, reefs, bars and other shallow/hazardous conditions). At the same time, docking evolutions are better visualized by our crew with the vector information displayed as to the ship's actual movements," Miller said.

In evaluating the usefulness and per- formance of their vessel's electronic charts, ATC representatives added that harbor pilots especially rely on the ship's

ECS (Electronic Charting System), due to its location near the 10 cm radar.

This ECS display helps them keep a close watch on Speed Over Ground,

Course Over Ground and Speed

Through Water, all vital statistics, when piloting a large, heavy vessel in crowd- ed waters and restricted space.

Circle 28 on Reader Service Card

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An Electronic Charting "Engine" Guiding a Fleet of Supertankers

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