Page 23: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2006)

March 2006 23

Furuno Brings Nav

Training In-House

In late November 2005 the first train- ing center in the world established by

Furuno — the Furuno INS Training

Center (INSTC) in Copenhagen,

Denmark — received the certificate of approval from DNV for the ECDIS training course. The course complies with the rules laid out by IMO, the IMO

Model Course 1.27. The INSTC was established in March 2005. Its aim is to educate the crew members onboard ves- sels equipped with the Furuno naviga- tion and communication equipment.

During 2005, INSTC has successfully completed 22 training courses for the crew members who mainly operate the

Furuno Integrated Navigation System

Voyager. The training allows the crew members to try out the equipment in a full mission navigation simulator in order to exercise the daily use of the equipment as well as to operate the equipment in awkward situations.

Furuno is currently planning to establish a second training center in the headquar- ters in Nishinomiya City, Japan, sched- uled to be open in May 2006.

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Tug Masters Train at MSI

East Coast ports are seeing a steady influx of Z-Drive tugs to their ship assist fleets. The Port of Miami is slated to get a new Moran Z-Drive tug early this year, and other ports and other tugs will follow. Five Moran tug masters and mates from the Port of Miami came to

Norfolk for three days of Z-Drive train- ing the week of February 6, 2006.

Mornings were spent in the simulator at

MSI learning the techniques and nuances of Z-Drive tug control. The rest of their training was done on

Moran's Norfolk based Z-Drive tugs doing actual ship assist work.

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VT Group Buys Training

Firm for $20.9M

Shipbuilding and support services supplier VT Group PLC bought training company Touchstone Learning and

Skills Ltd for $20.9 million. VT acquired the work-based training provider, which specializes in the retail sector, from Martin Loftus and

Touchstone Property Management Ltd.

Southampton-based VT is paying $1.3 million in cash on completion and $19.6 in loan notes. Touchstone has annual profits of more than $1.7 million, oper- ates primarily through UK government- funded contracts with the Learning and

Skills Council (LSC) and has offices in several locations across England.

Kongsberg Signs with

Maersk Contractor

Maersk Contractor, Norge, has on behalf of Marathon Petroleum Norge

AS, awarded Kongsberg Maritime a contract for delivery of a customized

Operator Training Simulator (OTS) for the Alvheim FPSO project. The OTS will allow process training to take place, before, during and after first oil produc- 3IMPLEX #OMPACT ¤ SLAE3 -DAEONLY IN'ERMNAY A3L VRE3SERAP3SEIO.NIECRTREM!HIAC 3I PMLXEEM!RISAC#,,NOLY   INF S OIPML EMAXERISACOCM

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