Page 35: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2011)

FEATURE TRAINING & EDUCATION

Canada’s West Coast received a boost in maritime simulation technology in the first week of March when Kongsberg

Maritime Simulation completed site ac- ceptance testing on a full suite of new simulators at the Marine Campus of the

British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Among the upgrades are a new 360-degree tug boat simulator, seven ownship bridges with 120-degree visuals, new dynamic positioning trainers and new full mission and desktop engine room simulators. A suite of full-mission and desktop dynamic positioning trainers also formed part of the delivery, includ- ing installations in BCIT’s existing

Bridge A. BCIT began offering training courses to its customers less than one week following successful site accept- ance testing and handover. “This project has been a long time in the making and would not have been pos- sible without the generous support of

Transport Canada and the commitment by our many industry partners,” said

Capt. John A. Clarkson, Associate Dean at the BCIT Marine Campus. “Today, we can say without hesitation that we have the most current and advanced simulation technology in the world.”

The upgrades also produced some firsts - BCIT Marine Campus now has the only 360-degree dedicated full mission tug bridge in the world, and the first full mis- sion Diesel-Electric engine room simula- tor in Canada. In addition to the main simulator upgrade, BCIT also took the opportunity to upgrade the projectors on

Bridge A, which was also fitted with a new dual redundant Advanced DP train- ing simulator. BCIT has also signifi- cantly increased its ownship library with new models ranging from tugs to ferries.

BCIT is now capable of conducting combined bridge and engine room simu- lation exercises, with a new bridge-en- gine connection providing a direct link- age between the two simulators in real time. Failures in the engine room will have an immediate impact on bridge op- erations and provide a new capability to the Campus that will be the foundation for new Crew Resource Management (CRM) training. This opens new oppor- tunities for training and positions BCIT as a key West coast training resource for

Canadian and US customers. “We are most impressed with the out- come of this upgrade. It really is an im- pressive suite of simulators and we value

BCIT’s confidence in our technology to meet their training requirements,” said

Henry Tremblay, President of Kongsberg

Maritime Simulation in the Americas. “We view this simulator upgrade pro- gram as a key technology renewal for

BCIT, but also as an important asset for the West Coast marine industry,” said

Kongsberg’s Area Sales Manager, Clay- ton Burry. BCIT will host the Grand

Opening of the renewed simulators on

May 17.

At BCIT Marine Campus

Kongsberg Completes Simulator Upgrades

Photo Cr edit: Scott McAlpine.

BCIT is home to a 360-degree industry-approved tug boat simulator from

Kongsberg, incorporating both conventional and Voith-Schneider propulsion systems. It features twenty 50-inch plasmas, two of which form the door.

It is the first 360-degree tug bridge delivered by Kongsberg.