PC Maritime launches new route optimisation tool that meets the latest ECDIS standard

PC Maritime announces new Navmaster Office software, compatible with any up-to-date make of ECDIS, which enables exported vessel routes to be reviewed and modified by ship managers, port authorities and interested shore-based authorities.

Unlike other planning products, Navmaster Office is fully type-approved ECDIS software, minus the live instrument interfacing and hardware. It provides full ECDIS tools for creating and modifying routes and for checking them against chart data for warnings and hazards. Vessel routes and distances sent in by Masters can be assessed ashore, checked to see if they can be further optimised for distance without compromising safety, and re-issued to vessels.

Navmaster Office is supplied with official ENC charts with updating, ensuring that shore-based charts match chart inventories on-board.

Routes exported from ECDIS systems are imported directly into Navmaster Office via email, disk or memory stick. They can then be checked, verified, modified, standardised, printed in several Report formats, emailed, and re-imported into on-board ECDIS. Navmaster Office gives shore-based management clear, accurate visibility and control of fleet routeing.

Where an operator’s ECDIS does not support the new IEC61174 route format, Navmaster Office allows import via text or the Admiralty’s e-Navigator format, although these provide less route detail. Navmaster Office can be installed on a single PC or on a network.

Managing Director, David Edmonds, said, “ECDIS was always intended to be more than a position-monitoring system. It forms part of the IMO’s E-navigation strategy, of which a key task is support for ‘standardised and automated reporting’ and data sharing. Navmaster Office provides a very cost-effective way of engaging with the emerging E-Navigation strategy.”

Note to editors

E-navigation is defined as “the harmonized collection, integration, exchange, presentation and analysis of marine information on board and ashore by electronic means to enhance berth to berth navigation and related services for safety and security at sea and protection of the marine environment.” The ECDIS Operational and Performance requirement document, IEC 61174 edt 4, defined a common route format and means of importing/exporting routes in ECDIS.

For more information visit www.pcmaritime.com