®

Operated by the Norwegian Hydrographic Service

Order of St. Olav awarded to Asbjørn Kyrkjeeide

Asbjørn Kyrkjeeide, managing director of Electronic Chart

Centre (ECC) in Stavanger, has been appointed Knight First

Class by the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for his

contribution to Norwegian safety standards at sea.

In its evaluation the Order has placed emphasis on Mr.

Kyrkjeeide’s untiring effort and ability to develop the concept

of an electronic chart service. The Order stresses how important

this is as a means of navigation, providing timely data for all

ships and its importance for the safety at sea. The importance

of this for Norway as a seafaring nation has also been taken

into account.

Asbjørn Kyrkjeeide is 60 years old and originally from

Strandebarm in Hardanger. He now lives at Jørpeland in the

Municipality of Strand in Rogaland County. Mr. Kyrkjeeide

was educated at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy in

Bergen. He has served on submarines and was submarine

commander for five years.

Asbjørn Kyrkjeeide joined the Norwegian Hydrographic

Service in Stavanger in 1982. He was quickly given

responsibility for major development projects. One of these

was to provide for a global service of electronic navigational

charts, which became the forerunner of the Electronic Chart

Centre (ECC), which was set up in1999.

ECC was organised as a state-owned limited company to

provide the operational service on a 24-hour basis globally

for the multinational Primar Stavanger ENC service under the

management of the Norwegian Hydrographic Service.

The Order was presented by County Governor of Rogaland,

Tora Aasland.

s a i l s a f e l y w i t h o f f i c i a l c h a r t s

o f f i c i a l i n t e r n a t i o n a l E N C s e r v i c e

-NEWSLETTER

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Solution on mandatory ECDIS moves closer at NAV 53

A clear majority in favour of mandatory ECDIS implementation

was expressed at the recent NAV 53 meeting of the sub-

committee on safety of navigation of the International Maritime

Organisation (IMO) maritime safety committee (MSC).

This sub-committee has been mandated together with NAV

54 to study and analyse the issue of mandatory ECDIS

implementation, and to make appropriate recommendations.

There was a clear majority in favour of mandatory ECDIS

implementation via the the route recommended by either the

Nordic or the Japanese proposal. The Japanese proposal calls

for less stringent requirements on tonnage limits than the

Nordic alternative.

Some interventions at the meeting also expressed concern over

such issues as ENC coverage, ECDIS training facilities and

the cost factor.

The sub-committee had received a report from Det Norske

Veritas which analysed ENC coverage today and the estimated

position in 2010. This concluded that available coverage in

coastal waters along the main traffic routes would be sufficient

by the latter year to justify ECDIS implementation.

The main purpose of mandating ECDIS is to realise its full

potential for reducing the risk of collision and grounding, as

established by the DNV report.

Owing to the lack of consensus on the issue, the chair of the

sub-committee called for further analysis and documentation to

address the concerns in a constructive manner. The conclusion

was that a clear picture of ENC coverage status should be

presented to NAV 54 in a manner which is convincing and

easy to understand.

A solution based on a compromise between the Nordic and the

Japanese proposals is likely to be adopted at NAV 54.

Ecdis

Visit Primar Stavanger at:

We will be at stand 208.

You will find us in Hall 3, at stand 357.

s a i l s a f e l y w i t h o f f i c i a l c h a r t s

Greeks on the go

The digital cartography division (DCD) of the Hellenic Navy

Hydrographic Service (HNHS) is responsible for producing

and updating official Greek ENCs as well as for operating a

marine geographical information system (GIS).

This contains and manages all geographic, hydrographic

and navigational data, and any other information, needed to

produce a wide range cartographic products, such as ENCs,

paper charts and additional military layers (AMLs).

Usage band Number of cells

%

1 Overview

1/1

100

2 General

2/2

100

3 Coastal

71/83

86

4 Approach

16/28

57

5 Harbour

31/47

66

6 Berthing

127/164

77

The DCD comprises 12 military and civilian cartographers,

GIS experts and mariners, who are all specialists in ENC

production and maintenance. It also represents the HNHS

in various fora, such as the International Hydrographic

Organisation (IHO), the worldwide electronic navigational

chart database (WEND), and the technical and advisory/

steering committees of the RENCs.

Greece launched its ENC production project in March 2001,

and 248 cells covering the HNHS’s area of cartographic

responsibility have so far been released to the market. The

HNHS belongs to both of the European regional ENC centres

(RENCs) – Primar Stavanger and IC-ENC.

The current status of Greek ENC production can be summarised

in the following table:

ENC work is based on software packages from Hydroservice

and SevenCs. Incorporation of the T-Kartor CPSNG Hydro in

the marine GIS environment is expected to help significantly

increase the production of Greek ENCs and AMLs, as well as

the production of paper charts from the S-57 database.

s a i l s a f e l y w i t h o f f i c i a l c h a r t s

The JTEWG meeting in May 2007.

Joint technical experts working group holds UK meeting

This year’s joint technical experts working group (JTEWG)

meeting between Primar Stavanger and IC-ENC was hosted by

the latter on 30 May in Taunton, UK. Primar Stavanger’s own

technical experts working group (TEWG) met the following

day.

The 36 people at the joint meeting included personnel from

software suppliers 7Cs, Hydro Service, Caris and Chart Pilot,

who were invited to discuss continued development of their

products to make ENC validation more efficient.

The hydrographic office (HO) representatives also took the

opportunity to engage in a discussion with these companies

about further software progress.

Another topic discussed was the use of the Scamin attribute in

ENCs. IC-ENC presented a more detailed paper on this issue,

which was discussed among the HOs at the meeting.

After some amendments had been made, the updated

document was forwarded to the International Hydrographic

Organisation’s transfer standard maintenance and application

development (TSMAD) working group.

The procedure for providing information about changes to

traffic separation schemes (TSSs) was also discussed between

the regional ENC centres. They will discuss whether any

further alignment in RENC methodology is necessary when

reporting on a new TSS.

A question often asked is whether ENCs should incorporate

temporary and preliminary (T&P) messages, and this was

consequently discussed at the TEWG meeting.

The handling of T&P notices in ENCs is not consistent at the

moment, and differs from one HO to another. Primar Stavanger

is accordingly planning to collect information on the way each

HO handles such notices and will add this to the README file

included on the weekly CD.

The next JTEWG meeting will be held in Stavanger during

April-May 2008.

s a i l s a f e l y w i t h o f f i c i a l c h a r t s

New Russian ENCs.

New ENCs in the Adriatic.

ENC database steadily growing

Primar Stavanger ENC coverage in September 2007.

New Russian ENCs released during the summer provide

coverage of such regions as the Laptev, East Siberian and

Chukchi Seas. Further releases also occurred in the Adriatic,

with both Croatian and Italian hydrographic offices producing

additional cells.

Roughly 7 000 ENCs are now available through the Primar

Chart Catalogue. This comprehensive coverage from a single

database makes a significant contribution to safety at sea.

The Primar Stavanger ENC service is delivered through an

international network of 50 authorised distributors, and kept

regularly updated by means of the Primar Chart Catalogue and

the Primar Online remote updating service.

www.primar.org - [e-mail]