The Coast Guard just published an announcement about ECDIS saying that you must attend an approved course by January 1, 2017 or your endorsement will be limited to vessels that don’t have ECDIS equipment. It’s the same sort of restriction that that applies to ARPA and GMDSS and will create the same sort of stir in the troops, although the number of vessels equipped with ECDIS is far less than those that carry GMDSS or ARPA.
The announcement said that they will be e-mailing the announcement to 17,000 officers whose addresses they have on file, which should generate a huge amount of fear, loathing, and confusion. Be prepared.
Boiled down to its essence it means:
When you renew your endorsement it will carry a new limitation restricting you from operating ECDIS-equipped vessels after January 1, 2017.
If you have already attended an approved ECDIS course you will not get the limitation.
You can operate vessels with ECDIS until December 31, 2016 without having the training.
To remove the restriction, you must complete an approved ECDIS course and make application to the CG.
The course is a one-time requirement. It does not require renewal.
Houston Marine’s ECDIS course satisfies the CG requirement and will enable officers to serve on vessels equipped with ECDIS.
Further to the recent announcement from the Coast Guard regarding endorsements, the UK Hydrographic Office would like to remind readers of gCaptain that they are currently running a promotion offering free ECDIS training. The Admiralty free ECDIS Training promotion is open to qualified bridge officers working on international trading ships. Officers can enter to win one of 200 training places online https://admiraltytraining.admiralty.co.uk/
We hope the promotion will raise awareness of this important challenge facing the industry - and will contribute by starting the process for 200 mariners.
[QUOTE=Admiralty;88087]Further to the recent announcement from the Coast Guard regarding endorsements, the UK Hydrographic Office would like to remind readers of gCaptain that they are currently running a promotion offering free ECDIS training. The Admiralty free ECDIS Training promotion is open to qualified bridge officers working on international trading ships. Officers can enter to win one of 200 training places online https://admiraltytraining.admiralty.co.uk/
We hope the promotion will raise awareness of this important challenge facing the industry - and will contribute by starting the process for 200 mariners.[/QUOTE]
Please note that this training is not USCG approved, and won’t be accepted to remove the ECDIS limitation from a U.S. merchant mariner credential.
Having noted the post by James D. Cavo (USCG), we think it would be worthwhile offering some further explanation of our earlier post.
In order to raise awareness of the importance of ECDIS training, the UKHO is sponsoring a prize draw for bridge officers to win one of 200 ECDIS training course places. The UKHO will not be providing the training but merely paying the cost of an ECDIS course (based on the IMO Model Course 1.27) for 200 officers. The rules of the draw allow the winners to choose a course from a list of training institutions which we have selected from an IMO list. Of course, we would also want the winners to check that the institutions they selected were acceptable to the relevant authorities in the countries concerned. Within the USA, it would make sense to ask the training institution for a copy of the Coast Guard approval letter for the course.