The Coast Guard published and posted three new Policy Letters concerning STCW requirements on October 15, 2012. Policy Letter 12-07 requires training in Electronic Chart Display Information Systems (ECDIS). Certain officer endorsements will now indicate ECDIS limitations when evidence of ECDIS training has not been provided.
Over 19,000 active mariners hold an STCW Deck Officer endorsement. Of those, approximately 17,000 mariners (just over 90%) have an email address on file. The following email text will be sent to those mariners:
Our records indicate you hold an STCW deck officer endorsement. The Coast Guard recently published Policy Letter 12-07 which is available on the NMC website http://www.uscg.mil/nmc/stcw. As this Policy Letter explains, in order for an STCW endorsement for officer in charge of a navigational watch (OICNW), chief mate, or master to remain valid for service on vessels equipped with electronic chart display information systems (ECDIS) after December 31, 2016, you must complete a Coast Guard approved or accepted ECDIS course. The Coast Guard has been approving ECDIS courses for several years in anticipation of a requirement for ECDIS training, and will continue to do so. Mariners who have completed Coast Guard approved or accepted ECDIS courses in the past will not need to take additional training. Approved courses can be found at http://www.uscg.mil/nmc/courses.
All applicants for an STCW deck officer endorsement who have not provided proof of approved ECDIS training will receive the following limitation: “Not valid for service on ECDIS equipped vessels after December 31, 2016” at your next application. If you have already submitted the course completion certificate to the Coast Guard with a previous application package, please include that information in your application package and we will retrieve that information from your file.
If you have an application currently in process with the Coast Guard and you have already taken one of the Coast Guard approved or accepted courses, please contact the NMC at IASKNMC@uscg.mil or 1-888- IASKNMC (1-888-427-5662) if you would like to submit that course completion certificate to your application already in progress.
If you are issued an STCW deck officer endorsement with this limitation, you may continue to serve on ECDIS equipped vessels until December 31, 2016 and can have the limitation removed at any time, free of charge, by submitting a credential application (CG-719B) requesting a modification and including your course completion certificate. Submit your application to one of the Regional Exam Centers and you will receive an endorsement label to add to your MMC reflecting the removal of the limitation.
Sincerely,
/A. S. Lloyd/ Captain, U. S. Coast Guard
L,
I took the approved course two years ago at the Training Center a little over two years ago, submitted it, was told the course was not recognized by the USCG and received it back. Do you know if I have to take it again? If I don’t get a response I will contact NMC.
[QUOTE=BMCSRetired;86893]L,
I took the approved course two years ago at the Training Center a little over two years ago, submitted it, was told the course was not recognized by the USCG and received it back. Do you know if I have to take it again? If I don’t get a response I will contact NMC.[/QUOTE]
As long as the course was CG approved when you took it, you don’t need to take it again.
[QUOTE=BMCSRetired;86893]L,
I took the approved course two years ago at the Training Center a little over two years ago, submitted it, was told the course was not recognized by the USCG and received it back. Do you know if I have to take it again? If I don’t get a response I will contact NMC.[/QUOTE]
All of our courses ARE CG Approved.
I was told to fill out CG-719B with the request to have ECDIS Certification added to my MMC along with the ECDIS certificate. They’ll give you a sticker for your book. I took a 40hr Sperry course back in 2007. Glad these things don’t expire yet. I’ll probably walk mine in to the REC. Hopefully it is accepted. My certificate says, “…U.S. Coast Guard approved training course in the Operational use of ECDIS and has demonstrated the required STCW-95 Competencies as follows:” blah blah… No fee for this either.
ECDIS is a negative endorsement on your MMC. If the USCG does not have a certificate of completion from an approved ECDIS course your MMC will say “not valid for service on vessels equipped with ECDIS”. It’s just like ARPA it only says it if you don’t have it.
[QUOTE=nwitherly77;86920]I was told to fill out CG-719B with the request to have ECDIS Certification added to my MMC along with the ECDIS certificate. They’ll give you a sticker for your book. I took a 40hr Sperry course back in 2007. Glad these things don’t expire yet. I’ll probably walk mine in to the REC. Hopefully it is accepted. My certificate says, “…U.S. Coast Guard approved training course in the Operational use of ECDIS and has demonstrated the required STCW-95 Competencies as follows:” blah blah… No fee for this either.[/QUOTE]
There’s nothing to add. It’s like ARPA, if you do not have it, you get a limitation that says you are not good for ECDIS. If you have, it, you get nothing.
[QUOTE=Louis;86918]All of our courses ARE CG Approved.[/QUOTE]
I knew the course was approved otherwise I would not have taken it. So since it is not on my license and I have taken the course, I am good to go, SWEET!
Yes you are good to go, but these regulations don’t come into effect until December 31st 2016. Until then nobody needs ECDIS. I advise anyone with an MMD that expires before 2017 to get their ECDIS course completed sometime before their next issue.
Discussing maritime technology - without the*marketing clichés.
By Wendy Laursen
From a pilot’s perspective, the main concern with ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display & Information System) is the standard of onboard training coupled with poorly designed software and user interfaces. This is making the introduction of ECDIS a painful process for the industry. That’s the view of Neil Doyle, formerly of Deep Sea & Coastal Pilots in the UK and now working in Australia. With the phased introduction of the compulsory carriage of ECDIS on merchant vessels well underway, training institutions are busy trying to put the many thousands of deck officers around the world through the compulsory IMO generic and type-specific training. This has created a backlog in the system and, in particular, a shortfall in those officers with type-specific training.
Training & Design Issues
“In order to address some of the concerns over ECDIS training shortcomings, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority recently undertook a concerted program of shipboard inspections, which resulted in a number of detentions,” says Doyle. “One interesting side effect was that managers and owners removed mention of ECDIS units from their Safety Equipment Certificates where possible and introduced a policy of switching off these units in Australian waters. As a pilot, I have on several occasions been confronted with a perfectly serviceable unit covered over with a cloth and marked ‘NOT FOR NAVIGATION.’ Surely this was never the intent.” Poor design means many systems are unintuitive to use, says Doyle. “The outcome is that ships’ officers tend to leave the system in default settings, which may or may not be appropriate for the ship’s location or draft. Poor design of night display settings has also meant that it can be difficult to see important information under low-light situations.”
Many pilots have not received any ECDIS training or only undertaken the generic course. With 30 different ECDIS manufacturers in the market to date, it is impractical and ultimately pointless for them to try and gain training on every one, says Doyle. Therefore every time a pilot arrives on the bridge of an ECDIS-equipped ship he is faced with a chart display that has been customized by someone else and has a menu options layout that will be inaccessible to him unless he is lucky enough to be familiar with the system. “Paper charts, for all their drawbacks, have had the same set of instructions since Gerardus Mercator drew up the first one in 1569.”
As a result, many pilots now arrive with their own PPUs (portable pilot units) with charting software and position-fixing hardware installed so they don’t need to reference any shipboard ECDIS systems. “However, PPUs need to be both reliable and quick and easy to set up. Too many times have I observed pilots struggling with cables and adaptors in the middle of the night when they should have been concentrating on what was happening outside. In short, they can be a critical distraction, very often in the crucial first few minutes after boarding’’.
*
The technology will improve but, as with most things maritime, it will be a slow process; and to a certain extent this can be blamed on the regulators, says Doyle. Any ECDIS system (both hardware and software) has to be type-approved to ensure it meets the requirements of SOLAS V and IMO Resolution 817(19). This is normally the job of the classification societies and monitored by both flag state and port state control. Once a system has received its type approval it cannot be changed or upgraded without gaining type approval once again, an expensive business. Consequently, system designers are reluctant to upgrade their systems and ship owners are unwilling to pay for it, particularly in these constrained times. So it will be long wait for truly intuitive display systems designed by and for mariners. “In many ways it’s a pity that the regulators had to get involved at all. If all concerned had had a free rein with the systems we might all be working with large iPad-type displays, pinching to zoom and running bearing lines with our fingers, instead of delving three-deep into menu layers to undertake a process we used to be able to do with a ruler and pencil. But the horse has bolted, as they say.”*– MarEx
[QUOTE=NeedleGunNazi;87039]Yes you are good to go, but these regulations don’t come into effect until December 31st 2016. Until then nobody needs ECDIS. I advise anyone with an MMD that expires before 2017 to get their ECDIS course completed sometime before their next issue.[/QUOTE]
I say if it’s not due tomorrow then it’s just not due!
[QUOTE=NeedleGunNazi;87039]Yes you are good to go, but these regulations don’t come into effect until December 31st 2016. Until then nobody needs ECDIS. I advise anyone with an MMD that expires before 2017 to get their ECDIS course completed sometime before their next issue.[/QUOTE]
I would get ECDIS anyway regardless of when the regulations come into effect, provided you are on a vessel with ECDIS and there is value in it.
[QUOTE=anchorman;87241]I would get ECDIS anyway regardless of when the regulations come into effect, provided you are on a vessel with ECDIS and there is value in it.[/QUOTE]
That is correct a lot of clients are asking if equip with it get it. don’t wait until the last minute rush.
Has anyone heard of, or have experience doing vessel (equipment ) specific assessements on board AFTER completeing an ECDIS class?
Thanks
I just shifted from deep sea to supply boats and even though I have my ecdis endorsement it is company policy that all new deck officers take a company class on their specific fleet wide ecdis system. At first I thought it was pointless but they went in depth into the finer points of voyage planning and little things like that.
[QUOTE=supplyboater;87432]I just shifted from deep sea to supply boats and even though I have my ecdis endorsement it is company policy that all new deck officers take a company class on their specific fleet wide ecdis system. At first I thought it was pointless but they went in depth into the finer points of voyage planning and little things like that.[/QUOTE]
That makes sense, but I was told that AFTER the class, onboard type training is required for the ECDIS certificate (received in the classroom) to be excepted by the Coast Guard and meet STCW requirements.
The million dollar question of whether or not ECDIS and GMDSS are required to be endorsed on your license if your vessel is equipped with both ECDIS and GMDSS but you are sailing a domestic route?