Ship Handling & Navigation

Nearly every person who sails a lot possesses a very clear image in mind of the cold and warm fronts and lows and highs and roughly what to expect as they arch majestically across the daily weather maps in newspapers and the TV-screen. It all seems quite easy to understand and forecasts are at least somewhat more often than not, correct. But it's the times that forecasts are not correct which most concern us when we're at sea.

There are so many variables which all together must be accounted for in order to arrive at an accurate weather forecast that we may as well forget about reaching that ideal in our lifetimes. One scientist pointed out years ago that a butterfly flapping its wings over a parking lot on a hot day in Dallas may be the cause of a thunderstorm in Boston three days later. It was meteorologists who led the way to the new science named, appropriately, CHAOS...

This publication provides readers with a complete guide to the marine weather analytics plus tactics and avoidance of storms; the authors of this volume, Linda and Steve Dashew, are teaching the traditional forecasting techniques that are basing on the current observed weather conditions, together with the latest instruments including internet. Their efforts has resulted in an excellent tool for the sailors and power boaters, and in fact anyone with an interest in weather.

The content is arranged in seven big sections; first one deals mainly with weather routing and major meteorological aspects, including the tropical cyclones, Baltic navigation in iced sea conditions, Polish sea ports and storm-surges indicator for the Baltic coast of Poland, analysis performed of the hydro-meteorological characteristics of the Montenegrin coast and in Port of Kulevi zone.

The second one focuses on the ice navigation, covering the navigational safety in the unsurveyed regions of Arctic, ice management and different methods used for the iceberg towing. The third section covers the ship construction aspects, namely investigations of the improvements to the marine safety by means of the HMS, i.e. health monitoring systems, replacement of the x-ray test of the welding with the ultrasonic testing, diagnostic evaluation of the ship, determination of the dynamic heel angle of the vessel on the basis of the model tests, propulsive/stopping performance analysis applied to the cellular container carriers etc.

The next part addresses the vessel propulsion and fuel efficiency matters, including hybrid propulsion systems and their optimization, PMS, i.e. power management systems plus their modeling with Petri Nets, plus data transmission modules, and so many other important aspects...

The book was written by Adam Weintrit in collaboration with Tomasz Neumann, who arranged the content of in the five major parts, addressing main areas of the marine navigation, and particularly common methods and algorithms, avoidance of the collisions, different geodetic problems existing in navigational applications, aviation/air navigation plus route planning utilized in the marine navigation.

The compilers aimed to clearly demonstrate to the reader marine navigation origins and also to explain how exactly various techniques, navigational methods plus the associated systems were technically developed. The book starts with the part which deals with the methods and algorithms and covers the Fuzzy-neuron model, application of the CFD methods to the maneuverability assessment for the different marine vessels sailing in the shallow waters; it also covers the asymptotic stability of the 2D linear systems, and Kalman-Bucy observer design, various established numerical/experimental methods when to calculating the hydrodynamic profiles and evaluating the insurance expediency, etc.

The second part of the volume focuses on the collision avoidance, covering the anti-collision principles with the relevant methods, scenarios, models, including various methods of assessment of the causation factor, safe ship control sensibility, experimental researches, collision zone definition, route similarity analysis...

This informative monograph is addressed to the maritime industry professionals and scientists sharing their knowledge plus the results obtained from several researches relating to all navigation aspects and also maritime transportation and safety issues.

The main body of this publication has been partitioned into several subchapters; the first of them is providing general info on the maritime training and associated education relating to the use of the GIS and analysis of the perception of people taking the navigation course, while the second is dealing with the on-board safety drills and associated researches.

The following chapter is dealing with the crew manning/human resources - here readers may find the info directly relating to different problems of supply chain of human resources, code of conflict, safety culture, career planning, work performance and other matters.

Remaining chapters of the volume are covering the maritime piracy/terrorism together with the influence they have on the international shipping, plus maritime policy covering changing of the vessels' flags for various commercial and other reasons, financial indices and freight markets plus other matters of economic character. A separate chapter is there dedicated solely to the problems of logistics and also maritime transportation specific for the Baltic Sea geographical region.

The content of this monograph starts with the chapter dedicated to the ship control and dealing with the relevant equipment including the adaptive control systems on container ships, together with the technical concepts related to the control of vessels. The second chapter focuses on the problems directly relating to the decision supporting systems such as NAVDEC, materials on the technical development of the support systems and trial tests, decisions related to the safety of the shipping traffic in different sea situations, handling of the vessels in windy conditions etc.

Third chapter deals with the marine traffic and here the readers will find all required information related to the development and evaluation of the routing measurements, expert indication, analysis of the traffic incidents. Fourth chapter of the volume covers the SAR, i.e. Search and Rescue problems, including SAR of migrants, design of the lifesaving appliances based on the ergonomics, radar signals, risk analysis and regional exercises concerned with the oil spill preparedness.

The next chapter is dedicated to the meteorological aspects and weather conditions including numerical weather prediction, analysis of the associated criteria, global warming etc. This one is followed by the chapters relating to the navigation systems, air navigation and maritime communications, algorithms and methods...

This nice volume by Adam Weintrit, is aimed to provide a good comprehensive overview of all recent international developments covering the EC, i.e. electronic charts, electronic navigation techniques plus safety at sea - it is addressed in the first turn, to the maritime specialists and scientists directly involved in the scientific research/development activities in navigation and safe marine transportation.

Among the topics covered within this title we would note the concept of electronic marine navigation and ECDIS, including developing the requirements that would be governing the management of communications within the frames of the electronic navigation concept, advance maritime technologies, future trends and assessing the navigation safety, brief technical overview of the newly introduced electronic chart products, visualization, presentation of the relevant navigational info, systems of data transmission/communication, marine CNS, security modeling technique and development of the 3D systems of cartographic visualization, safety at sea, safety controls and also emergency supply systems, and other interesting topics. Have a look inside to be updated with all recent happenings.

The content of the present publication by Adam Weinrit, one of the world recognized specialists in the field, was released to provide all participants of the maritime shipping industry with an excellent source of reference with the particular attention paid by the author to the aspects of the marine safety considered key ones - the list of such areas includes safety of marine navigation and shipboard systems for handling and maneuvering, as well as AIS, standing for the automatic identification systems and marine traffic control systems, various navigation instruments, equipment and associated systems, anti-collision arrangements and means of communication. In addition to that, this volume addresses such important topics as pilot navigation and inland/sea-river navigation, weather navigation and routing, various aspects of hydrometeorology, established methods and algorithms used, plus various aspects of reliability and safety of the shipboard technical systems; the author has also covered the human element factors and management of the available crew resources, education and professional maritime training, maritime policy together with the recommendations and proposals. In short, the book will be interesting to the pro's in maritime transportation and navigation.

This excellent and informative guide will provide readers with the valuable storm handling tips. The storm handling is one of the hottest and most debated topics in the field of the seamanship; some seafarers prefer heaving-to while others usually choose running off.

The author of the volume is a professional and prominent sailor who sailed around the globe twice, single-handed, logging in total more than twenty hundred thousand nautical miles under sail. The approach used by the author makes the text very readable and descriptions very clear even to the newcomers. Note that the content may equally apply to the monohull and multihull vessels.

The book is offering remarkably comprehensive coverage of the subject and has been prepared in a simple and no-nonsense manner with huge amount of supplemental practical information and real life examples for better understanding. Moreover, the author is writing with striking clarity and precision, and his humor makes the book not only interesting but even fascinating, providing both novices and experienced seafarers with the realistic advice worked out on the basis of the author's own experience and analysis of the other's experience.

The content of the volume will help readers to increase their theoretical skills and choose the proper safety equipment for their boats, plus will enable them to boost their confidence in handling the boats in adverse weather conditions.