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December 2003 Issue No. 9

 
 
Main Feature
 
 
 
Simulation facilities for navigation training on Stonecutters Island.
 

Setting up ship simulator for Marine Department

Our Project Division has been entrusted by the Marine Department to manage the installation of a Full Mission Ship Simulator in their new training centre in Stonecutters. The main bridge was commissioned in February 2003 and the second bridge will be completed by the end of the year.

The Full Mission Ship Simulator comprises the main bridge, second bridge, debriefing facilities and the instructor control station. Both the main bridge and the second bridge have a 210-degree angle of view and replicate conventional merchant vessel design. The second bridge can also be converted to simulate a high-speed craft. A three-dimensional graphical database of Hong Kong waters is also developed to familiarise trainees with ship handling skills in all parts of the territory under different sea, weather and emergency conditions.

In addition, the simulator can be used to study and analyse navigation situations in the harbour. In fact, Marine Department has used the simulator to rebuild an accident scenario. The Marine Department also plans to extend the ship simulator training services to other government departments such as Fire Services as well as Customs & Excise. In future, the Marine Department will make use of the simulator for training and assessment of pilots and high speed craft officers.

     
The simulator meets the requirements of the Seafarers Training, Certification and Watchkeeping code (STCW95) of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The main bridge and second bridge can be used to train two teams of bridge officers on different exercise areas independent of each other, or interactively on each bridge in the same exercise area. In the system, there are more than 20 own ship models available for training practice. There are also over 30 three dimensional target ship models available for selection by the instructor. Some of these models are specially built to resemble the vessels frequently operating in Hong Kong.