Best Chartroom Set-up.

ECDIS with paper back up is a must; computers are still too unreliable. However, supply of paper charts in the old fashioned way is no longer acceptable. Shipping charts by courier across the world is costly (not to mention the CO2 foot print!) and causes stress with customs clearance. Printing of paper charts on board from raster images stored to CDs (i.g. ARCS or BSB) is the solution. Watch this testimonial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Xee0XxFpo

As a pilot I have concluded from personal observations that: Paper Charts and ECDISis the preferred option, at least today. Experience is showing that even with approved ECDIS installations, there are significant issues regarding passage planning and equipment failures with regard to corrections. In PP it is now possible for the navigator to create a plan simply by hitting the load button from a previously saved plan over the same route, without the navigator never having viewed the intended route himself. With Ccs I have seen an example on a paperless ship where one of the two units was corrected up to date and the other had stayed uncorrected at the installation status some 12 months previously. Both units had been systematically updated using the correction CD ROM on receipt and indicated that they had been corrected yet the faulty machine had actually accepted (one assumes) none of the corrections applied. There was no obvious method on either installation to the user of quickly identifying the date or number of last correction.

I would like to be able to print on demand on board the vessel. Keep the minimum amount of paper charts updated for the service, print a new edition when required and mainly use ECDIS. I still think it is important to do a lot of the planning phase on paper but I'm old school. CAG