ABERDEEN Harbour Board is to upgrade its ship’s bridge simulator to reflect industry trends and to meet its own and third party requirements for future training.

Since the original simulator was installed at the Board’s Blaikies Quay facility in 2002 at a cost of £150,000, it has been used extensively in the training of Board pilots and other marine staff in port operations and emergency scenarios.

It is also being used increasingly on a commercial basis for training and assessing pilots from other ports and crews of offshore oil industry safety standby vessels.

The simulator is to be relocated to the Board’s new Marine Operations Centre at North Pier when operating software and some of the hardware will be upgraded.

The Board’s Operations Director & Harbour Master, Captain Ray Shaw, said: “The simulator is a valuable tool, and we expect to undertake more in-house training in the future. The enhanced equipment will make an increased contribution to operations and safety at the port, and also to marine activities undertaken by others.”

The improved graphics will give a far more realistic appearance to the display on a curved screen, while the addition of new, reversible vessel controls will allow ship models to be operated from both ends of the wheelhouse and will reflect the equipment installed on modern oil support vessels and tugs.

An additional smaller ship’s bridge is also to be added, allowing training to include the interaction between a large vessel and a tug or a standby vessel and her daughter craft.

The upgrade is costing around £150,000, with the contract for the work awarded to Transas Marine.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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