Hundreds of books have been uploaded onto a hi-spec hand-held device, suitable for use both onshore and on the bridge.
Speaking at the launch, Nautisk CEO Thomas Fjeld said:“Currently, all vessels sailing global routes must carry a full portfolio of navigational publications (NPs) in order to sail compliantly and meet SOLAS regulations. These NPs include a number of IMO publications, sailing directions, pilot guides, radio signals and list of lights.
“Having to carry this amount of hardback books on the bridge of a vessel where space is already at a premium can be challenging for most shipowners and navigating officers. In addition to storage issues, each and every publication needs to be manually updated for the latest corrections, an exercise which can be extremely time consuming and one which potentially offers a chance of human error.
“NaviTab is a brand new solution developed by our team of experts that we expect to revolutionise the way vessels manage their on board NPs. NaviTab stores hundreds of up to date NPs on one single tablet device, which is updated automatically and can be used by shore based and on board teams.”
NaviTab’s optimised, fast search engine automatically locates the latest available publications in a vessels’ holdings and licenses latest editions as and when they are available, meaning that whatever route a vessel is sailing and wherever it is in the world, it will always be compliant and its publication holdings up to date.
Users can search in seconds to find the relevant publication for a particular voyage, bookmark essential notes and add their own. Information and notes can be easily cross referenced and essential data highlighted using the hand written text recognition feature.
Peter Pran, Nautisk head of global sales said:“Every year, chart distributors such as Nautisk ship hundreds of tonnes of paper publications to fleets all over the world. Due to their urgent nature, most of these shipments are airfreighted. Switching to NaviTab’s complete digital library allows a greener form of shipping, with less strain on the environment and a smaller carbon footprint.”
At the launch, Pran said that some 420 tonnes of books are transported mainly by air each year and many are for short time deliveries, escalating the costs still further.
Nautisk’s tablets hold publications from the IMO, Norwegian Hydrographic Service, US Coast Guard, the UK Hydrographic Office and Witherbys, which was described as 85-95% complete.
The cost per tablet is around $3,000, plus the licenses for the publications. The return on investment is claimed to be around 12 months, compared to airfreighting the books.
It will not open books not ordered but will advise of their publication and will recognise and save hand written notes on pages.
The tablet can also be integrated into Nautisk’s fleet management software - Neptune.
Nautisk recommended that vessels carry two tablets each, one for operations and the other as a backup.
NaviTab will be officially launched on 1st April.