BMT SeaTech provides Kiel Canal Pilots Association with PC Rembrandt
18-Dec-2008
BMT SeaTech Ltd, the leading international provider of maritime products and consulting services, and a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, announced today the successful installation of its PC Rembrandt ship simulation system at the headquarters of the Kiel Canal Pilots Association in Brunsbuttel, Northern Germany, allowing flexible, cost effective training for the canal's new pilots.
Current training of Kiel Canal's 123 pilots takes place at the full bridge simulator of the Maritime Academy of Bremen. However, with up to 140 vessel movements a day and growing, it is becoming increasingly difficult for pilots to be removed from the associations watch rotation plan. As a result, a more flexible option was sought and BMT SeaTech was approached to supply a PC Rembrandt solution.
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A 1900teu Container Vessel approaching the Brunsbuttel Locks on the Kiel Canal at night. The console and ECDIS display can be clearly seen. |
Captain Michael Hartmann , chairman of the Kiel-Canal-Pilots Lotsenbrüderschaft NOK I said: "The system exceeds our expectations in many aspects. It is a reliable tool to train basic and enhanced shiphandling, giving us more time for final high level and multiple emergency training sessions using cost intensive full bridge simulators."
PC Rembrandt is a fast time ship-handling and manoeuvring simulator. It is PC based and incorporates standard control and instructor consoles. Included within the Kiel Canal Pilots Association's system are ten ship models of various designs and sizes, including containerships, tankers, bulk carriers and cruise ships. Each model has undergone a rigorous validation process using the ships actual sea trials and full scale performance data, enabling BMT SeaTech to accurately recreate the vessels in its model editing suite. This involves up to 700 parameters being modeled and validated.
The flexibility and variety of the training provided by PC Rembrandt v.4 is vast. As well as the various ship models that it incorporates, it can also include tug, anchor and mooring modules to recreate environmentally demanding scenarios. There are plans to integrate a radar simulation system and AIS to the mini bridge suite, giving pilots the opportunity of conducting blind pilotage and providing real time shipping scenarios from data collected in the River Elbe and the canal.
James Norwood, Manager for the Manoeuvring Simulations Division at BMT SeaTech said: "We are delighted that Kiel Canal Pilots Association has chosen PC Rembrandt to help support the training of its pilots and is a clear endorsement of the quality of the product. We are finding a growing market in the pilot associations around the world for a low cost and flexible training facility. PC Rembrandt provides a perfect opportunity to build on ship handling knowledge in tandem with full bridge simulator training which is important as pressure on trainee pilots time is increasing. PC Rembrandt offers a capability that is convenient, flexible and efficient whilst maintaining the same level of accuracy as full bridge simulators."
