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Towards autonomous
shipping: social acceptance
and regulatory hurdles
The maritime industry’s progress towards autonomous shipping will largely depend
on social acceptance and regulatory developments, says ABB Marine and Ports’
Capt. Eero Lehtovaara. Digital Ship reports on a discussion held between several
maritime experts on what autonomous shipping really means for the industry.
C
apt. Eero Lehtovaara,
head of regulatory affairs,
ABB Marine and Ports
says that when it comes to
automating shipping, one uncertainty
is the role the human will play and
the willingness to integrate new solu-
tions and trial new ways of working.
During an online press event held on
June 30, he said that, “Most part of
technology is available, but we need
to figure out the social license to oper-
ate these technologies and that also
means the regulatory side.
“We will always have humans in
the loop,” he said. “The key drivers of
autonomous operations won’t
remove people from the ship.”
He sees technology coming
onboard to help with decision sup-
port and this will change the way the
industry works. One scenario he
pointed to was the working hours of
crew. He said that if a ship was sail-
ing in the open sea with nothing in
the near vicinity, then it might be pos-
sible for the crew to work regular
office hours. “The work patterns
could change, there could be some-
what more social norms of work, but
all supporting technology will be test-
Safely connected at sea.
DĂƌŝƟŵĞŶƟǀŝƌƵƐ
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Koperhoek 8 a/b • 3162 LA RHOON • The Netherlands • T +31 (0)10 260 00 41 • T +65 3158 16 17 • E sales@port-it.nl • I www.port-it.nl
ABB’s Bridge Zero concept could provide watch-keepers with further support
for autonomous shipping. Image courtesy of ABB.
ed and we will see how it matures
and if there’s a will for that.”
One aspect ABB and other solution
providers will be keeping an eye on is
how the markets develop. For ABB,
the demand from customers is essen-
tial to ensure they have buyers for
their technology.
“If they’re not buying it it doesn’t
make sense for us to produce it,”
Capt. Lehtovaara said.
There are also additional safety
ŽŵƉůĞƚĞ/d ^ĞĐƵƌĞŵĂƌŝƟŵĞ
ŶĞƚǁŽƌŬƐĞĐƵƌŝƚLJ ĞͲŵĂŝůƐŽůƵƟŽŶ
October /
November 2020
IN THIS ISSUE
Advanced Technology
Optimising ship-berth
compatibility - 4
Shipping firms wasting money on poor
exchange rates - 14
Software & Sensors
Maritime IoT for remote
expert intervention - 16
Bunker Connect – a digital bunker broker - 24
Satcoms
Digital control in an era of
uncertainty - 28
Building the future while navigating a
pandemic - 30
Cybersecurity
New focus on cybersecurity
as IMO 2021 looms - 36
concerns when it comes to
autonomous shipping operations, Analysing ship-shore data traffic for
which Capt. Lehtovaara said could possible hackers - 38
cause hesitation in uptake. “There
needs to be the social acceptance to
use the technology.
e-Learning supplement
“Externally and internally, we
hear that the ships, technologies, and MedAssist.online – apps for
systems need to be as safe as conven- remote medical care - 40
tional ships are. This also means that
we have the liability aspect.”
He noted that there are still a large
Seably – an online learning community - 42
continued on page 2
^ĞůĨͲŵĂŶĂŐĞĚ KŶďŽĂƌĚ/d
ǁŝĮŽŶďŽĂƌĚ services
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:57 Page 2
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Vol 21 No 2
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continued from page 1
number of unanswered questions, and
these need to be pursued gradually. “It is
not possible to jump from the stone age
and go the moon.
“The regulatory bodies want to see safe-
ty within this discussion so when they reg-
ulate something it will be accepted as a
norm by the industry.”
He sees the market developing gradual-
ly, with the same technology being used
but a change in the way we connect them
and rely on them for decision making. “It’s
how we apply them that’s important,”
he said.
Four degrees of
automation
Inmarsat’s Marco Cristoforo Camporeale,
head of maritime digital, explained the
four degrees of shipping’s journey to
autonomous operations.
In the first degree, ships will benefit
from automated processes and decision
support, but the crew will remain in full
control of the vessel. The idea is to digi-
talise and improve operational efficiency,
comply with regulations and support
crew welfare.
In the first degree, “Connectivity
required for automation and decision sup-
port tools is already what we are living
today, and there is an ecosystem
of providers to provide IOT platforms
to enable big exchanges of data,”
he explained.
According to Mr Camporeale, in
Maersk Line’s fleet of 275 owned and man-
aged vessels there are more than 2,800 sen-
sors onboard and almost 30TB of data per
month downloaded. This equates to 110GB
per vessel per month. By deploying these
automated processes, Maersk saves more
than US $20 million in fuel costs across the
entire fleet.
The second degree of automation sees
remotely controlled ships but with seafar-
ers still onboard. “We start to see what is
possible and make assumptions,” Mr
Camporeale confirmed. Connectivity is
important with availability, latency and
capacity increased with redundancy and
multiple systems in place. Manual control
of the ship as it nears shore or in the event
of an emergency would be possible.
“There is also more dedicated band-
width for specific applications. We have to
make sure vital systems get the connectiv-
ity they require and don’t have to fight
for it.
“Seafarers will have more time to
do more things than just follow up on
operations thanks to connectivity,” said
Mr Camporeale.
“Degree three is a bit more of a chal-
lenge as it refers to a remote-controlled
ship without seafarers onboard.
“This means that loss of connectivity is
not acceptable as there is nobody onboard
to take over the ship.”
At the third degree, latency and capaci-
ty are important but also become a chal-
lenge. “We need to have a near real-time
control of the ship when getting close to
port or shores. Livestreaming for multiple
cameras to avoid compromising control
will be essential.”
At the fourth degree, ships become fully
autonomous. “Instead of people onboard,
we have autonomous navigation systems,”
he said. Connectivity will still be important
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 2
Autonomous maritime ecosystem One Sea plans to make autonomous commercial
maritime applications happen by 2025. Image courtesy of One Sea.
as autonomous ships should be able to
take themselves into a safe situation dur-
ing an emergency.
Mr Camporeale went onto explain that
fully autonomous systems onboard ships
might be similar to what we see today in
other industries. It would mean that
when a vessel gets close to shore, the
autonomous system hands over to a
remote-control station and then the higher
capacity and lower latency of LT wireless
systems come into play.
Classification and
regulation
Giving an overview on the classification
and regulation of autonomous shipping,
Mr Tomoaki Yamada, manager of research
institute at ClassNK talked about the clas-
sification society’s guidelines for imple-
menting autonomous shipping operations.
The guidelines which were issued in
January 2020 include overall common
basic requirements and procedures from
the viewpoint of safety verification at each
life-cycle stage.
Recently, ClassNK granted an approval
in principle (AiP) to NYK Line and MTI for
their joint project on the concept design of
an autonomous ship framework.
Part of awarding this AiP was based on
the Action, Planning, and Execution
System (APExS) framework.
APExS ensures a safe procedure is fol-
lowed. It includes a range of basic safety
elements such as defining the task of auto-
mated operation systems (AOS) including
prevention of collisions and groundings,
and classifying the roles of humans and
computer systems. With situational aware-
ness, the computer system plans the deci-
sion, the decision is then approved by the
human and if approved, the computer can
take action.
Mr Yamada said that ClassNK’s next con-
tribution to the maritime industry involves
establishing evaluation methods, tools and
criteria that take into account the knowl-
edge gained in demonstration projects.
In order to confirm the validity and
integrity of automated operation systems
(AOS), the class society will utilise simu-
lation methods to simulate different
situations.
The autonomous
maritime ecosystem
Autonomous maritime ecosystem One
Sea has an ambitious plan to make
autonomous commercial maritime appli-
cations happen by 2025.
Jukka Merenluoto, senior ecosystem
lead at One Sea explained that One Sea’s
Sea4Value roadmap is helping to improve
safe navigation for existing vessels, while
laying the ground for future autonomous
vessels.
The Sea4Value roadmap includes three
key domains: smart ports, smart shipping,
and smart fairway navigation.
Mr Merenluoto said in the future the
decision-making environments will be
shifted in locations due to remote opera-
tions. The fairway navigation, which there
are numerous ongoing projects for, seeks
to find answers to a number of questions,
including:
• What are the future themes that will
ensure safe navigation?
• How can we build necessary
situational awareness to enable assist-
ed navigation?
• Which part of the intelligence should
be built on fairway and surrounding
infrastructure?
• What are the changes to be done in
fairways and existing navigational and
communications within short and
medium term?
The program aims to be transformative,
providing research-based guidance on
data usage and sharing. The program
targets demonstrations and experiments
that are important milestones in the jour-
ney of smart and autonomous maritime
transport.
COVID-19
The global coronavirus pandemic has
caused many industries to slow down but
for shipping it has in some part accelerated
the adoption of digital solutions.
Capt. Lehtovaara said that the
pandemic may result in a, “rise in digital-
isation with a different curve than we
anticipated.
“When and how that will happen is
another question,” he said. However, he
expects intelligent systems, electrification,
and connectivity on ships to come back
stronger than before COVID-19.
Mr Camporeale said that he sees
enhanced interest in data and ship perfor-
mance following the outbreak. “The
demand for platforms to extract data out
of vessels is exploding. Enabling remote
support from shore to seafarers onboard
the ship has grown a lot, and develop-
ment overall is being pushed at a higher
speed.” DS
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ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Optimising ship-berth compatibility
A time and cost-efficient voyage will in part be determined by the ability for a ship to berth quickly and safely
and access the services it needs. Digital Ship spoke with Inchcape Shipping Services to discuss
how to optimise the operational side of ship to berth compatibility.
T
he international shipping indus-
try is constantly striving to
improve performance and reap
the benefits of more efficient
shipping operations. However, one aspect
that is often left out of the conversation,
and of which is a significant contributor to
inefficiency, is the compatibility between a
ship and its berth. Optimal ship berthing is
an essential part of maintaining efficient
and smooth operations.
Speaking with Digital Ship, Jeff Clark,
Inchcape’s VP of Sales and Product
Development explained that, “Often ships
are not compatible with berths due to dif-
ferences in vessel size, most often to do
with the length, draught, or beam.”
Traditionally, port information has been
collected by publishers and transferred
from the ports and their authorities to the
ship side. This process is far from efficient
and it can often be anywhere from two to
ten years before information on a port or
berth is updated. Ultimately, this means
that a ship could be planning its docking
with out-of-date information.
In addition to the physical incompatibil-
ities between ship and berth, not all ports
will offer all facilities. A ship requiring a
specific service, such as shore power con-
nectivity or a type of bunker, may find
themselves unexpectedly without.
World of Ports 2.0
Inchcape Shipping Services offers an inno-
vative platform that helps shipping com-
Collection, analysis and interpretation of data from ship systems will become critical for compliance.
panies to manage the operational side of
ship to berth compatibility. The World of
Ports (WOP) platform was originally
rolled out in 2007 and covers 4,600 ports,
15,000 terminals and 36,000 individual
berths. It gives a complete overview of the
ports, berths and terminals and their
restrictions, as well as port cost analytics
and terminal performance and benchmark-
ing, all under one sleek interface.
A simple search function on the plat-
form enables the user to instantly access all
compatible and non-compatible berths for
a given location, helping to eliminate sur-
prises by identifying potential problems
pre-voyage.
The platform offers up-to-date informa-
tion on terminals, down to individual ports
and berths, and their restrictions, enabling
shipping companies to plan their voyages
under one interface, rather than handling
multiple communications.
In the last 18 months, Inchcape has been
redeveloping the WOP platform and has
just launched version 2.0.
The updated version focuses on
automating the processes seen online and
brings additional benefits like advanced
filters for pinpoint searches, geofencing of
all ports, terminals and berths to avoid
ambiguity of locations, timestamps for pre-
cision and confidence on arrivals and
departures, and a range of custom alerts.
World of Ports 2.0 uses Inchcape’s glob-
al network of port agents and expert data
analysts to collect, update and verify port
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 4
The platform offers up-to-date information on
terminals, down to individual ports and berths,
and their restrictions, enabling shipping companies
to plan their voyages under one interface
restrictions and cost data. The agents on
the ground have direct contact with port
authorities and terminals to obtain the
most accurate and up-to-date information
on the port. Mr Clark explained to us that
the central data analyst team is made up of
ex-seafarers and headed up by a master
mariner, ensuring that the team has a thor-
ough understanding and knowledge
around the importance of ship and berth
compatibility.
“With access to Inchcape’s global net-
work of port agents, new information can
be revealed every 6 months or so and with
the latest 2.0 version, WOP can set update
cycles that means information updates can
be guaranteed. Inchcape has complete con-
trol over the update schedule and the pro-
cess of verification,” he said.
WOP 2.0 also provides information on
available bunkers at specific ports and
whether they can be delivered by barge. In
addition, port disposal or reception facili-
ties are highlighted.
Subscribers are able to go online and
obtain a daily update regarding the situa-
tion at any given port.
Timestamped data
for visibility
One of the newest features of WOP 2.0 is
the Timestamp feature. The Timestamp
provides confirmation of when the infor-
mation on the berth or terminal was last
updated. According to Mr Clark, the
added feature means that as soon as the
updated information comes to Inchcape, it
is immediately published on the WOP sys-
tem, following two levels of verification by
the agents.
This means that anyone using the data
knows where it came from and when,
bringing a new level of confidence to the
user. In addition, many of WOP’s cus-
tomers audit Inchcape on a yearly basis to
ensure the company is adhering to those
timestamps.
In the latest WOP 2.0 version, Inchcape
has combined the port terminal and berth
restriction data with vessel parameter data,
enabling the user to automatically com-
pare the vessel with the berth to run a com-
patibility check. “The customers have two
datasets in their system, and they can run a
compatibility check, but with the WOP
version 2.0 we now do this compatibility
check behind the scenes.”
This added benefit means that when a
customer chooses a certain type or size of
vessel, they are able to check by country
or by region where the compatible loca-
tions are, or they can do it specifically by
port and identify the compatible berth
locations.
Precise vessel tracking
WOP 2.0 also benefits from integrated AIS
to pinpoint exact vessel movements and
their operational statuses.
“As soon as a vessel comes into a port,
its operational data is automated via AIS.
We can track a vessel’s movement and
speed and we use it to predict its ETA. This
is all automated which means that a lot of
manual work has been taken out of the
process.
“If anything changes, such as a vessel
that is coming into port is a bigger size
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 22:08 Page 5

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p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:57 Page 6
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
A screenshot of World of Ports 2.0 showing key statistics for the Port of Singapore,
including vessels at port and current turnaround time for different ship types.
than the berth has room for, we’re able to
automatically send an alert to our teams
who are able to go to the berth and update
the information there,” Mr Clark
explained.
AIS also enables Inchcape to automati-
cally track and monitor the quality of cargo
a vessel is carrying, its loaded or discharge
status and its operational status. This can
be seen across all vessels arriving and
departing ports, giving maximum trans-
parency to WOP customers. “The best
feedback we’ve had so far is the level of
transparency it provides. It enables the
customer to see what they are doing and if
they need to make any immediate
changes,” Mr Clark said. “It’s really help-
ing the decision-making process.”
WOP 2.0 also benefits from an added
geofencing parameter. Each terminal and
berth is geofenced and geocoded, meaning
that the exact location can be pinpointed,
avoiding duplicate locations.
According to Mr Clark, there is some
ambiguity with location. “Different com-
panies might call the same berth different
things so having a geocoordinate is impor-
Windward launches AI-powered
predictive intelligence solution
www.wnwd.com
Windward, the predictive maritime intelli-
gence company, has launched its next-gen-
eration Maritime Predictive Intelligence
solution powered by Maritime Artificial
Intelligence Analytics (MAIA).
Consisting of 10bn datapoints and
300 behavioural analysis models,
MAIA empowers organisations to make
smarter and faster decisions and optimise
operations.
MAIA screens, searches and analyses
dynamic maritime data to connect the dots
and discover potential risks and question-
able business partners. By continuously
applying MAIA’s behavioural analysis
models, Windward’s solution provides
dynamic Predictive Intelligence based on
vessel identity, cargo visibility, true loca-
tion, voyage patterns, and more. MAIA
links this knowledge into patterns and
profiles that create new insights and
enable the digital transformation of the
maritime ecosystem.
Voyage Irregularities is one of the many
tant to help you find exactly which location
it is.”
Custom geo-fencing (Polygons) can
also be enabled to monitor specific areas
and identify when a vessel enters that
area. These could be set up for low emis-
sion or regulated zones, or dangerous
waters where piracy, for instance, is a
high risk.
Customisable data
“WOP’s 2.0 Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs) are created based on cus-
tomer feedback,” said Mr Clark. The aim is
to be as flexible as possible and create an
experience for the user that enables them
to access the data that they want.
“The API module enables the user to
select certain levels of the data that you
want to integrate into your system. So, if
you wanted port level data or coordinates
sent across, or if you wanted enviro-regs,
you can have an API set up for that. It is
totally up to the customers and users as to
what they want to see.”
Mr Clark confirmed that an API can be
set up in just a few minutes.
new features powered by MAIA, provid-
ing clients with a 360° smart profile of each
entity to bring transparency and account-
ability to the global maritime grid. By
detecting inconsistencies and behavioural
irregularities, including the vessel’s age,
ship to ship transfers, course deviations,
transmission gaps, flag hopping, and
more, Windward’s Predictive Intelligence
solution enables industry players to be
proactive, ensuring they only do business
with entities that comply with all the latest
regulations.
“We are excited to usher in the era of
Maritime 4.0, the next evolution of mar-
itime intelligence empowering all stake-
holders in the ecosystem,” said Ami
Daniel, CEO of Windward. “Risk manage-
ment lies at the core of any business oper-
ation, and maritime is no exception. With
our Predictive Intelligence solution, we are
giving authorities, banks, insurers, ship-
ping companies, and others the most com-
prehensive view of maritime risk and
enabling the highest level of accountability
and transparency.”
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 6
A screenshot of World of Ports 2.0, showing the geofencing function
at the Port of Singapore.
COVID-19
“COVID-19 has been a huge challenge, but
the team has risen to it,” Mr Clark con-
firmed. “Collecting information through
the virus at different ports and getting that
data back to customers has been more dif-
ficult but we have been able to manage,”
he said.
As well as the challenges, COVID-19
has presented some opportunities. “We
don’t tend to change that well in the indus-
try and I think we will see this accelerate
over the next 12 months. On the shore side
I think you will see a lot more in terms of
digital applications. My personal view is
that there will be a huge shift over next 12
months. Things like Just-in-Time arrival,
huge digital projects in environmental reg-
ulations and ERP; I think we’re going to
see more shipping companies dipping into
voyage accounting and reporting and it’s a
perfect time to do it.”
Future goals
Mr Clark confirmed that Inchcape is con-
stantly adding new locations to its WOP
platform and in the last month alone has
Yara Marine launches start-up
accelerator program
www.yaramarine.com
Yara Marine Technologies has announced
its new corporate accelerator program,
Yara Marine X, a start-up competition aim-
ing to provide a home for technology and
solutions that will contribute to a greener
maritime industry.
The competition is designed to attract
mature start-ups looking for partners and
investors. “We will be recruiting young
companies or professionals with a focus on
sustainability and green solutions within
vessel operations,” confirmed YMT strate-
gy business development manager
Thomas Gabestad. “Candidates will need
to be adjacent to what we do in order to
enhance our corporate performance as a
whole and help us to build on our strong
brand.”
“Our corporate mission is to nurture
the next generation of high value, high
performance sustainable ocean technolo-
gies,” said Yara Marine CEO Thomas
Koniordos. “With this new program, we
are seeking to position Yara Marine in the
received over 1,000 new locations come
through. Any new location requires manu-
al verification from the agents before they
can be added to the system. He empha-
sised that manual verification is essential
to retaining customer confidence.
Inchcape is also developing ways to
improve port information. “We are cur-
rently running a project with Port Xchange
called ‘Healthy and Connected’, which
helps companies to exchange information
and data to improve port call efficiency,”
Mr Clark confirmed.
Inchcape will also continue to develop
its new Port Cost Estimator, Port
Performance module and Market
Intelligence module over the next 18
months. The engine for all these modules
was developed in the earlier WOP
version, and the next step is to focus on
developing the User Interface (UI) for the
new modules.
WOP offers different levels of subscrip-
tions from Bronze to Platinum member-
ship, enabling the user to select whether to
use all of the WOP services or just one or
two features. DS
global start-up space while developing
new opportunities for the company.” The
long-term goal for the program is to inte-
grate new ideas into the Yara Marine
business.
The winner will enter a bootcamp ori-
entation of two weeks, followed by six
months in a tailored accelerator program.
The program includes office space, a USD
10,000 up-front stimulus grant, potential
later-stage investment from Yara Marine,
and access to the company’s mentors, net-
work and facilities. Piloting and distribu-
tion opportunities with Yara Marine cus-
tomers, suppliers and network are part of
the longer-term plan.
Target sources include ocean and mar-
itime clusters, incubators, universities,
various maritime programs, and the glob-
al start-up media. Key markets for the new
technologies will be Asia, the Americas,
and Europe. The winning candidate will
take up residence at the company’s
Headquarters in Oslo.
Applications end October 11, 2020. The
winner will be announced on November 4.
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:57 Page 7
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ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Using robot ships to inspect
and survey ocean infrastructures
Norwegian manufacturer Grovfjord Mek. Verksted (GMV) is building an Armada of large,
cutting-edge robot ships for Ocean Infinity, the marine robotics company.
A
new fleet of ultra-low emission
marine robots will be deployed
from shorelines across the
globe, inspecting pipeline and
subsea infrastructures and delivering data
in real-time.
Each robot will be equipped with
geophysical sensors and navigational
technology to gather data from the shal-
lowest to deepest waters. The robots can
deploy an ROV for visual and acoustic
data acquisition.
The robots will be capable of rapid and
wide area ocean searches, making them
well suited to government and defence
projects.
The fleet does not require a host vessel,
while each robot has been specifically
designed to include highly efficient pro-
pellers, engines, and batteries, to reduce
emissions by up to 90 per cent compared
with conventional survey methods.
The robots will be remotely operated
from onshore staff via satellite communi-
cations to ensure safety for all personnel.
Staff will be located in one of 3 global con-
trol centres in Austin, Texas, Southampton
in England and a location in Asia still
DNV GL conducts remote in-water ship surveys
www.dnvgl.com
The first in-water remote ship surveys
using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV)
have been completed by classification soci-
ety DNV GL.
In-water bottom surveys using ROVs
A VUVI AS remotely operated vehicle.
to be determined.
The robots will be transported world-
wide by airplanes. They will be deployed
from anywhere in the world, even the
remotest of locations
GMV is Norway’s largest manufacturer
of aluminium work boats and is located in
Grovfjord in Sør-Troms. GMV carries out
all of the design work itself in close collab-
oration with its customers. The manufac-
turer has a large electrical department with
high expertise in battery technology and
develops its own control systems.
GMV has already started the construc-
tion of Ocean Infinity’s first four 21m
autonomous vessels.
The company is near completion of the
design work on 36m autonomous vessels,
with the same advanced vessel technology
as the 21m vessel, but with increased pay-
load capability.
“We are ahead of the rest of the world in
terms of our commitments and ambitions
for delivering low environmental impact
maritime services. We spent a long time
deciding who to select to build these first
of a kind vessels for our Armada fleet and
are incredibly excited about working with
have now been carried out on three sepa-
rate Wilson ASA-managed vessels with the
first having been completed on the Wilson
Fedje in December 2019 by a surveyor from
Høvik.
The latest in-water survey of this kind
was performed earlier in July on another
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 8
The robots will equipped with ROVs and AUVs as well as a variety of other sensors or
equipment to inspect and collect data in real-time.
the team at GMV who bring many years of
experience building highly efficient vessels
for operations in the harshest of condi-
tions,” explained Dan Hook, Ocean
Infinity, managing director.
ASA Wilson-managed vessel in Bergen,
Norway. Elias Triantafyllidis, the remote
surveyor, attended the survey from the
DNV GL DATE (Direct Access to Experts)
hub in Piraeus, Greece.
As with the two previous surveys, it
was conducted in collaboration with VUVI
AS, a Norwegian inspection company cer-
tified by DNV GL to perform underwater
inspections for ships and offshore plat-
forms using ROVs.
“We are delighted to have collaborated
with VUVI and Wilson ASA to deliver
this exciting new approach to remote sur-
veys,” said Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of
DNV GL - Maritime. “DNV GL has been
carrying out remote surveys since 2018, so
this service is an extension of a broad
suite of remote services that are already
available.
“Naturally, the pandemic has pushed
us to scale up the intensity of remote ser-
vice delivery and we are fortunate that our
longstanding commitment to digital
advancement has meant we are well posi-
tioned to respond to the needs of our cus-
tomers during this difficult time.”
Survey planning and review of hull
drawings were completed the day prior to
the survey, thereby optimising the degree
of survey assurance. During the inspec-
tion, the surveyor used VUVI’s sonar tech-
nology to scan the vessel’s bottom in order
The vessels will be built according to
DNV GL class and British flag. The first
delivery is planned late this year, and the
rest of the deliveries will take place in the
period 2021-2023. DS
to locate the hull equipment, such as echo
sounder sensors; speed log sensors and sea
chests, while simultaneously assessing the
general condition of the hull.
Seamless connectivity was ensured
throughout the survey thanks to the use of
a powerful router. The in-water survey
was concluded in a similar timeframe to
traditional surveys, which is two-and-a-
half hours, achieving the same level of
assurance as an in-person survey. DNV
GL’s digital industry platform Veracity
was used by VUVI AS, DNV GL and
Wilson ASA to ensure secure data transfer
when saving and sharing the video stream
from the remote survey.
“Working in a modern world, with
technologies allowing us carry out a bot-
tom-survey without deviation or off-hire,
we are really enabling a huge potential for
efficiency and environmentally friendly
solutions,” said Thorbjørn Dalsøren, gen-
eral director of Wilson Ship Management.
"We trust this will be adapted to several
more of our operations, taking advantage
of digital solutions.”
Statutory and class regulations require
two bottom surveys of a vessel within a
five-year period, with an interval of less
than 36 months in between. The certifica-
tion of VUVI AS was conducted in accor-
dance with Class Programme DNV GL-
CP0484 for in-water inspections.
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:57 Page 9

AR Navigation System AR-100M can be fitted on ships under construction as well as those in operation.

More details on
www.furuno.com
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:57 Page 10
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Making ship systems smarter
with simulation
As researchers deepen their understanding of autonomous and remote vessel operations,
a new breed of smart ship systems combining simulation capability and artificial intelligence is emerging.
O
ne of the biggest debates
around the future of shipping
is what role, if any, unmanned
vessels will play. The journey
may turn out to be more important than
the destination: the pursuit of vessel auton-
omy is already leading to smarter systems
that can enhance safety, cost-efficiency,
and environmental performance even on
today’s vessels. Simulation technology is
playing a key role in their development.
“We have a vision of a more efficient,
more connected, smart marine ecosystem,”
said Neil Bennett, global director of
Simulation at Wärtsilä Voyage. “Being part
of the development of autonomous ship-
ping is fundamental to shaping that
future.”
Simulation is integral to developing
autonomous systems. The computer mod-
els that underpin simulation-based train-
ing – capable of replicating almost infinite
permutations of marine environments,
vessel traffic situations, and ship equip-
ment – are the same that are used to inform
the decision-making capabilities of intelli-
gent systems. Deployed in real time with
real people in simulators, those same mod-
els can be used to test and validate the
human-machine interface and, eventually,
to teach the crew how to use those systems.
Three projects at Solent University,
Southampton in the UK highlight the
diverse roles that simulation plays. The
university’s research staff in the Warsash
School of Maritime Science and
Engineering recently participated in the
MAXCMAS project – a GBP 1.4 mn, two-
year project in which autonomous vessels
were programmed to obey maritime regu-
lations for the avoidance of collisions. The
project tested the algorithms it had devel-
oped by modelling scenarios using simula-
tion before a live trial was conducted
A simulator at the Solent University, Southampton. Image courtesy of Solent University.
onboard an autonomous minesweeping
vessel in Weymouth Bay.
Building in seamanship
Preparing vessels to obey regulations writ-
ten with human seafarers in mind is not a
simple task, explained Terry Mills, senior
simulation technician at Solent University,
Southampton. “The regulations are well
written, but are always open to interpreta-
tion. And the interpreter is a human. A
machine sees rules in black and white, so
we had to build in seamanship. We ended
up with a set of algorithms and an interface
that could be retrofitted to any size of
ship.”
A much larger project was the Europe-
wide, EUR 43 mn, Sea Traffic Management
initiative. Ten simulator training centres –
the European Maritime Simulator
Network – worked together with the goal
of understanding and then facilitating the
kind of data exchange that will be crucial
for safely operating autonomous vessels.
Wärtsilä, as a simulation provider, took
part in this project, which Mr Mills
describes as an attempt to establish “air
traffic control at sea.” One key goal was
understanding the data sharing needed
between ports, vessels, and other stake-
holders – such as ship service providers
and onward logistics companies – to
enable "just-in-time" sailing.
Three hundred vessels were fitted with
tools to collect and transfer data. Studying
interactions between these vessels provid-
ed important insights into how sea traffic
could be better managed to optimise vessel
voyages and port calls – reducing fuel cost
and emissions. But even with so many ves-
sels participating, the number of times
ships would meet each other physically
would have been rather limited. With the
help of the simulator network, they met
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 10
Simulation is integral to developing autonomous systems. Image courtesy of Satakunta
University of Applied Sciences (SAMK).
virtually, giving researchers the opportu-
nity to collect more data faster.
Remote control training
A new potential project builds on Solent’s
strong previous experience in remote and
autonomous ship systems. The university
is bidding for funding to extend its investi-
gations into training seafarers in remote
operations. The project aims to link
Warsash’s simulation centre with one of
the scale models it currently uses for ship
handling training at a dedicated facility,
Timsbury Lake. By using a simulator pro-
grammed with a scale model of the vessel
and the lake area to control a real vessel,
the project will provide a more realistic
training experience for remote seafarers.
“One of the biggest barriers to training
for remote operations is the capacity to test
on full-scale ships,” said Mr Mills. “Using
a real vessel would be expensive and dan-
gerous if something went wrong.
Simulations are great for learning pilot
skills, but cannot provide that jeopardy.”
The risk of putting a dent in one of the
scale models on Timsbury Lake will pro-
vide that dose of realism. The fact that stu-
dents will be operating manned models
the same area will also allow researchers to
study the interaction between remotely
operated vessels and manned craft.
To assist in autonomous and advanced
navigation projects such as these, Wärtsilä
has created an open approach that makes it
simpler for universities and research insti-
tutions to deploy its simulation technolo-
gies. While Wärtsilä often provides the
hardware for such projects – including 3D
screens and control units reproducing
bridges – it is the software that is more crit-
ical. This includes the operating platform
as well as models of sea areas and ship sys-
tems that can then be used in simulator
rooms or fed into computers as needed.
One example is the Intelligent Shipping
Technology Test Laboratory (ISTLAB) at
the Satakunta University of Applied
Sciences (SAMK) in Rauma, Finland. The
lab, among the first of its kind, is designed
as a testing environment for remotely con-
trolled, autonomous vessels. Wärtsilä
recently delivered a navigation simulator
and specific mathematical models for the
project. They will be used to carry out sim-
ulated testing of remote-controlled vessels
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:58 Page 11
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:58 Page 12
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
that the organisers hope will culminate in a
real-world case study.
The smart tug of
tomorrow
The benefits of early-stage simulation test-
ing are already being seen in one real-life
application – the IntelliTug project, a col-
laboration between Wärtsilä and
Singapore’s leading harbour and terminal
towage operator, PSA Marine. The project
aims to develop the smart tug of the future
by retrofitting Wärtsilä’s smart navigation
system on PSA Marine’s harbour tug, PSA
Polaris. Through the simulator, the team
tested the integration of cutting-edge tech-
nologies deployed – including collision
avoidance software and system usability –
with feedbacks from PSA Marine’s tug
masters. The success of the simulations
boosted the project team’s confidence to
proceed with the next stage of the testing.
In March 2020, Wärtsilä and PSA Marine
successfully completed initial sea trials for
the IntelliTug project.
The smart navigation system, com-
prised of Wärtsilä’s Dynamic Positioning
system, a sensor suite and a newly devel-
oped sensor fusion engine, allows the tug
master to carry out passage planning while
maintaining safe distances from other ves-
sels during autonomous navigation. The
Navisense rolls out AI-based tech to
improve port towage efficiency
www.navisense.de
www.svitzer.com
Maritime technology company Navisense
and towage operator Svitzer have teamed
up to make port towage services more effi-
cient and sustainable.
The Porttracker system demonstrates
how a combination of various data streams
and knowledge of operating towing ves-
sels can result in a cost effective and easy
to use tool, primarily focused on reducing
fuel consumption, cutting emissions, and
improving the environmental performance
of a shipping company.
Porttracker is jointly developed and to
date deployed in 21 harbours in Australia
and Europe.
The main advantage of Porttracker over
other approaches, according to Carsten
Bullemer, Navisense founder and CEO, is
that it operates without any need for
onboard installations or manual input.
“Our system is designed to be deployed
effortlessly in any port worldwide and cal-
culates fuel consumption by combining
positional, weather, tidal, and engine data.
At the heart of our tool, a smart event-log-
ging algorithm automatically detects and
displays all operations. Based on this high
frequent AIS stream, it instantly identifies
behaviours of all vessels and registers
events,” he explained.
“Traditionally, captains have had to log
their job timestamps manually. Instead,
our system now helps them to focus on
doing what they do best - manoeuvring
the tug.”
Importantly, instead of having to rely
on ex-post statistics and number crunch-
ing, the Navisense technology tracks and
“We took the decision to try and debug all the pieces in the simulation using
the actual control and a mathematical model of the engine. From an
engineering perspective, we saved a huge amount of time, making quick
mistakes as cheaply and as safely as possible”
- Alexander Ozersky, deputy general manager of Intelligent Systems, Wärtsilä Voyage
IntelliTug project enhances the tug mas- ronments is another challenge entirely. in ports – needs to absorb the habits of
ters’ capabilities through heightened situa- Here, the capability to simulate scenarios is local traffic and refine its simulations
tional awareness and eases the task of just one building block. Another necessary based on its observation of how vessels
addressing other complex demands they foundation is the ability for systems to actually move. So far, the system has col-
may face. learn from experience. lected data on traffic movements at several
Alexander Ozersky, deputy general It is a challenge that Wärtsilä has ports. With each new set of data, the simu-
manager of Intelligent Systems, Wärtsilä already addressed in its Advanced lations become more realistic.
Voyage, explained: “Every system sepa- Intelligent Manoeuvring (AIM) function, This combination of simulation and
rately was complex, and once you connect part of its package of artificial intelligence machine learning will be critical in control-
them it was going to be even more chal- tools. AIM is a track prediction system and ling autonomous vessels. It is already
lenging. We took the decision to try and anti-collision support tool designed to available in decision-support software
debug all the pieces in the simulation using improve situational awareness and reduce today and is being trialled in autonomous
the actual control and a mathematical the probability of officer inattention or navigation systems. Before it is let loose on
model of the engine. From an engineering poor judgement leading to an incident. It a wider scale, there are many problems to
perspective, we saved a huge amount of anticipates that vessels will move in com- be solved. Among these are the ways in
time, making quick mistakes as cheaply pliance with collision regulations, but also which autonomous vessels interact with
and as safely as possible.” needs to account for how humans interpret other automated systems that do not fol-
Testing the integration of systems on an those regulations in various situations. low similar protocols – let alone the even
autonomous vessel is one thing; providing “Interpretation depends on context,” less predictable ways in which manned
the systems involved with the intelligence said Mr Ozersky. “The acceptable distance craft may respond to autonomous ships.
to make decisions in complex marine envi- between vessels is one example. Less than Mr Bennett concluded: “Our simulation
one mile would be unusual in open water technologies are providing researchers
but very normal in a harbour.” with a platform to run these studies, and
Simulation meets
we are constantly being challenged by the
need to advance our technology further.
machine learning
The artificial intelligence for AIM and
We can already do a lot with the technolo-
gies we have, and we are evolving prod-
other products – including Wärtsilä’s ucts to meet the needs of future
analyses the operations of harbour tugs in Vessel Traffic Services for managing traffic autonomous vessel systems.” DS
real-time to facilitate proactive planning of
the job. “Once set up, our system monitors
all events in the area covered and produces
fully automatic reports for each assisted
movement,” said Mr Bullemer. “This gen-
erates immense market knowledge and
provides support for fuel consumption
and CO2 reporting.”
“At Svitzer, we are always looking at
the best ways to integrate innovative tech-
nologies in both our strategy and our daily
operation for the benefit of our people, our
customers, and the environment where we
operate. Navisense has created a tool that
is cost effective and, with its remarkable
user friendliness, easy to implement. With
Porttracker, we are able to review all oper-
ations in our ports and identify areas of
improvement specifically during the mob
and demob phases of a towage job,” com-
mented Evangelos Fragkoulis, Svitzer
chief technical officer leading the
Porttracker program.
“We have completed the installation of
Porttracker at 21 ports. Right now, we are
in ‘run mode’ and already recording sig-
nificant reductions in fuel consumption
across the board. This is the first step
towards achieving full fuel efficiency and
improving our environmental perform-
ance. Navisense has been a reliable partner
on this journey, and we look forward to
the future. There are additional ideas for
improvement being developed that will
make Porttracker even better!”
Encouraged by the results so far, Svitzer
and Navisense are in discussions to roll-
out the system elsewhere, further building
Porttracker as an integrated data platform
for tugboat operational needs.
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 10
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:58 Page 13
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:58 Page 14
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Shipping firms wasting money on poor exchange rates
Foreign exchange firm Currency Global believes that shipping companies are wasting tens of millions each year on
inefficient transactions and processes. Digital Ship spoke with Andy Demetriades, director of treasury at Currency Global
to find out how an effective foreign exchange strategy is critical to improving a shipping company’s balance sheet.
T
he shipping industry has taken
huge strides forward in digital-
ising its operations to maximise
efficiency and reduce spending.
However, one area where significant losses
are still occurring is in currency exchange,
Andy Demetriades director of treasury at
Currency Global told Digital Ship.
For every voyage a ship makes, a num-
ber of international payments will be made
in various currencies. Shipping companies
pay their crews, purchase bunker fuel,
carry out maintenance, order new pieces of
equipment, pay port dues, and make many
other payments. Freight rates are often
fixed in US dollars and must be converted
to the chosen currency to complete pay-
ments, and often companies will use their
own banks to carry out these transactions.
Speaking with Digital Ship, Mr
Demetriades explained that banks will
operate with a standard exchange rate of 3-
5 per cent, meaning that for every USD
100,000 exchanged, a fee of USD 3-5,000
will be charged by banks. These fees are
often hidden in the exchange rates ship-
ping companies are quoted to complete the
transaction. Market volatility has signifi-
cantly increased due to the global pandem-
ic and the upcoming US election is exacer-
bating risk and putting additional financial
strain on shipping companies.
According to Mr Demetriades, reducing
the exchange rate a shipping company
is charged is the simplest way to save
tens of thousands of dollars each year. “In
the current climate, reducing waste on
financial transactions could be the differ-
ence between being able to deploy a new
piece of technology to digitalise the fleet or
avoiding seafarer redundancies.
“At the heart of the matter, regardless of
the size of the shipping company, every
single balance sheet works in the same
way, it is a core business function. So, sav-
ings that can be made onshore translate
directly to profitability. I believe it is an
obligation of the finance team to ensure the
company is achieving the optimum pricing
levels possible to allow owners to do all the
other things they want to do,” Mr
Demetriades explained.
Currency Global helps shipping companies with managing the unforeseen risk and costs
when it comes to moving capital in difficult circumstances.
Accessing a better
exchange
Historically, the shipping industry has not
had access to a wide range of exchange
rates. This is largely due to a lack of aware-
ness around the amount of waste which
occurs during these transactions.
Furthermore, a reluctance from many
providers to operate in a niche industry
has further limited the options for curren-
cy exchange for firms operating in ship-
ping. “Shipping companies do the transac-
tion and pay the cost,” Mr Demetriades,
who is an ex-banker confirmed. “In gener-
al, banks do not see this treasury function
as a priority in terms of revenue genera-
tion. They make a much larger proportion
of their money from lending. The execu-
tion of transactional treasury is regarded
as an add-on, not really seen as worthy of
focus. The truth is that there’s just not
enough money in it for them.”
Identifying this gap in the market, for-
eign exchange specialist and FCA
(Financial Conduct Authority) regulated
firm Currency Global decided to extend its
services to the shipping industry to assist
companies with managing the unforeseen
risk and costs when it comes to moving
capital in difficult circumstances. The firm
is helping shipping companies to obtain
the best foreign exchange pricing, reducing
the standard 3-5 per cent exchange rate to
just 0.5-1 per cent per USD 100,000.
Mr Demetriades cites the company’s
strong relationships with international
banks coupled with an ethos based on
trust, integrity and transparency as prima-
ry reasons for its ability to access the lowest
wholesale exchange rates allowing them to
help shipping companies lower their costs.
“With our connections and banking
industry experience, we can access the
markets at wholesale rates. This is the rate
at which banks exchange currency with
each other. We simply pass on this benefit
to our clients. We are able to operate as a
successful commercial venture because of
our expertise in managing our own cost,”
he explained.
“In addition to charging a fee for
exchanging one currency to another, banks
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 14
also charge yet more fees to then send the
international payment to the end supplier.
Currency Global does not charge a separate
fee for this service. All costs are included in
the rate we quote our clients. There are no
surprises, we work based on complete
transparency,” Mr Demetriades confirmed,
adding that Currency Global will always
guarantee a price with no hidden costs.
One problem Mr Demetriades pointed to
is that often banks or fintech companies
design a product or service that they think
will benefit their customers before they take
it to market. He believes this approach often
fails and explained that the first question
should always be to ask the client, “What
could we do better to help your business?”
Currency Global always aims to first under-
stand the needs and requirements of a
potential client. For shipping companies,
this involves gauging their annual turnover
and what exchange rates they are currently
receiving. “Once the initial requirements
are understood, the client goes through a
treasury health check, whereby we do a
very open and transparent real-time market
comparison to demonstrate to the client
what they could achieve versus what they
are actually achieving with their current
supplier,” Mr Demetriades explained.
“We then put together a number of fully
transparent ideas for clients to consider. One
such idea is a “Forward Rate” which gives
our clients the ability to fix an exchange rate
for up to two years into the future to give
them peace of mind regardless of the volatil-
ity in the market. Over that period, they are
guaranteed this price. This allows the busi-
ness to plan financially and set better budget
rates, safe in the knowledge that their
exchange rates will never move.”
Each Currency Global client has their
own dedicated account manager who will
constantly review client activity and iden-
tify if the transactions or flows change over
time. “If a client’s requirements have gone
up by 10 per cent it is a good sign that the
business is growing. To support this
growth, we will proactively reach out to
the client and offer them a further reduced
rate to help support the business growth.”
Timing of the trade
According to Mr Demetriades, obtaining
the best exchange rate is largely about the
timing of the trade, which comes from hav-
ing a thorough understanding of how the
market works and knowing exactly when
to execute the transaction.
It is equally important to get the timing
of a transaction right to secure the best
rate. “Our account managers proactively
work with clients to understand the time-
frames they are working to. Very often if a
client has good visibility of when suppliers
need to be paid, they may be able to opti-
mise the execution of a transaction to
achieve a better rate. Our team of analysts
continuously monitor and forecast market
movements to give clients as much infor-
mation as possible to base decisions on.”
Currency Global can offer its clients an
exchange rate which can be fixed from one
day up to two years into the future. The firm
also offers a flexi-forward contract which
guarantees clients any amount of currency
at a fixed exchange rate with the ability to
drawdown any portion of the amount at any
point during the contract period.
In the event of purchasing a new tech-
nology for a vessel or ordering a newbuild
ship, there will always be some time lag
from the decision being made to the deliv-
ery of that vessel or its equipment.
Throughout this period, the market will
fluctuate every day. Currency Global works
closely with companies to fix their exchange
rates to mitigate the risk. “We have the abil-
ity to fix a rate for up to two years into the
future. This means that regardless of what
happens during that period, we guarantee
our clients a fixed exchange rate. This
means our clients can forecast and manage
fluctuations in cashflow with more accura-
cy. Many companies in the shipping indus-
try do not realise that this tool is available to
them,” Mr Demetriades explained.
He also confirmed that Currency Global
provides consultancy on these services to
help companies identify which strategy will
work best for them. “We forecast where
currencies are likely to move over time and
use this research to empower clients to
make decisions for themselves. We truly
believe it is all about engaging to under-
stand real-life circumstances,” he said.
Partnerships and
collaboration
Currency Global is working with several
shipping and maritime companies to help
them manage international payments
and reduce the cost of transferring funds
internationally.
One of these companies is the recently
formed Voyager Worldwide, a data intelli-
gence solutions provider for the maritime
industry that was formed from the merger
of Cornes Charts, Global Navigation
Solutions (GNS) and Safe Navigation. Mr
Demetriades explained that after some dis-
cussions, a partnership was formed to
introduce Currency Global to various
other companies within the sector.
At the core of Currency Global sits its
desire to help family owned businesses cut
costs and reduce waste for an industry
which facilitates approximately 90 per cent
of world trade today. As a family-owned
business, Currency Global does not have
shareholders driving profit and lowering
costs. “We understand the nature of the
shipping industry and the close connections
that exist. We truly understand what family
owned businesses are going through
because we are one too,” Mr Demetriades
said. “We want to engage and educate, to
have conversations to see how we can help
firms. We are not selling anything here; we
just have a burning desire to use our exper-
tise to provide peace of mind and certainty
in a volatile and ever-changing world.” DS
p1-15_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 14:58 Page 15

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SOFTWARE & SENSORS

Maritime IoT for remote expert

intervention: an interview with KVH
Recent rapid growth in maritime IoT is widening opportunities for shipping companies to identify and
mitigate vessel performance issues before they arise. Digital Ship spoke with Sven-Eric Brooks,
senior director of business development for KVH Watch to find out how satellite-enabled remote
intervention is playing a critical role in maintaining efficient and safe vessel operation.

M
aritime digitalisation has
facilitated greater precision
and detail when it comes to
monitoring the performance
of ships and their equipment. However,
one element that still significantly affects a
company’s bottom line is unforeseen main-
tenance issues and associated vessel down-
time. Remote monitoring can help to miti-
gate potential issues, but according to
Sven-Eric Brooks of KVH, this is just the
first step. “A vessel has many mechanical
components and you have to be able to
intervene to fix a problem,” he explained
to Digital Ship in a recent interview. “This
means that you cannot wait until the vessel
is in port to fix any problems it has. The
port visit should be all about making sure
the cargo gets on and off the vessel, not
about troubleshooting or running at risk of
being detained due to faulty equipment.”
One of the biggest challenges equip-
ment service manufacturers face is getting
a service expert onto a vessel to fix a prob-
lem it encounters while sailing in the
remote deep sea. “Equipment manufactur-
ers want to provide a holistic service and
they want their customers to have the same
user experience wherever they are in the
world,” said Mr Brooks. This can be a chal-
lenge if a piece of equipment needs imme-
diate attention and the required expert is
thousands of miles away.
According to Mr Brooks, the traditional
KVH Watch is a subscription-based service that provides maritime equipment
manufacturers, service providers and shipyards with access to real-time
and secure data 24/7/365.
service experience method is costly and
time inefficient. “You have the trou-
bleshooting phase, the labour cost, the
travel time, you have setting to work time,
clean-up time, then the unknowns like
mileage, waiting hours, surcharges, over-
time or environment surcharges, adminis-
tration fees for getting people flown out,
the permissions required for people to
enter port or the vessel, and the general
risks you’re exposed to during travel and
live service work. This amounts to more
than monetary value but to an awful lot of
working hours and general risk. A minor
three-hour activity can turn into a day
rate,” Mr Brooks explained.
Remote expert
intervention
To combat the costly and time-consuming
procedures associated with traditional
monitoring and equipment servicing, KVH
brought its KVH Watch IoT Connectivity
as a Service solution to the market 18
months ago. The subscription-based ser-
vice provides maritime equipment manu-
facturers, service providers and shipyards
with access to real-time and secure data
about their equipment 24/7/365. One par-
ticular stand-out feature of the Watch solu-
tion is its Remote Expert Intervention ser-
vice, which connects experts, regardless of
location, via a high-quality satellite-
enabled video service. The collaboration of
experts this way enables problems to be
troubleshooted, potential replacement
parts to be identified, and equipment mal-
functions to be fixed, before a critical path
is reached. Experts from the crew to the
technical ship management team to the
staff onshore and the original equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) are brought togeth-
er via a video stream to discuss and anal-
yse issues, speeding up the overall mainte-
nance or repair process. “By eliminating
travel time and logistical challenges, the
chain of failure is minimised,” Mr Brooks
told us. “Remote intervention gives the
opportunity to potentially fix an issue on a
vessel across the other side of the world.
Some elements onboard the vessel will be
able to be fixed 100 per cent remotely, and
some will require a follow up in port, but it
will greatly improve the efficiency as the
issues will have already been identified
prior to port arrival.”
For some, the increase in digital solu-
tions and remote services has provoked
concern that demand on the human role
will be lessened. But in Mr Brooks’ opin-
ion, “this is just not the case.” He sees
remote intervention facilitating closer col-
laboration across ocean borders and
empowering crew to solve a problem. “For
the crew, the vessel is their home for the
time being. Allowing them to do the initial
troubleshooting and even some of the
repairs themselves is a really empowering
experience and at the same time it also
saves operational costs.”
High-performance
connectivity
KVH Watch includes Flow, the connectivi-
ty mode that enables equipment manufac-
turers to connect to their equipment.
Another function, Flow Intervention,
allows equipment manufacturers to con-
nect their edge devices or sensors to the
network, transferring data to the cloud-ser-
vice or shore-based server with speeds up
to 10/3 Mbps for bulk file transfers. There
is a dedicated channel for each manufac-
turer, ensuring data is kept in one place
and not shared with anyone else.
Mr Brooks confirmed that up to 30 sys-
tems can be monitored at one time. The
main domains selected by stakeholders for
monitoring include the bridge and naviga-
tion domain, the automation domain, the
power and propulsion segment, and the
environmental segment, which includes
equipment such as scrubbers and ballast
water treatment systems.
According to Mr Brooks, scalability of
KVH Watch was an essential part of devel-
oping the solution to ensure it would keep
up with the pace of IoT development. “We
Sven-Eric Brooks, senior director of
business development for KVH Watch.
should keep in mind that vessels sail for
20-30 years so if you put a sensor onboard
a vessel that can be connected, your data
consumption today can be low compared
to the future as IoT expands. We’ve seen
how quickly data generation expands and
data requirements increase over time.”
KVH Watch can be installed with a
monthly subscription, free maintenance,
and no CAPEX. It is set up like
“Connectivity as a Service” so the whole
system is multi-tenancy, meaning that
there is a whole raft of equipment manu-
facturers offering remote services and
remote connectivity who require their own
dedicated access to the system and who
will subscribe to the system.
Separating IT and OT
for system security
To ensure complete cybersecurity, KVH
Watch offers a dedicated timeshare service
that allows multiple equipment manufac-
turers to use a single antenna for IoT pur-
poses. “KVH Watch splits the IT systems
from the OT systems and runs the OT on a
dedicated terminal, enabling the shipown-
er to run a dedicated supplier’s LAN,” Mr
Brooks confirmed.
“The classic thing to do today is to have
a single VSAT dome onboard a vessel that
caters for everything, including crew wel-
fare, administration, remote maintenance
and diagnostic tasks, but it takes a lot of
network management and firewalling to
ensure it is a safe system. With the rise of
IoT and machine-to-machine connectivity,
there are more and more demands put
onto the OT and IoT network.
“Separating the OT and IoT systems
and isolating KVH Watch from other net-
works also facilitates better quality and

Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 16

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SOFTWARE & SENSORS

smooth remote intervention as the band-
width doesn’t have to contest with any-
thing else this way. We can guarantee a
high-quality video, which you need to fix
things in the field like screw heads and
so on.”
Mr Brooks went on to say that the sys-
tem is secure and transparent, ensuring
that an intervention cannot be called with-
out all parties being aware. Calls are also
logged and archived for transparency or
warranty claims.
From crew welfare
to remote service
management
In today’s increasingly digitalised indus-
try, IT departments are having more say in
the way a solution works and how it is
rolled out onboard, Mr Brooks clarified.
“The interplay between the IT department
and operational departments has been so
important for digital solutions, giving
them more traction in the industry. We
have to start looking at IoT solutions more
holistically and realise that they are not
built for a specific piece of equipment or
use, they are infrastructure.
“These infrastructures service many dif-
ferent use cases, such as telemedicine, data
mining, augmenting the navigator’s
workspace, to adding performance
enhancing tools to the operational suit of
the vessel. By merging IT and operations,
you now have a team that is jointly pulling
in the same direction, making things like a
remote survey a reality.
For KVH, the natural step from crew
welfare to meet these new connectivity
requirements in the IoT sector led to the
development of KVH Watch. “We’ve been
very much focussed on crew welfare,
but we wanted to take a step back and
look at what connectivity requirements
for tomorrow are required,” Mr Brooks
confirmed.
“There are many studies in the indus-
try about data being generated onboard
vessels and we’ve seen a large emergence
of digital platforms like Veracity and
Kognifai, so we thought it was about time
that a specific IoT service was launched
for the industry. Since we’re a company
that covers whole solutions end to end,
we were able to deliver this unique ser-
vice to the industry in the most affordable
fashion.
“With the added pressure of COVID-19,
manufacturers have realised that provid-
ing the equipment and a 24/7 hotline is not
good enough in today’s world,” Mr Brooks
explained. “Not being able to board vessels
during this pandemic has triggered a huge
interest in zero touch service management
or service activities that can be carried
out remotely. Servicing vessels without
going onboard is a gamechanger for
companies.”
Setting new standards
“It is it really important for us going for-
wards that KVH is an attractive path for
owners, equipment manufacturers, and
service providers to enter into the IoT
era,” Mr Brooks confirmed when asked
about his plans for the development of the
KVH Watch platform. “Once we have a
customer base within KVH there are
options to expand the service portfolio to
make sure data is shared between multi-
ple parties. We can already see this hap-
pening on the performance optimisation
side. The downfall to a lot of service
providers is that they always have to pro-
vide specific hardware onboard and they
all have to tap into specific sensors
onboard. So, we do have plans to provide
our partners with access to sensor infor-
mation with access to further data ser-
vices so they can optimise their own anal-
ysis of the data and the way they manage
their products in the field.
“Most importantly, I see remote inter-
vention and remote video intervention
becoming the new standard in the indus-
try. They have become the new standard in
the work environment and work that is
carried out between a technical ship man-
agement company and a vessel is no dif-
ferent. There are many ways you can opti-
mise those services as well, such as
through augmented reality, wearables,
and add-in features in close collaboration
with equipment manufactures.” DS

ZIM leverages AI to
GTReplicate cloud-based tool automates identify misdeclared cargo
ship-shore data transfer www.zim.com

www.gtmaritime.com
GTMaritime has launched a new cloud-
based tool to automate a key part of the
data transfer process between ship and
shore, relieving seafarers and shore teams
of a growing manual file replication bur-
den. GTReplicate is a cyber-secure solution
that automates synchronisation of files and
data relating to vessel operation with next
to no intervention.
With the quantity of data shared
between vessels and shore-side teams
increasing at an accelerating rate, person-
nel onboard and ashore are having to
spend ever more time uploading, down-
loading and managing file transfers manu-
ally. As well as being tedious, such repeti-
tive tasks increase error risks, with the
potential for serious financial conse-
quences if the data lost or overwritten is
needed to verify compliance.
Running on GTMaritime’s FastNet data
transfer platform, GTReplicate provides a
GTMaritime has launched a new cloud-based tool to automate a key part
of the data transfer process between ship and shore.
reliable and highly configurable automat-
ed alternative that reduces the growing
administrative burden on fleet IT man-
agers and frees up crew to use their time
more constructively.
GTReplicate is performance optimised
for use in a marine environment. This
means it operates across a variety of con-
nectivity platforms, including 3G, 4G, L-
band and VSAT, maximising throughput
in each case. To further conserve band-
width, GTReplicate monitors files intelli-
gently, only sending on those that have
changed since the last replication.
Acknowledging the range of spe-
cialised software used on ships and the
diversity of onboard network configura-
tions between fleets, there are no artifi-
cially imposed limits on the type or size of
file GTReplicate can handle. It also
enables automated bi-directional transfer
of selected files, folders, or entire folder
structures with multiple mechanisms for
maintaining total data integrity. Shore-
side email can be used as both replication
source and target.
GTReplicate provides shore-based fleet
IT managers with a central cloud-based
dashboard for configuring and controlling
every aspect of how replication takes
place, without having to involve crew.
Advanced options include ship-specific
task creation as well as pre- and post-trans-
fer processing for maximum flexibility.
With a nod to an increasing need for
stringent security auditing, GTReplicate
comes complete with a full suite of notifi-
cation, journaling and reporting functions
as standard, ranging from basic times-
tamping to granular detail on execution
status and files moved. Likewise, it
features robust and flexible archiving
functionalities.
Mike McNally, global commercial
director at GTMaritime, commented:
“Shipowners are now embracing digitali-
sation as a low-overhead route to
improved operational efficiency, but the
growing information flow
poses challenges for manual
processes in ship-to-shore
data transfer. GTMaritime
created GTReplicate to pro-
vide a scalable, secure and
highly configurable solution
for automating file transfers
and averting a data logjam.”
FastNet is a multi-stream
platform designed for
today's data demands.
Employing a variety of band-
width management tech-
niques, it optimises, secures
and then transfers data pack-
ets according to business
needs. It will form the core of
all GTMaritime products
going forward and can be
made available to its cus-
tomers for bespoke digitali-
sation projects.
ZIM has developed and implemented a
new artificial intelligence (AI)-based
screening software to detect and identify
incidents of mis-declared hazardous cargo
before loading to vessel.
The new ZIMGuard system scans ship-
pers’ cargo declarations at an early stage
and flags potential cases of wrongly
declared cargo. The system harnesses AI,
including Natural Language Processing
(NLP) capabilities and Machine Learning,
to analyse documentation and alert opera-
tions personnel of occurrences of omis-
sion, concealment or erroneous declara-
tion of hazardous cargo – in real time.
Misdeclaration of hazardous cargo has
been at the root of major marine incidents,
causing loss of life and severe damages.
Last year, several carriers announced the
imposition of additional fees as a partial
solution for this recurring problem.
The ZIMGuard system is already in use
in major ports in China, the US and Israel,
and is expected to be deployed in all ZIM
lines by the end of 2020.
Eli Glickman, ZIM president & CEO,
said: "Developing this innovative system
exemplifies the creative and unique
approach we cultivate in everything we
do in ZIM - our secret ingredient. Since
launching ZIMGuard, we were alerted to
dozens of cases of mis-declared cargo. In
view of ZIMGuard’s potential contribu-
tion to the safety of the global supply
chain, ZIM is willing to commercially offer
licensing this system to parties who may
be interested in utilising it."
Captain Zadok Radecker, ZIM Global
Hazardous & Special Cargos manager, in
charge of Cargo Security, said: “Coping with
misdeclarations of hazardous cargo, which
can create a serious risk, is challenging. The
new system has proven to be effective and
on target. It enables us to identify, investi-
gate and clarify any issue prior to loading,
ensuring the safety of the crew and ship, and
the safety of the supply chain in general.”

Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 18

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p16-27_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:18 Page 5

SOFTWARE & SENSORS

Optimising dispatching with

AI-based OptiPort
OptiPort has introduced a dispatch solution that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to support and
optimise dispatch and planning operations. The goal is to reduce costs, cut down
on fuel consumption and lower emissions. Digital Ship found out more.

O
ptiPort is a cloud-based appli-
cation and a planning solution
for nautical service providers
that optimises the dispatch
schedule of harbour tugs, pilot vessels,
launches, and more in real time, 24/7.
OptiPort connects several live data sources
that affect scheduling to provide the most
optimal sailing schedule for the right
assets.
When applied on tugs, OptiPort works
by forecasting the number of tugs required
for a job and the duration of (de)mobilisa-
tion and jobs. The application determines
pickup and drop-off locations, gives a
dynamic start time of incoming jobs, and
helps to reduce vessel delays.
In addition, OptiPort provides:
• Fully automated job start/stop
identification
• Push notifications on speed, departure
and arrival times- full incorporation of
crew changes and labour rules
• Functionalities which allow for priority
towage
• Tracking and virtual planning of
competitors
• Full integration of tidal effects in the
schedule
The application relies on a vessel’s AIS
transmitters and the availability of data.
This data, together with the mathematical
models and job-related information, spe-
cific Port and Business rules, arrival and
departure information from the Port
Management system, fuel consumption of
the assets, etc., helps to improve schedul-
ing. Adding tidal information, wind and
other relevant data sources can also fur-
ther improve the quality of the planning
schedules.
OptiPort enables remote dispatching or
dispatching with a small-
er than normal team.
OptiPort provides the
ultimate decision support
tool to the dispatchers,
ensuring that in challeng-
ing and unpredictable sit-
uations, they make the
right decisions.
A large container ship
being manoeuvred and
reversed towards shore
by pilots and tugboats.
Cost savings: OptiPort
has proven operational
cost savings of between
25-40 per cent due to
smarter planning. When
also using alongside the
speed tracker, which pro-
vides speed advice, sav-
ings of 55 per cent can be
achieved by looking at
the (de)mobilisation of
tugs to their jobs.
A large container ship being manoeuvred and reversed towards shore by pilots and tugboats.
Artificial intelligence:
OptiPort is the first mar-
itime dispatch tool that uses AI to improve • Supporting decision making for with its clients. Functional changes,
value of an existing fleet. It is fully data planners requests or improvements of the software
driven and does not require the installation • Support to centralise multiple port can be submitted to the team with the
of any additional hardware. dispatching at one location aim to accommodate the requests in a
The benefits of AI-powered dispatching • Tracking and planning of the short time-frame.
include: competition A customer will typically start out tri-
• Improved use of the tug fleet • Reduced crew overtime alling OptiPort on a pilot project. This
• Assurance of the correct tug for the job Collaboration: In 2019, a cooperation takes around two months to configure and
• Smarter planning for reduced fuel agreement with Helm Operations was two to three months of use, in which the
consumption signed. Under this agreement, it is possible user can determine the value of OptiPort in
• Reduction of harmful emissions to use the OptiPort software suite as an their day-to-day operations.
• Reduction of delayed vessels integrated solution within Helm CON- The dispatch optimisation projects are
• Reduction of loss generating charters NECT’S industry platform. developed, configured and implemented
• Uniform way of best practice Trialling OptiPort: The team behind on a turnkey basis, from the initial pilot
dispatching OptiPort aims to ensure close contact project to the final subscription.
DS

Consort Express Lines rolls out Tero Marine's TM Master

www.teromarine.com
www.consort.com
Papua New Guinea based Consort Express
Lines has signed a contract with
Norwegian technology company Tero
Marine to roll out its complete TM Master
suite of applications.
The agreement also includes 14 tugs
owned by Pacific Towing, both companies
being part of Steamships Trading
Company, within the Swire Group. Tero
Marine will provide the companies with
its full range of Fleet Management soft-
ware applications across, Procurement,
Maintenance, Crew Management, Quality
and Environment.
Consort operates geared, multipurpose
vessels offering scheduled liner services to
the 17 main ports in Papua New Guinea.
“I want to applaud Consort for having
the confidence to be making such a pro-
gressive move in these uncertain times. I
am confident that our TM Master software
will help optimise the management and
compliance of their fleet. I would like to
pay tribute to the professionalism of our
knowledgeable team and in particular our
colleagues in Singapore that worked hard
to win this contract by listening carefully
to Consort’s needs and demonstrating that
we could satisfy their requirements. We
welcome both Consort Express Lines and
Pacific Towing to our expanding customer
community,” said Rune Lyngaas, Tero
Marine’s CEO.
“There were several reasons for choos-
ing Tero Marine’s TM Master. The most
obvious one was its complete product fea-
tures and functions which suited our inter-
nal procedures and business needs.
Secondly, TM Master was the most user
friendly system so our crews will not have
to undergo intensive training sessions,”
said Chris De Villiers, COO of Consort
Express Lines.
“Another major factor from our point of
view, was the complete understanding by
the team at Tero Marine of our require-
ments regarding our business processes.
They were able to provide the right solu-
tions to our needs and were pro-active in
everything from pre-project documenta-
tion to implementation plan,” he added.
“In challenging times like these, we
need to focus on keeping the ships sailing.
Having a professional partner like we have
found in Tero Marine is crucial,” Mr. De
Villiers added.
“I am delighted to see that our focus on
UX (User Experience) in every aspect of
how we serve our customers is being
acknowledged and rewarded,” Mr
Lyngaas concluded.

Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 20

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SOFTWARE & SENSORS

Chartering marketplaces:
Dreadnought or dazzleship?
David Smith, director of Strategy& writes about the intersection of chartering marketplaces and software and asks whether
these chartering marketplaces will make the existing market structure obsolete, or prove to be a mirage on the horizon.

T
he idea of a vessel chartering
marketplace is a compellingly
simple one. Rather than acting
through brokers, both charter-
ers and vessel owners come together on a
single digital marketplace to charter ves-
sels directly. In theory, this offers two
advantages over the current model. Firstly,
the commission charged by the broker is
saved (although replaced by whatever
pricing model the marketplace uses). Sec-
ondly a comprehensive marketplace
should provide a more complete view of
the opportunities available in the market
(although whether this is an advantage for
the owner or the charterer will depend on
the current supply/demand balance).
So simple an idea, that it has been tried
many times before. The dot.com boom saw
a flurry of attempts to develop a market-
place, all of which disappeared within a
few years. The mid-2000s saw a hiatus in
new launches, but these returned in force
by the mid-2010s with multiple launches of
new platforms. This timing coincided with
the rapid rise of Uber, and the subsequent
hunt for an ‘Uber of X’ applied to numer-
ous industry sectors.
Supporters of marketplaces rightly point
out that previous efforts were hampered by
the capabilities of the contemporary technol-
ogy. Features that are often core parts of cur-
rent chartering marketplaces, for example,
AIS driven position lists or NLP driven pars-
ing of emails, were not technologically possi-
ble during the previous marketplace boom.
Now that technology is no longer the barrier,
this raises the question as to whether any of
the current crop of marketplaces will come to
occupy the central place in vessel chartering?
Applicability of online
platforms
While there are many models for online
platforms, of which digital marketplaces
are one, they broadly work by bringing two
types of party together to exchange some
form of value. The essential feature that
platforms have in common is that they ben-
efit from network effects – the presence of
members of side A of the transaction makes
the platform more attractive to members of
side B, which in turn attracts more of side
A, resulting in a virtuous circle of growth.
This creates strong ‘winner takes all’
Dreadnought or dazzle ship? HMS Dreadnought rendered all existing battleships obsolete.
Dazzle ships were camouflaged to obscure their range and heading. Will chartering
marketplaces make the existing market structure obsolete, or will they prove
to be a mirage on the horizon?
dynamics as the leading platform captures
the majority of the market and becomes dif-
ficult for competitors to displace.
The most successful implementation of
this model to date in the broader trans-
portation sector has been Uber. Network
effects can clearly be seen as the large num-
ber of customers attracts more drivers to
platform, which both lowers costs
(through higher utilisation) and improves
the speed of ride availability, which in turn
attracts more customers. However, imple-
menting a similar model in chartering
faces a number of difficulties:
• ‘Chicken and egg problem’: Once the
virtuous circle is underway it becomes a
powerful growth driver, but how can mar-
ketplaces create sufficient critical mass to
start this process?
• Information availability: vessel charter-
ing is already a fairly efficient market with
knowledge widely available to various
participants
• Transactional complexity: vessel char-
ter parties are much less homogenous than
the implicit contract in a taxi journey,
while the transaction value is orders of
magnitude greater, justifying the use of a
broker to ensure the smooth execution of
the transaction
The key selling point of the dot.com vin-
tage of marketplaces was therefore about
saving the cost of the broker commission.
At 1.25 per cent of freight this is not a triv-
ial amount, but brokers add value in vari-
ous ways to justify this, including provid-
ing market knowledge which might other-
wise be hidden around the edges, broader
advice and research, and smoothing the
charter party negotiation. Unable to add
value in the same way, these marketplaces
struggled to build the necessary critical
mass. In order to overcome this, many of
the latest generation of marketplaces offer
a much greater level of functionality,
which aims to digitally replicate the value-
add which brokers provide.
This has led to three broad business mod-
els currently in play: pure play market-
places, pure play software providers, and
hybrid software provider / marketplace.
For both the hybrid and pure software
providers the provision of software solves
many of the problems identified above. For
example, software can in theory replace
some of the value-add provided by brokers.
At the same time, building up a customer
base of both owners and charterers on the
software side then provides a ready-made
pool of participants for a marketplace,
potentially overcoming the ‘chicken and
egg’ problem.
Current landscape
At present marketplaces appear to have
achieved only a modest degree of traction.
We have identified six active marketplaces,
although at least one of these appears to be
in an early beta stage, with another poten-
tially moribund.
The remaining marketplaces appear to
account for a relatively small share of the
total open vessels in a given period. The
two marketplaces for which we could com-
pile data have 2-4% of the estimated open
fleet showing on their marketplace.
Furthermore, it is likely that some pro-
portion of the vessels listed end up being
fixed through other channels. It is there-
fore reasonable to assume that at present a
relatively small proportion of fixtures is
happening through marketplaces. This
conclusion is further supported by analysis
of the financial performance of the larger
shipbrokers; these have maintained their
market share in recent years, indicating
that there is yet to be any material loss of
business to marketplaces.
This contrasts with a relatively well-
established market among the software
providers. In addition to a number of long-
standing software providers, the last few
years have seen several start-ups, as well
as companies in adjacent sectors (such as
vessel valuation) entering. While financial
data is available for few of these compa-
nies, various other metrics indicate that
these companies are of a substantially
greater scale than the marketplaces.
How will this play out?
At this stage it is still too early to say
whether any of the current generation of
marketplaces will come to dominate the
chartering market. However, there are a
number of strategic developments which we
see emerging in the next few years which
will shape the marketplace landscape.
• More ‘hybrid’ competitors will emerge:
while software players often emphasise that
they support rather than threaten the current
market structure, more of them are likely to
go down the hybrid route and create mar-
ketplaces in the longer term, given the larger
potential size of this market, and that the
creation of a dominant marketplace would
cannibalise the need for chartering software
• Wider JVs across the industry: 2019 saw
both the spinoff of Maritech as a standalone
entity within Clarksons and a partnership
between Signal Ocean and shipbroker SSY.
Going forward, we expect to see more part-
nerships between marketplaces and soft-
David Smith, director, Strategy&
ware providers on one side, and shipbro-
kers, charterers, and owners on the other
• An opportunity for more venture capital
funding: the last 5 years have seen c. $1.5bn
($150m excluding Flexport) of VC funding
into digital freight forwarders, who address a
similar role in container shipping (i.e. con-
necting shippers and owners). This compares
with just c. $15m into bulk chartering soft-
ware / marketplaces. While the TAM in
freight forwarding is larger, this still suggests
room for more funding to drive growth
• Building scale in niche sub-sectors: most
providers to date have logically focused on
the largest markets i.e. dry and wet bulk
chartering. However, some recent startups
(e.g. Wine Dark Sea in LPG and Ankeri in
container vessel chartering) are concentrat-
ing on specific smaller sub-sectors
• Diverging complexity: In some ship-
ping segments the limited number of
routes and consolidating charterer and
owner bases is making contract standardis-
ation easier, reducing the need for brokers.
At the same time other trends (e.g. prolifer-
ation of fuel types, vessel types (e.g. eco vs.
standard), trade lanes, and new legal juris-
dictions) complicate the negotiation of
charter parties potentially increasing the
need for human intervention
Impact across the industry
These dynamics are clearly crucial to both
marketplace and software providers as
they look to grow. But the potential growth
of marketplaces affects all participants in
the shipping industry. For owners and
charterers, marketplaces offer the prospect
of reducing commission costs, but at the
risk of creating unwanted transparency in
market pricing. For shipbrokers, market-
places potentially create an existential risk,
and therefore raise a series of questions
about whether to partner with or acquire
marketplaces, or alternatively how to focus
on the value-add parts of the chartering
process which marketplaces may struggle
to replicate. Given their disruptive poten-
tial, the outlook for marketplaces should
be a key part of strategic thinking for all
maritime industry participants. DS

Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 22

p16-27_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:18 Page 8
p16-27_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:18 Page 9

SOFTWARE & SENSORS

Bunker Connect –
a digital bunker broker
Dutch start-up Bunker Connect provides an online digital platform where shipowners can find
and compare bunker prices and place deals themselves. Digital Ship’s Vaida Stockunaite
spoke with Mounir Bendouch, co-founder and CTO to find out more.

B
unker Connect of Rotterdam
claims to be the first digital
bunker broker where negotia-
tions happen directly between
the buyer and supplier on an online plat-
form. Bunker Connect operates in Europe
in Rotterdam, Antwerp, Skagen, and
Gothenburg and has gathered the suppli-
ers from this area to its platform. A notable
client is Anthony Veder, among a few oth-
er ship operators.
Bunker Connect makes it easy for all
shipping companies big or small to access
the bunker market and efficiently connect
with suppliers. Small and medium sized
shipping companies can access the same
bunker procurement deals as sophisticated
bunker departments, without specific
knowledge of the bunker market.
Mounir Bendouch, co-founder and CTO
of Bunker Connect said that the platform is
independent and accessible for everyone, a
key part of enabling clients to trust it. He
believes that previous attempts to digitise
bunker procurement have been unsuccess-
ful due to the right technology not being
accessible. The technology that Bunker
Connect uses has only become available in
the last five years.
Before parties join the Bunker Connect
platform, they must agree to the structured
process that the platform operates on.
Bunker Connect carries out credit checks
and asks shipping companies to use the
platform exclusively, which means that
they must commit to a buy after putting in
the request. According to Mr Bendouch,
requests that are not followed through
with a purchase have the potential to harm
the trust from suppliers and affect their
view of it as a serious platform.
“Bunker Connect has relationships with
both the buyers and suppliers. Most
requests for quotation lead to a deal within
30 minutes. This makes the platform
attractive – without it, we would be just
another website,” explained Mr Bendouch.
To make a request a buyer fills in a
form, indicating precisely what he needs
and how much. This form is automatically
sent to all suppliers. The system is
designed to induce supplier competition as
each supplier will be able to view the price
other suppliers are offering. All the details
and terms about the deal are revealed
upfront from both parties and recorded on
the platform to prevent any misunder-
standings post- transaction.
While the major work on the platform is
digitised, Bunker Connect help clients in
the same way traditional brokers do. The
company helps to resolve disputes and
give advice about the market. There is a
live bunker price indication on its website
that shipowners can use to benchmark the
prices and choose the best deal. Mounir Bendouch, co-founder and
Bunker Connect tries to mitigate the CTO of Bunker Connect.
corruption in the bunker market by pro-
viding information about the reputation of Bunker Connect makes public to all of its
suppliers. It cooperates with Bunkertrust, platform users.
which gathers ratings from shipping com- Bunker Connect is completely trans-
panies and vessels about suppliers. Bunker parent about its fee structure. It operates
Connect has also set up a fuel quality con- on a fixed price per delivered ton for
trol system that allows shipowners to every client, which is confirmed in each
share fuel sample lab reports, which request. DS

ShipNet launches new SaaS-based dry-docking solution

www.shipnet.no our product and service offerings to ship- lenges faced in the industry today,” said forms, enables our customers to become
ping companies, I was a seafarer sailing as ShipNet product director, Basujit experts in marshaling data and maximiz-
ShipNet has launched its new Software-as-a- a dual officer onboard ships where I had Chakravarty, who oversaw the project. ing productivity, quickly and accurately,
Service (Saas) Dry-Docking Software to help been involved in multiple dry-docking ShipNet CEO Aden Hopkins comment- with its near-zero learning curve.”
companies plan and manage projects relat- projects throughout my sailing career. ed: “The release of our new Dry-Docking The software is the latest addition to
ing to the technical aspects of dry-docking. Additionally, I had also been involved in Software is incredibly exciting because the ShipNet’s portfolio of Fleet Management
ShipNet reports that dry-docking can multiple dry-docks as a vessel owner. I am process of putting a ship through a dry- Solutions made up of Technical XE, Safety
cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars excited to be a part of this product launch, dock requires collaboration, from multiple XE, and Procurement XE, connected as
(sometimes millions) to maintain a vessel where the team has performed a tremen- stakeholders, across different disciplines. part of the ShipNetONE Platform.
in a standardised working condition. dous task in such a short timeframe, in cre- This SAAS, web-based solution, built on The solution has no upfront installation
Without an integrated project manage- ating our first Dry-Docking solution that modern architecture, designed to integrate and is a web-based application, enabling
ment solution, fleet management, technical aims to address the most common chal- with any existing fleet management plat- immediate use.
teams, and related purchasing depart-
ments resort to make-do tools (such as
word, excel, or disconnected third-party
applications). These disconnected methods
only add and increase the administrative
burden to an already time & cost-sensitive
project. It becomes impossible for project
teams to plan, manage, deliver, and report
for a dry-dock project on time and budget.
ShipNet’s Dry-Docking Software is a
planning and project management solution
for technical managers, fleet managers,
and superintendents related to any pro-
jects that involve the handling of technical
specifications.
The user-friendly solution captures all
the necessary information and follows the
process of planning for and executing com-
plex projects such as dry-docking and
repairs. This includes preparing specifica-
tions or managing shipyard quotations, or
making progress on associated jobs.
“Before joining ShipNet to help evolve ShipNet’s Dry-Docking Software captures all the necessary information and follows the process of planning for and executing complex projects.

Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 24

p16-27_p1-14.qxd 13/10/2020 15:09 Page 10

Bogerd Martin introduces the CT‐Secure 460

As cyber security has been pushed to the foreground in the maritime business, Bogerd Martin has put
everything to work to respond to the demand for creating a cyber secure way to transfer files to the ECDIS
without the use of removable media.
The CT‐Secure 460 is a DNV type approved device that allows the user to connect the ECDIS to a
completely secure network location that houses all of the ENC data it needs to keep the navigation
systems up to date.
This removes the need for using removable media such as AVCS DVD’s and more importantly, USB drives.
USB drives pose the greatest risk as there is no way to completely control what they have been connected
to and what they may transfer into the ECDIS systems.
Eliminating the use of removable media is the ultimate step towards creating a cyber secure bridge.
To ensure complete elimination of USB drives, the CT‐Secure 460 is capable of delivering any data type
relevant to the users subscribed services.
Data for Admiralty charts and publications both paper and digital, updates and much needed data for
e‐Books from various publishers, software upgrades and so much more can now be exchanged between
ship and shore in a secure closed circuit between the trusted networks of Bogerd Martin and vessels.
In combination with the Chart Track Navigator software, the CT‐Secure completes the loop in having
a complete, safe and secure solution for all data transfer a vessel might need for safe navigation. Simply
finding other ways of using USB sticks is not enough. It’s time we step forward and eliminate this risk
completely and permanently.
Nelson Morais– Bogerd Martin – Chart Track (Head of Technology, Innovation and Support)

For more information, contact us on sales@martin.be

p16-27_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:18 Page 11

SOFTWARE & SENSORS

Starting small with Big Data

‘Big Data’ sits high up in the premier league of buzzwords that can confuse discussions in today’s shipping industry,
but it remains true that the amount of data harvested from ships continues to rise rapidly,
writes Keng Teen Phang, regional director, APAC.

O
f the 380,000 or so messages
from 5,600 vessels that pass
through GTMaritime’s filter-
ing solutions on a typical day,
for example, the proportion with data pay-
loads now far exceeds chatter between
ship’s officers and engineers and shore-
based colleagues. This reflects a broader
shift in how business is done in an increas-
ingly digital world.
Proponents of digitalisation are prone
to see Big Data as a silver bullet capable of
solving multiple problems confronting
shipowners, from optimising port-arrivals
to maximising vessel utilisation, predicting
machinery failures or identifying ineffi-
cient fuel consumption. However, for all
the fervour, it is a bullet at risk of missing
the target completely.
Alluring as it is, ‘Big Data’ is also amor-
phous. Translating the promise of analytics
and algorithms into outputs robust enough
to work and keep on working in shipping’s
harsh and unpredictable environment
therefore demands a clear view of purpose
and priorities.
Paradoxical as it seems, the best way
forward is to start small. Rather than gath-
ering data for its own sake, the endgame
should be clear at the outset so that it is
possible to work backwards to determine
how to reach it.
At some point, the data beneficiary will
have to decide whether to build an in-
house solution or to work with third-par-
ties. While home-brew solutions can be tai-
lored to meet precise needs, they can also
be hard to maintain over the long-term -
especially if in-house developers move on.
There can also be a temptation to bolt on
new functionality over time for quick fixes
to become permanent. Either can create a
coding security risk.
Despite it being a new field, there is
thriving digital start-up culture in the
marine domain. If acceptable compromises
can be found, turning to an external
provider can be simpler, while also saving
internal costs.
Another important decision concerns
how data is hosted. Even if starting small,
it pays to think ahead and lay the founda-
tions for future evolution and develop-
ment. In this respect, a cloud-based hosting
solution offers greater long-term flexibility
than a company setting up its own
database servers. Modern hosting systems
provide granular control over who can
access and manipulate what data, as well
as well-defined APIs, or software hooks,
for easier integration and data retrieval
with third parties.
A golden rule of data management is to
store any piece of information only once to
minimise risk of data conflicts/inconsis-
tency and to ensure transparency. A dedi-
cated hosting platform will serve as a sin-
gle point of truth able to share consistent
data across multiple applications as
requirements grow or change. Moreover, a
dedicated hosting platform will have
stronger safeguards against attempted
data theft or attack by cyber-criminals. In
short, it will be less hackable.
All of this brings us to data itself which,
in many cases, continues to be wasted, lost
or scattered across different parts of the
business. Even if initial plans to employ
analytic tools are relatively modest, it
should be clear that the data supporting
the analytics represents a valuable asset
which, regardless of its source or whether
it’s needed immediately, merits care.
Irrespective of individual points of view Keng Teen Phang, regional director, APAC.
on data-crunching today, the analytical
approach to ship operation is here to stay source is easier than attempting to fix it
while it is a general rule of machine learn- afterward. Correctly calibrating sensors
ing that the more historic or training data and fitting them consistently across the
that is available, the greater its potential. fleet provide a sound basis for comparing
A recurring question during the initial like with like, for example.
development of Big Data projects concerns In short, Big Data holds enormous
data dirtiness – or cleanliness. A common potential for shipping and the whole mar-
refrain among software developers is that itime supply chain but unlocking its bene-
garbage in results in garbage out. While fits depends on setting realistic goals and
there is truth in this axiom, seeking data good preparation. This pragmatism pro-
perfection is both futile and unnecessary. vides the basis for GTMaritime’s approach
Instead, data needs to be fit purpose and, to ensuring that its clients sail safely into
as in so many things, prevention is better the digital era, and for its new product and
than cure. Stopping data getting ‘dirty’ at service development. DS

Keng Teen Phang, regional director of APAC says that, “Alluring as it is, ‘Big Data’ is also amorphous.

Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 26

p16-27_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:18 Page 12

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p28-35_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:48 Page 1
SATCOMS
Satellite communications: building the
future while navigating a pandemic
The global coronavirus pandemic has affected the maritime satcoms sector and connectivity has
taken a new dimension, writes Shane Rossbacher, director of Maritime at Intelsat.
A
s the COVID-19 pandemic
spread around the world, the
shipping industry continued to
play an essential role to trans-
port food, medicine, fuel and equipment.
With around 90 per cent of global trade
transported by commercial shipping,
countries that had implemented nation-
wide lockdown relied even more on the
industry to keep the world’s supply chains
open. For the one million seafarers who
worked on the approximately 60,000 large
cargo vessels worldwide in these unprece-
dented and uncertain times, access to con-
nectivity while at sea became a lifeline.
Travel restrictions, increased work-
loads, extended contracts: the seafarers
became collateral victims of the crisis, lead-
ing the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) to call for seafarers
and maritime personnel to be exempted
from any travel bans by recognising them
as key workers. According to International
Labour Organisation (ILO), hundreds of
thousands of seafarers have been required
to remain on board beyond the 11-month
maximum period. In some instances, sea-
farers have not been able to go home for 15
months. As the majority of seafarers were
left feeling stressed, anxious and exhaust-
ed, the Seafarers Happiness Index report,
published in May, revealed clear concerns
about current safety and welfare provision
with seafarers urgently calling for
improved connectivity between shore
and sea.
Delivering a much-needed
connectivity
While broadband connectivity aboard
ships was considered ‘nice to have’ for the
crew, a recruitment argument at best, the
pandemic has changed this. As the virus
spread around the world and ports closed,
connectivity took a new dimension: seafar-
ers were able to communicate with family
and friends and access telehealth services
while at sea. Not a small thing for those
stranded on ships for months, worried
Keep a look out for our
about their family and concerned about the
uncertainty of what an illness would mean
and what it could lead to.
In an industry with a shortage of skilled
medical workers and a lack of healthcare
infrastructure at sea, telemedicine offers a
practical and valuable solution, especially
in these uncertain times, leading some
experts to expect its widespread adoption
over the next few years. For instance, a
potentially ill seafarer can be examined via
videolink without a nurse or doctor being
there in person providing simple variables
such as temperature, heart rate, respiration
rate, blood pressure and blood sugar lev-
els. Alleviating these health worries will be
a plus for crew wellbeing and will meet
new maritime labour regulations that
are soon to be promoted by the IMO and
the STCW (Standards of Training,
Certification and Watchkeeping for
Seafarers).
While satellite technology has been
serving the maritime industry for many
years, these unprecedented times have
raised new questions. If telemedicine can
save lives, how can we ensure that ship-
ping operators take advantage of the tech-
nological advances without thinking of it
as an extra cost? With 28,000 VSAT-
enabled maritime vessels in 2019 according
to Euroconsult – a figure expected to go up
to 92,000 in 2029 – how can we ensure
higher bandwidth to respond to connectiv-
ity needs at all times, even on the busiest
shipping lanes and as seafarers bring many
mobile devices onboard?
Redefining broadband
connectivity
Vessels and seafarers using WhatsApp,
Teams, and other apps to stay connected, a
ship executive sending corporate video to
more than 100 vessels and thousands of
seafarers simultaneously: data usage
increased during the pandemic with hun-
dreds of vessels upgrading to higher data
packages.
The pandemic has had a profound
webinar
www.thedigitalship.com
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 28
impact on the ways business is conducted
and we anticipate that this will be a cata-
lyst to accelerate broadband connectivity
development. But if anything, this new
important role of connectivity has con-
firmed our strategy for the maritime seg-
ment, which is to develop high quality,
affordable and easy to access solutions that
respond to the challenges faced by the
shipping industry. For this, our teams
work with ship operators to perfectly
understand their needs and consequently
adapt our solutions to their requirements.
The Intelsat maritime network address-
es the challenges that cost-conscious mar-
itime operators face to respond to growing
connectivity needs in normal times, but
even more during a pandemic. The effi-
ciency of Intelsat’s high throughput plat-
form, Epic, with up to 15 times more
throughput than traditional satellites,
reduces total cost of ownership, and its
backward-compatible design means end
users can access the higher performance
using existing shipboard equipment. The
Ku-band service offered by Intelsat is an
open platform, meaning it is compatible
with equipment from a range of providers
and can be used with service from multiple
satellite operators.
But it takes more than just new technol-
ogy to make broadband services available
and affordable. New business models are
just as important. Intelsat’s managed ser-
vices solution, FlexMaritime, delivers mar-
itime operators the flexibility, indepen-
dence, control and the ability to differenti-
ate their offerings for their customers.
Leveraging the Intelsat Epic capacity as an
overlay on top of the Intelsat global mobil-
ity fabric, FlexMaritime offers continuity,
growth and resiliency with multiple layers
of capacity in congested, high-traffic areas.
Maritime service provider KVH, the first
customer for the service, has tripled, and
in some cases, increased by a multiple of
six, data speeds for maritime customers.
As lockdowns were enforced, Intelsat
and KVH worked together to ensure con-
schedule
Shane Rossbacher, director of
Maritime, Intelsat.
tinuous and robust connectivity services
to ships.
We are also continuously working on
innovative new solutions. The two Mission
Extension Vehicles - one of them already
servicing Intelsat 901, while the second one
launched a few weeks ago - will enable us
to provide satellites with five additional
years of high-performance life. This will
preserve our customers’ experience and
allow our platform to meet the increased
demand for connectivity services. A
demand expected to boom over the next
decade and that we will be ready to han-
dle. Our next-generation, software-
defined, “end-to-end” system that we are
actively building will deliver unprecedent-
ed performance and flexibility to cus-
tomers across all of the markets we serve—
offering seamless, reliable connectivity to
end users precisely when and where they
need it.
If anything, this pandemic has strength-
ened our belief that broadband connectivi-
ty is essential for the shipping industry
and that we need to double effort to ensure
that seafarers benefit from it. The strength
of our underlying business, our commit-
ment to customers and our vision for the
future, as highlighted by our recent acqui-
sition of Gogo, the leading provider of
inflight connectivity, give us confidence
that we have the right strategy and the
right tools to optimally respond to this
demand. The pandemic is not over and we
need to give ship operators the means to
embrace and utilise new technologies and
new approaches to make sure that no-one
is left behind. DS
p28-35_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:48 Page 2

Solving the
VSAT Puzzle

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+1.480.333.2200
sales@comtechefdata.com
www.comtechefdata.com
p28-35_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:48 Page 3
SATCOMS
Digital control in an era of uncertainty
As the maritime sector sails forward into the unknown, being certain of business operations and making the right
decisions is a fundamental need to survive. Therefore, shipowners are striving towards reliable operations, smart
decision making, crew welfare and safety with the rise of digital solutions to make it through this difficult period,
writes Sandro Delucia, commercial maritime product director of Speedcast.
B
efore the global pandemic
began earlier this year, the
industry was undergoing a
digital revolution which set to
improve communication between ship and
shore. Now, the pandemic has accelerated
this and what once seemed an unafford-
able luxury has become a necessity for
business survival and success. Using digi-
tal solutions has become the way to see for-
ward by helping the maritime industry
adapt and be flexible in reacting to market
changes that are increasingly hard to pre-
dict. The use of both high-quality network
connectivity and greater information tech-
nology makes it possible to harness data to
make better informed decisions. It also
helps to streamline processes for enhanced
operational efficiency, support crew wel-
fare and meet all business requirements.
All of this needs to be handled remotely
with secure access to a digital management
platform.
Organisational change
– we know it’s tough
Implementing new technologies in
exchange for legacy systems is not always
simple and requires the willingness for
organisational change. To make it easier, it
is important to find the right solutions that
are the most appropriate for unique busi-
nesses so they can operate to serve within
the business process. If the integration of a
new digital platform is implemented cor-
rectly with effective training and a sup-
portive provider, the technology can opti-
The global pandemic has accelerated the industry’s digital revolution, which is set to
improve communication between ship and shore, says Sandro Delucia of Speedcast.
mise business operations and future proof
business models providing a huge relief
during a time of uncertainty. Even prior to
the current circumstances, but even more
so now, digital technology which can
empower all aspects of the business to
make the right step and decisions is a key
contributor to the business’ competitive-
ness and survival.
Harnessing the
power of data
One of the great drivers of digital transfor-
mation technology is the need for real time
data that can be used to inform business
decisions. Access to this data can provide
full visibility of business operations so crit-
ical decision making can be made. The
ability to collect and analyse data requires
harnessing communications between vari-
ous applications and systems on board the
vessel, which needs efficient managing to
ensure functionality and accuracy.
Streamlined control
Using digitisation to access networks and
information remotely is a critical trend
during these uncertain times where com-
panies do not have physical access to
onboard infrastructure. Operations and
crew welfare need to be managed through
a remote platform in conjunction with
other vital operational applications and
systems. This will allow businesses to har-
ness the power of diverse communications
options and applications by integrating
these to a seamless, centralised control sys-
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 30
tem. This provides a complete view of net-
work operations where the management
and maintenance of operations and suffi-
cient bandwidth access is facilitated by a
smart maritime platform. Using a single
environment, this provides end to end
access and visibility to business operations
and crew welfare applications, including
control of voice services, critical systems
and operational applications.
A digital tool
that serves you
To fully serve the critical needs and busi-
ness objectives of the company so it can not
only survive but thrive, requires a deep
level of understanding of the business and
its position. The right provider will be will-
ing to learn so it can address specific needs
and integrate a digital platform so it works
as an extended support network for the
team. The right provider will be a partner
of the company supporting the business.
Whether it's through recruitment, activ-
ity, virtualisation, or elements of the digi-
tal strategy, the platform should provide a
system that reflects the business’ journey
taking into account the people of the busi-
ness involved, and what they actually do
on a daily basis. Many providers can deliv-
er different bands and speeds but these
must be harnessed by the power of smart
management, acting as a nexus between
the abstraction of cellular and satellite, the
vessel infrastructure systems, applications,
sensors and data. It must encompass the
strategy of today and for tomorrow.
How to thrive – boost
efficiency and save costs
Ship owners are also discovering the
potential to save costs by leveraging
Virtual Machine (VM) environments that
extend the common domain of digital plat-
forms. As ship companies require increas-
ing sophistication, tools and capacity to
converge their systems and manage opera-
tions remotely, VMs can enable multiple
critical applications to run on a diverse
platform. They can be used to simplify
management or remove old hardware and
overall support transformation strategies.
For example, customers are deploying
multiple servers as VMs with the operating
systems of their choice on Speedcast’s
SIGMA platform to be able to manage
these remotely too. Resources for each VM
can be carefully calibrated and monitored
remotely and used to drive cost savings
and increase efficiency.
Security against
evolving uncertainty
Cybersecurity is also a growing concern as
the maritime threat landscape evolves. It
plays a crucial role to protect onboard
assets and operations from being disrupt-
ed. Protective security measures have now
become a regulatory requirement for ship
owners and Speedcast has developed a
solution to address developing risks with
real-time intelligence within its Cyber
Security as a Service (CSaaS) programme.
As current technology trends are being
driven even further by the needs of the
industry in the midst of current global
events technology solutions which adapt
to bandwidth demands, evolving cyberse-
curity threats and remote operation man-
agement demands are essential for current
shipping needs. The Speedcast SIGMA
smart network and data management plat-
form addresses all of these needs by pro-
viding built-in network management,
solutions for cybersecurity as well as criti-
cal crew connectivity. It also helps to man-
age access to bandwidth for onboard ser-
vices and communications as well as sup-
port the monitoring and management of
full operations and necessary maintenance.
It can harness the power of device commu-
nications with seamless control whereby
operations and crew welfare can be man-
aged remotely through a single platform. It
can also increase efficiency, leverage spare
capacity and innovate in a VM ecosystem
to enable multiple critical applications,
reduce costs and drive positive digital
transformation strategies. In addition, the
added component of protecting, detecting,
responding and recovering a constant
cycle of cybersecurity adds reassurance to
all digital platforms to support seamless
operations at a time when it is needed the
most. DS
p28-35_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:48 Page 4

DIGITAL BRIDGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION

Approved by:
p28-35_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:48 Page 5

SATCOMS

Speedcast receives $395M to support reorganisation plan Ship tracking

www.speedcast.com
Speedcast has received a US $395 million
equity commitment from Centerbridge
Partners, L.P. and its affiliates to support a
plan of reorganisation, which has the sup-
port of both Centerbridge and the
Company’s Official Committee of
Unsecured Creditors.
Centerbridge’s proposed US $395m
equity investment provides the opportuni-
ty for Speedcast’s existing secured lenders
to participate in the equity commitment on
a fully pro-rata basis to support
Speedcast’s emergence from its reorganisa-
tion under Chapter 11 of the US
Speedcast has received a US $395 million equity commitment from Centerbridge
Partners, L.P. and its affiliates to support a plan of reorganisation.
Bankruptcy Code. During the completion
of the Chapter 11 process and under the
new ownership structure, Speedcast
remains focused on supporting the connec-
tivity needs of its customers and fully
intends to continue its global operations
uninterrupted.
The proposed plan would enable the
company, under the leadership of both
Peter Shaper, Speedcast’s chief executive
officer, and Joe Spytek, Speedcast’s presi-
dent and chief commercial officer, to con-
tinue to execute on the transformation plan
to refocus the business, which they initiat-
ed earlier this year after joining the organ-
isation in executive leadership roles. Both
Shaper and Spytek have extensive back-
ground in the communications and service
provider sectors, each previously serving
as chief executives for leading remote com-
munications businesses.
Centerbridge has also committed to
providing, if needed, debtor-in-possession
(DIP) financing of up to US$220 million on
favourable economic terms. The
Centerbridge DIP financing, if drawn,
would be utilised to refinance the
Company’s existing DIP financing, to fund
the Company’s Chapter 11 plan process,
and to ensure the Company can continue
to meet its financial commitments while it
works toward confirmation of the plan of
reorganisation.
The plan will provide for cash pay-
ments to holders of secured claims. A
number of the company’s trade creditors
are critical to its future, and the plan will
provide to those relevant trade creditors, a
partial cash payment for those unsecured
claims. Unsecured creditors generally will
share in recoveries from a litigation trust,
noting there is no certainty that any action
would be undertaken or payment made
from this trust. The plan does not contem-
plate any recovery for existing sharehold-
ers, and existing shareholders would no
longer have an equity interest in the reor-
ganised Speedcast Group.
Completion of the equity investment is
subject to confirmation of the plan of reor-
ganisation and a number of other condi-
tions, including various regulatory
approvals and waivers.
microsatellite
successfully launched
www.esa.int
exactEarth has announced the successful
launch of the ESAIL microsatellite.
Developed under ESA’s ARTES
Partnership Project for global ship track-
ing, the ESAIL satellite was launched
September 3 onboard the Arianespace
Vega (VV16) flight, from Europe’s space-
port in Kourou, French Guiana.
The satellite will undergo commission-
ing testing over the next few months
before being brought into service to pro-
vide advanced high-performance vessel
detection and tracking capability as part of
exactEarth’s global constellation of more
than 70 high performance automatic iden-
tification system (AIS) satellites. These
satellites provide real time monitoring of
the global shipping fleet.
VV16 is Arianespace’s first Vega
Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS)
rideshare flight that injected a total of 53
satellites into orbit. At approximately 52
minutes after launch, ESAIL was
released into a sun-synchronous orbit
with Local Time at Descending Node
(LTDN) of 10:30 am at an altitude of
515 km.
ESAIL is a high-performance
microsatellite, built by LuxSpace with the
support of the Luxembourg Space Agency
under an ESA Partnership Project with
exactEarth and the support of the
Canadian Space Agency. It will track ships
worldwide by detecting messages that

Iridium announces beta partners ships radio-broadcast via AIS. As part of

exactEarth’s Satellite-AIS constellation,

to validate solar-powered IoT device
www.iridium.com
Iridium Communications has announced
six beta partners for its newest out-of-the-
box satellite IoT device, the Iridium Edge
Solar.
Iridium Solar is an intelligent, secure
and maintenance-free solar-powered
remote asset management device with
over-the-air configuration capabilities. The
six companies selected to participate in
beta testing include CLS Telemetry,
Everywhere Communications, Marlink,
M2M Data Corporation, Rock Seven, and
Tesacom.
As part of this process, Iridium Edge
Solar is undergoing a multi-continent
deployment that will push the device's
limits for applications including Vessel
Monitoring Systems (VMS), fisheries man-
agement, asset tracking including freight
and containers, oil and gas and heavy
equipment telematics data reporting. In
addition, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-
enabled smart device applications are
being tested to allow users to maintain
remote asset management and monitoring
from their smartphone and/or tablet.
Iridium Edge Solar enables real-time, two-
way communication, over-the-air configu-
ration changes and local wireless capabili-
ties over BLE, anywhere in the world.
"The Iridium Edge Solar is the new gold
ESAIL will provide AIS data for the moni-
toring of maritime traffic on a global basis.
It will improve fishery monitoring, fleet
standard for the solar-powered satellite power system, the Iridium Edge Solar management, environmental protection,
IoT device world, but at an incredibly cost- combines solar rechargeable batteries with and security monitoring, helping to make
effective rate," said Bryan Hartin, execu- a separate high-capacity battery ensuring shipping safer.
tive vice president, sales and marketing, data delivery even in low-light conditions. The first contact with the ESAIL satel-
Iridium. "Our beta partners will be push- When combined with Iridium's global lite was successfully made by the ESAIL
ing the device to its limits in a wide array coverage and services like Iridium project team within hours after launch.
of environments, ensuring it meets the CloudConnect, which simplifies integra- The project team, consisting of team
industry-leading quality and reliability tion with Amazon Web Services, any members from exactEarth (mission oper-
standards for which Iridium is known. organisation will be able to rapidly scale ator and owner), LuxSpace (prime con-
"Iridium's partners play a pivotal role in and deploy a reliable, solar-powered asset- tractor) and the European Space Agency
bringing our new technologies to market tracking device anywhere on the planet for (project sponsor) have gained control of
and we're looking forward to commercial- up to 10 years without maintenance. the satellite, which is in good health. In
ly launching Iridium Edge the coming weeks, the satellite will
Solar with their help undergo commissioning and in-orbit
before the end of 2020." testing prior to being put into service
Traditionally, solar- as part of exactEarth’s Satellite-AIS
powered asset tracking constellation. The ESAIL satellite is
devices have faced several designed for a mission life of approxi-
challenges that would mately four years.
limit field life and result “We are very excited to add this
in questionable reliability. advanced technology satellite to the
Through complete encap- exactEarth constellation,” said Peter
sulation of vital electron- Mabson exactEarth CEO. “ESAIL incor-
ics, the Iridium Edge Solar porates advanced antenna and receiver
conquers common prob- designs which, together with exactEarth’s
lems such as water intru- advanced decollision processing technol-
sion, limited operating ogy is expected to set a new standard
temperature, long-term for Satellite-AIS vessel detection. I would
reliability or degraded like to thank ESA, the CSA and the
battery capacity over Luxspace-led European satellite manu-
time. With military-grade Iridium’s newest out-of-the-box satellite IoT device, facturing team for helping to achieve this
ruggedised packaging the Iridium Edge Solar. important milestone. Onwards and
and an innovative dual- upwards!”

Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 32

p28-35_p1-14.qxd 01/10/2020 17:07 Page 6
p28-35_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:48 Page 7
SATCOMS
Hartmann seals connectivity upgrade deal with Marlink
www.hartmann-reederei.de
www.marlink.com
German Hartmann Shipping Services has
signed a major new service upgrade agree-
ment with Marlink that will see Hartmann
move from an allowance-based VSAT con-
nectivity to an unlimited Committed
Information Rate (CIR) service.
The move will enable the shipping com-
pany to take the next step into digitalisa-
Hartmann will upgrade its VSAT connectivity and take advantage of new value-added digital services from Marlink.
Marlink’s smart tech helps SeaOwl’s remotely operated vessel project
www.marlink.com
Marlink is providing a special purpose
highly resilient satellite network solution
for the Remotely Operated Service at Sea
(ROSS) project developed by offshore ser-
vices operator SeaOwl.
SeaOwl successfully demonstrated the
concept to strategic partners including
French energy major Total in early
September. The ROSS project aims to bring
down the cost of operations by remotely
controlling a vessel from shore, initially in
the offshore sector, with potential applica-
tion to other civilian and military craft.
The project has focused first on achiev-
ing the regulatory acceptance needed to
operate without crew onboard. This has
involved close work with France’s
Directorate of Maritime Affairs in order to
secure the navigation license necessary for
a demonstration voyage.
Marlink and SeaOwl held several engi-
neering workshops to create a highly
resilient and redundant connectivity and
control system comprising a Sealink VSAT
system with three antennas, dual satellite
feeds and dual below decks equipment.
The system features a unique customised
dashboard interface for the ROSS system
to monitor link key performance indicators
including latency, jitter and throughput.
tion of its services, which include technical
and commercial management to a fleet of
62 modern owned and third-party ships,
comprising gas tankers, container vessels
and bulk carriers.
In addition to enhanced connectivity,
the new agreement will see Marlink
increase its provision of value-added digi-
tal services including remote access for
onboard IT network and OEMs into ship-
board systems via its XChange Universal
The installation is built on a backbone of
state-of-the-art technology and leverages
Marlink’s expertise in cybersecurity and
network resilience, working closely in co-
operation with Bureau Veritas ensuring
compliance to meet statutory requirements.
SeaOwl was founded three years ago by
former merchant navy officer Xavier
Genin, in partnership with state environ-
mental promotion body ADEME which
financed 50 per cent of the Euro 4m R&D
investment. With regulatory approval in
place SeaOwl plans to make its first vessel
orders and ultimately build around 20
remotely operated, electrically powered
ships between 2023 and 2028, which will
be used for underwater inspections of oil
and gas fields and windfarms.
"Unlike an autonomous vessel, the ves-
sel’s crew will pilot the ship from land to
achieve cost savings and minimise a range
of operational risks safer operations,” said
SeaOwl chief executive officer Xavier
Genin. “There are already remote-con-
trolled or autonomous military ships, but
we are the first to obtain the ‘grey card’
which gives us permission to sail as a mer-
chant navy vessel.”
“Our cutting edge satcom engineering
expertise and intelligent hybrid network
that enables the digitalisation of our cus-
tomers’ remote operations makes Marlink
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 34
Remote Access.
A separate network for crew will enable
seafarers to access Marlink’s XChange
Media service, enjoying dedicated news
and information in local languages as well
as international to improve crew wellbeing
and provide them with accurate sources
for news distribution.
With increasing complexity of applica-
tions across multiple networks, Hartmann
has also considered proactive cybersecu-
a natural partner for the most innovative
projects in the industry,” stated Erik
Ceuppens, Marlink group chief executive
officer. “Our focus on close cooperation
SeaOwl successfully demonstrated the concept to strategic partners
including French energy major Total in early September.
rity compliance, implementing Skyfile
Antivirus Premium, XChange Data
Manager Premium and Cyber Detection
solutions as well as IT LINK Monitor for
onboard IT management. Together with
Marlink’s standard security devices
already implemented, this will help
Hartmann Reederei to align with upcom-
ing IMO 2021 regulations.
IT LINK monitor provides a managed
service that removes the burden of IT com-
pliance from crew, enabling shoreside IT
departments to monitor the whole IT
infrastructure onboard each vessel. This
can be expanded with a software distribu-
tor which allows to update networks and
software updates remotely.
In addition, shore side receives regular
management reports which provides a sim-
plified process for understanding band-
width consumption and network usage.
“Our operations cover the entire value-
added chain of shipping and work closely
with national and international partners,
relying on a solid reputation to achieve
high standards of quality,” said Ulrich
Adami, managing director, Hartmann
Reederei. “Marlink’s services provide the
foundation for a new chapter in our histo-
ry as we further digitalise our fleet,
improve our operational profile and
achieve cyber compliance.”
“Hartmann Reederei recognises that the
modern ship operator needs a suite of
smart solutions that seamlessly connects
people and assets around the globe,” said
Tore Morten Olsen, president, Maritime,
Marlink. “By choosing to upgrade its ser-
vices with Marlink, we can support
Hartmann’s digital enablement strategy to
the benefit of the business and the crew.”
and co-creation with our customers
enables us to go above and beyond in
delivering solutions that meet the most
demanding operation environments.”
p28-35_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:48 Page 8
p36-39_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:51 Page 1
CYBERSECURITY
New focus on cybersecurity as IMO 2021 looms
When it comes to cybersecurity in the maritime sector, one size certainly doesn’t fit all! To achieve the best protection,
vessel owners need to put in place appropriate procedures and protocols which relate directly
to their ship and the way it operates, advises satcom specialist IEC Telecom.
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has
escalated the drive towards dig-
italisation for the shipping
industry, with a significant
increase in the processes conducted over
satellite and data links as well as a dou-
bling in crew welfare usage. As a result,
IEC Telecom says it is seeing a significant
increase in interest in cybersecurity pack-
ages, particularly with the impending
introduction of the International Maritime
Organisation’s (IMO) new cybersecurity
resolution in January 2021.
Nabil Ben Soussia, CEO Asia, Middle
East & CIS at IEC Telecom Group, said:
“We are seeing an increased demand
across the board, including sectors where
in the past vessel owners were reluctant to
fit more than the bare minimum system.
Now customers are asking detailed ques-
tions about what the levels of security are
and are definitely taking it very seriously.”
The IMO’s requirement for issues of
cybersecurity to be addressed in vessel
Planned Maintenance and Safety
Management Systems (PMS & SMS) is cer-
tainly a driving factor, together with aware-
ness of recent damaging high-profile cyber-
attacks on companies such as Maersk.
“It is a shame that it takes regulations for
some people to take their cybersecurity seri-
ously but at least now it is a ‘hot topic’ and
everyone is looking closely at their vessels
and operational risks,” said Mr Ben Soussia.
IEC Telecom pioneers a number of mar-
itime satcom solutions including the
ground-breaking OneGate system which
incorporates double levels of cybersecuri-
ty. However, as Mr Ben Soussia points out,
off-the-shelf systems can go 60 per cent of
the way towards meeting your vessel’s
cyber needs but to be truly protected
requires detailed analysis of your unique
requirements.
“There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution
for ship cybersecurity,” he explained.
“Everyone needs a specialist system suit-
able for their individual vessel needs.
“While there are core functions which
everyone must ensure are installed in their
vessel security, there is no magic solution
that works for everyone. Every vessel
should be individually assessed to consid-
er how it operates, what systems it is run-
ning, and where it sails. It is important to
know for example, how many terminals
are in use, who accesses them, what data is
produced and what is done with this data
– for example is it stored on the vessel or
transferred to shore?”
Mr Ben Soussia highlights the diversity
of equipment throughout the maritime
industry and explains that is why IEC
Telecom sees its discussions with each
individual customer and vessel operator as
an essential factor in the identification and
installation of suitable cybersecurity mea-
sures. He stresses the need for each com-
pany to produce a carefully thought-out
cybersecurity policy which is rigorously
implemented and regularly updated,
stressing: “This is an ongoing process not
something which can be done once and
forgotten about.”
Mr Ben Soussia’s comments chime with
BIMCO’s new cybersecurity guidelines,
the starting point of which is to identify
where threats may exist and the potential
vulnerabilities within a company’s elec-
tronic systems. Then, depending on risk
exposures, to develop protection and
detection measures in order to prevent an
attack from succeeding.
Meeting the new IMO requirements is
likely to be more challenging for smaller
owners and operators who may not have
their own dedicated IT teams. The BIMCO
guidelines advise that establishing an
emergency response plan should if neces-
sary involve assistance from external advi-
sors, such as specialist companies like IEC
Telecom, IT experts, lawyers and others.
IMO’s Resolution 428(98) is widely seen
in maritime circles as a “game changer”,
stating that, from 2021, a vessel’s SMS will
need take into account cyber risk manage-
ment in accordance with the objectives and
functional requirements of the ISM Code.
Member governments are ‘encouraged’ to
ensure that safety management systems
address cyber risks no later than the first
annual verification of the Document of
Compliance after 1 January 2021.
The risks of not taking cybersecurity
seriously impact not only the operation of
the vessel and the safety of those onboard,
but also the whole maritime business. As
marine law firm Hill Dickinson advises:
“There is a risk that deficiencies in anti-
viral software and security systems could
render a ship ‘unseaworthy’ in legal terms.
It points out that: “The list of access
points is pretty endless with exposure to
communication systems, bridge systems,
AIS, ECDIS, proportion and machinery
management, emissions and ballast con-
trols, smart containers and crew welfare
systems. There is no particular sector of the
industry that is more exposed than any
other. It’s the systems and access points
that create the issues.”
The maritime industry has already seen
incidents of pirates accessing manifests in
order to target high-value cargo. There have
also been suggestions that pirates were able
to access the schematics of citadel construc-
tions in order to defeat this form of antipira-
cy measure. The possibility to imitate AIS
and GPS data is real and experts have indi-
cated how an ECDIS system can be hacked
potentially resulting in a significant colli-
sion, grounding or major incident.
Given the potential risks, it is no sur-
prise that the IMO would seek to encour-
age greater focus on the cybersecurity of
ships. In its MSC-FAL.1/Circ.3 Guidelines
on Maritime Cyber Risk Management,
IMO states its overall goal is safe and
secure shipping which is operationally
resilient to cyber risks.
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 36
IMO highlights the need to consider
information technology, operational tech-
nology systems and the data exchange
within these systems. It speaks of vulnera-
bilities arising from inadequate operation,
integration, maintenance and design of
cyber-related systems, and from intention-
al and unintentional cyber threats.
While threats can be presented by mali-
cious actions such as hacking or the intro-
duction of malware, IMO highlights the
unintended consequences of failures in
software maintenance or user permissions.
It says: “In general, these actions expose
vulnerabilities (e.g. outdated software or
ineffective firewalls) or exploit a vulnera-
bility in operational or information tech-
nology. Effective cyber risk management
should consider both kinds of threat.”
“Cyber discipline is now something
which must be practiced at all levels in the
command chain, both onboard and ashore.
It is important creating vulnerabilities such
as are created by unauthorised access to
critical systems,” said Mr Ben Soussia.
The IMO’s circular refers to the dangers
of failing to install network segregation,
which is something IEC Telecom is keen to
highlight and which plays a crucial role in
systems such as OneGate where critical
vessel functions and crew welfare traffic
are carefully compartmentalised.
“It is important to ensure that critical
systems such as bridge navigation or main
propulsion systems, or the many vessel
sensors which provide mission-critical
data are not compromised,” he said. “It is
not just crew members using the internet
or plugging in an infected USB or corrupt-
ed phone that pose a risk. We also need to
consider how many other people may be
given access to the vessel’s technology.
“For example, an engineer may need to
access a system remotely in order to carry
out an essential repair and that access needs
to be carefully managed as it immediately
creates a vulnerability. Our systems can
provide a third network for certified third
parties and limit their access to just one sys-
tem or piece of machinery and for just one
occasion – ensuring that the person access-
ing remotely cannot interfere or impact on
any other operations or technology either
deliberately or accidentally. So the cost of
any mistake is limited to one area only and
is unlikely to shut the entire vessel down.”
Mr Ben Soussia stresses the importance
of robust procedures and regular, quality
training to ensure that opportunities for
‘human error’ are minimised. For example,
he points out that crew must understand
the potential impact of bypassing a system
or process. “We need to anticipate mis-
takes such as thinking what would happen
if a crew member rerouted a faulty sensor
via the crew welfare network in order to
make it work. That would risk infection or
corruption of that sensor and potentially
provide an access route through to other
vessel systems. That’s why segregation
Nabil Ben Soussia, CEO Asia, Middle East
& CIS at IEC Telecom Group.
and careful procedures are so essential.”
He believes in the importance of having
company-specific cyber policies and rules.
“You can’t just bring an internet connec-
tion onboard a vessel and then leave the
crew to just do what they want,” he said.
IMO agrees, saying that effective cyber
risk management should ensure an appro-
priate level of awareness of cyber risks and
preparedness at all levels of an organisa-
tion, appropriate to roles and responsibili-
ties and encourages the implementation of
risk control processes and measures.
Maritime surveys regularly identify
crew training standards as being perceived
as one of the top cyber risk problems.
In addition he points out that, as ships
become more digitalised and dependent
on data analysis, it is vital to ensure the
verifiable authenticity of that data. “For
smart ships there is one level of threat
posed by a loss of connection – which basi-
cally means that you lose your data but
you are aware that the connection has
dropped and the data supply has failed.
However, if a vessel is corrupted in some
way, either mistakenly or as a result of an
attack, how will you know that the data
received is correct? It may be used to tell
other systems to take actions – such as
telling the ship to change course – so it is
very important that you are able to verify
and authenticate all data as it is recorded.”
It is important that these risks be
addressed as more devices are connected
and as operations become more dependent
on the connectivity. It has been reported
that today a single ship can host 5,000 data
tags and 3,000 sensors in the main control
and engine rooms alone. Mr Ben Soussia
noted: “A network is only as secure as its
most vulnerable device, therefore access
and permissions must be set accordingly.
“Today, in the midst of the COVID-19
pandemic, we are careful who we allow
onboard our vessels and we have in place
procedures to verify the identity and health
of those stepping across the gangway. I
would like to see it become second nature to
also verify the ‘health’ of any equipment
brought onboard too before it is allowed to
connect to or access any vessel systems.” DS
p36-39_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:51 Page 2

19090508_A0_Dig_Ship PT

The Fugro Oceanstar anti-spoofing feature protects your vessel

against hostile GNSS attacks. Any attempt to manipulate the
vessel’s course or position triggers an alarm to alert the crew.

To find out more visit

fugro.com/oceanstar
p36-39_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:51 Page 3
CYBERSECURITY
Analysing ship-shore data traffic
for possible hackers
Threatspan of Rotterdam analyses ship-shore data traffic and provides visibility
of vessel cyber risks in an online platform for shipping companies.
T
hreatspan of Rotterdam has
developed a small sensor to con-
tinuously monitor threats on a
ship and online platforms, allow-
ing fleet IT managers to further monitor
cyber risks. Threatspan was developed from
the analysis of the cybersecurity needs of 10
of the largest shipping companies as they
represent common cyber issues across ship-
ping. Threatspan’s solution is especially use-
ful for small and medium shipping compa-
nies due to the relatively low cost, however
larger companies can also easily integrate
the platform into their existing system.
Threatspan looks at the vessel as critical
infrastructure where not only hackers but
any operational failure can result in a safe-
ty issue or disrupt the business. It looks at
cyber risk across the landscape as it
impacts the business, safety, the crew, and
enterprise. Threatspan’s platform covers
smaller incidents, so called cyber failures
such as compliance, unsuccessful software
updates, or risks from seafarers.
Leon Yen, founder and CEO of
Threatspan, explained: “Many shipowners
already have a firewall and end point solu-
Seagull and Videotel launch cyber wellness at sea programme Carnival hit by hackers
www.seagull.no
www.videotel.com
Maritime e-learning provider Seagull
Maritime and Videotel have jointly
launched a new title called “Cyber
Wellness” aimed at seafarers.
With internet connectivity at sea grow-
ing rapidly amongst the world’s fleet,
there are many advantages for seafarers
being able to keep in close contact with
family and friends, as well as using the
web during rest periods for entertainment
in the form of games, TV and access to
social media.
However, it is important that seafarers
Seagull and Videotel urge seafarers to manage their time spent
online to promote good mental well-being.
tions protecting their computers, but they
typically haven’t got solutions that moni-
tor the network”.
Threatspan installs a small sensor on ves-
sel’s IT network, which monitors the traffic
on the entire network, inspects the traffic
and deeply analyses what’s happening on
the vessel. Threatspan says that if a shipping
company wants to improve their cybersecu-
rity situation, they first need to identify
where they stand in terms of being cyber-
secure, and where its tools are lacking.
The sensor looks for anomalies and sus-
picious activities on the network, including
the operational technology (OT) network.
As soon as it detects something suspicious
it pushes an alert to an online platform so
that officers on shore can monitor the cyber
posture of that vessel or entire fleet. The
sensor only monitors rather than blocks a
threat as this often requires a business
decision. Blocking traffic can be tricky as it
depends on the ship itself. Currently the
sensor can be configured with the firewall
to block threats.
Threatspan believes that continuous
threat scanning, knowing the infrastruc-
carefully manage their screen time as too
much can lead to increased fatigue and
lower concentration levels when on duty,
which may adversely affect performance.
Equally, excessive use of the internet
may also result in reduced socialising with
colleagues, which can heighten feelings of
isolation and loneliness.
This film helps seafarers achieve a
healthy balance between the virtual
and real world by outlining three key
principles:
1) Respect for self and others
2) Safe and responsible use
3) Managing non-work screen time
The programme follows the latest industry
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 38
ture onboard the ship and the geographical
location, combined with cyber intelligence,
are the most important elements for fleet
IT managers to determine which vessels
are most at risk.
Threatspan’s online platform offers a
layer of situational awareness to fleet IT
managers of what’s happening on their ves-
sels from a cyber perspective. Non-IT users
should also be able to use the platform with
ease too due to its fairly simplistic design.
An outdated software on the ship ele-
vates the vessel’s risk exposure. Observing
the difficulty clients have in keeping track
of all software onboard, Threatspan created
an asset database on the online platform.
Fleet IT managers can easily see what sys-
tems and software is onboard, what the
versions are and what needs updating.
Threatspan believes that seafarers are
particularly vulnerable to cyberthreats.
The platform therefore offers a seafarer
cyber hygiene module to augment the plat-
form. Crew can complete cyber training
and take part in a test, with the results then
pulled into the platform to provide them
with a cyber qualification for that ship.
guidance and gives tips on how to achieve
each of these principles and identifies the
risks that can occur through overuse of
smart phones, tablets, laptops and social
media.
At a little under 8 minutes running
time, it has been produced with a millen-
nial audience in mind using production
techniques designed to engage this target
audience.
“This new programme is very timely as
internet use at sea is increasing exponen-
tially especially during these uncertain
times. Whilst connectivity is clearly a big
positive, it is important that online use is
managed properly and that personal
devices don’t become addictive and detri-
mental to mental wellbeing. By following
the key principles outlined in this pro-
gramme, seafarers will achieve a healthy
balance between their on-device and real-
world interactions,” said Raal Harris,
managing director of Videotel and cre-
ative director of Ocean Technologies
Group.
The film demonstrates the growing
cooperation of the two maritime e-learn-
ing heavyweights both now part of the
Ocean Technologies Group of companies
which also includes Coex, Maritime
Training Services (MTS), and Tero
Marine. The Group also recently acquired
Marlins, the leading brand in English lan-
guage testing and eLearning solutions for
shipping.
The “Cyber Wellness” video is available
to order and will be listed on the Seagull
and Videotel training libraries.
Leon Yen, founder and CEO of Threatspan.
Threatspan offers a free one-month pilot
with each customer, enabling them to test
the product before purchase. The monthly
price ranges from EUR 250-350 per vessel.
In the near future, Threatspan plans to
focus on developing the sensor so that it
can effectively block attacks. The company
will also develop the technology to enable
it to perform analyses without a satellite
connection. DS
www.carnivalcorp.com
Carnival Corporation has been hit by a
ransomware attack that accessed and
encrypted a portion of information tech-
nology (IT) systems. The unauthorised
access included the download of certain
data files and access to guests and employ-
ees’ personal data, which could lead to
potential claims from guests, employees,
shareholders, or regulatory agencies.
Carnival Corporation operates various
cruise lines including P&O, Cunard, and
Princess.
Upon its detection of the security event,
Carnival launched an investigation and
notified law enforcement, and engaged
legal counsel and other incident response
professionals.
While the investigation of the incident is
ongoing, the shipping company has imple-
mented a series of containment and remedia-
tion measures to address this situation and
reinforce the security of its IT systems.
Carnival reports that it is working with
industry-leading cybersecurity firms to imme-
diately respond to the threat, defend the com-
pany’s IT systems, and conduct remediation.
Based on its preliminary assessment
and on the information currently known,
Carnival does not believe that the incident
will have a material impact on its busi-
ness, operations or financial results.
Carnival has stated that while it
believes that no other IT systems of its
other brands have been impacted by this
incident, there can be no assurance that
other IT systems of the other company’s
brands will not be adversely affected.
p36-39_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 15:51 Page 4
KR issues first cybersecurity class notation
to HHI for very large LPG carriers
www.krs.co.kr
www.hhi.co.kr
The Korean Register has presented
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) with the
world’s first Cybersecurity (CS Ready)
class notation for a very large liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG) carrier.
The presentation took place at KR’s
Headquarters in Busan on 18 September,
in the presence of Hyundai LNG Shipping,
Hyundai Heavy Industries and, Korea
Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering.
Hyundai LNG Shipping is the owner of
the very large LPG carrier built by HHI
which is scheduled for delivery later this
month. KR granted the notation after com-
pleting successful document and field
inspections, which included Kongsberg
KR presented HHI with the world’s first Cybersecurity (CS Ready) class notation
for a very large LPG carrier. Image courtesy of The Korean Register.
Metrostar Management rolls out CyberOwl software
www.metrostar.gr
www.cyberowl.io
CyberOwl has agreed a contract to provide
its shipping cybersecurity technology to
the Metrostar Management Corporation
fleet.
With 4 months remaining to 1 January
2021 and IMO 2021, many operators are
still unsure of their next steps for manag-
ing cyber risk onboard their vessels and
gaining assurance on compliance with the
looming regulation.
Having launched its first product in
2019, CyberOwl now works with shipping
fleets across Europe and APAC to help
them gain visibility of their onboard sys-
tems, actively manage the cyber risks and
gain assurance on compliance. Despite the
disruptions of COVID-19, the company
continues to see a drive in demand for
their products and services as fleet owners
and managers come alive to the severity of
the risks.
This drive in demand is, in part, a result
of year-on-year increase in digital accelera-
Maritime's ship alarm and monitoring sys-
tem (AMS) and Hyundai Global Service's
Integrated Smart Ship Solution (ISS).
This is the first time the KR cybersecuri-
ty notation has been awarded to a very
large LPG carrier. The notation is issued to
newbuilding ships that have successfully
passed 49 inspection items in a total of 12
categories, including risk and asset man-
agement, cyber incident response and
recovery.
The four companies have been collabo-
rating on joint research and developments
for the past eight months, while working
to apply and verify KR’s cybersecurity
rules for newbuilding ships. HHI and
KSOE have built a cybersecurity network
encompassing the main systems, conduct-
ing risk assessment and vulnerability diag-
tion. The latest move to acquire
CyberOwl’s services demonstrates
Metrostar Management Corporation’s
approach to managing its cyber risk and
remaining compliant with IMO 2021
requirements.
“Metrostar joins the growing number of
maritime companies that place trust in
CyberOwl to help them actively manage
the cyber risks to their vessel systems.
Working with Metrostar, it is clear that
they are on a mission to be at the cutting
edge of cybersecure digitalisation, becom-
ing the leading light for the rest of the ship-
ping sector,” said Daniel Ng, CEO of
CyberOwl.
Matthew Maheras, IT manager of
Metrostar Management Corporation,
commented: “CyberOwl's Medulla has
been able to provide us visibility of cyber
risks in a way that we previously strug-
gled with. Within days of installation,
their systems detected risks to our
onboard systems which we were able
to deal with immediately to avoid any
disruptions and losses. Medulla also
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 39
nosis for cyber security threats and KR has
carried out and completed cybersecurity
inspections across the network. As part of
the comprehensive technological testing,
KR conducted its first MITRE ATT&CK,
based penetration test to verify the safety
of the cybersecurity system.
Mr. Lee Hyung Chul, chairman and chief
executive officer of KR said at the presenta-
tion event: “The success of this joint
research has enhanced our excellent cyber-
security technology status around the
world. KR will continue to strengthen its
global cybersecurity leadership, and will
work to increase its unrivalled expertise
and widen its certification capabilities.”
Mr. Choi Jang-pal, head of business
operation division, HLS said: “We are
very pleased to secure the cyber security
notation from KR which offers the highest
standard of certification capabilities
worldwide. Ship cyber security risk man-
agement is a top priority, and we will con-
tinue to proactively ensure our practices
and processes offer the highest level of
protection.”
“Through our collaboration with KSOE,
we will continue to procure pre-emptive
technology and to build smart ships with
industry-leading differentiated cyber secu-
rity systems, in today’s world, we must
deliver ships which are fully certified for
maritime cybersecurity,” added Mr. Kim
Jae-eul, HHI executive vice president, chief
technology officer.
Newbuilding vessels increasingly need
cybersecurity notation as the application of
digital technologies such as advanced
automation and integrated control systems
become more common, in addition, the
IMO is expected to strengthen its demands
for cyber security risk management as
from 2021.
produces practical, incident documenta-
tion and meaningful reports that really
facilitate communication of cyber risks
with senior management and provide me
CyberOwl's Medulla is a cyber risk dashboard that helps operators gain visibility
of the cyber risk of the assets across their whole fleet.
Digital Ship
CMA CGM hit by
cyber-attack
www.cmacgm-group.com
On September 28, 2020, French container
shipping line CMA CGM Group
announced that it had been hit by a new
cyber threat, impacting peripheral servers.
As soon as the security breach was
detected, external access to applications
was interrupted to prevent the malware
from spreading.
The cyber-attack excluded the Group’s
CEVA Logistics.
CMA CGM reported immediately that
its teams were fully mobilised and access
to its information systems were able to
gradually resume.
The CMA CGM network remained
available to the Group's customers for all
booking and operation requests.
At the time of writing (September 29),
an investigation was underway. This
was conducted by CMA CGM’s
internal experts and by independent
experts.
French container shipping line CMA CGM
announced on September 28 that
it had been hit by a cyber-attack.
compliance assurance during inspection
processes. The team are professional,
experienced and a real pleasure to work
with.”
p40-44_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 16:05 Page 1
TRAINING AND E-LEARNING START-UPS SUPPLEMENT
For seafarers, having the ability to train and learn from any location at any time is a useful option to help them
improve their knowledge and widen their career opportunities. For shipowners, remote training can help them
save on unnecessary costs and logistics. During COVID-19, tools for distance learning and education have
become even more relevant. Digital Ship interviewed start-ups working in the training and e-learning realm
that are bringing new and interactive e-learning opportunities to the shipping industry.
MedAssist.online – apps for remote medical care
Dutch start-up MedAssist.online has
developed a live app that enables a cap-
tain and a doctor to collaborate during
critical medical situations onboard.
An app created by MedAssist.online of
Rotterdam facilitates collaboration
between a doctor and a captain to help
onboard staff treat unwell crew members
when an issue cannot be solved via a
phone call. The unique app merges the
videos of both sides, making it appear as
though the doctor is visible in the same
room as the patient and the captain.
According to MedAssist.online, the
technology has been patented.
The app allows the captain to access
better visual support from the doctor,
who can both talk and clearly demon-
strate how to examine a patient or per-
form a medical treatment that usually
requires a specific skill.
“Better visual support from the doctor
will boost the captain’s confidence to carry
out interventions onboard, providing bet-
ter care and avoiding unnecessary diver-
sion of the ship. Every ship officer had
medical training, but in the real world
it’s hard to know what to do and actually
MTR – training crew with VR and computer-based 3D serious games
MTR has developed serious games to pro-
vide crews with a realistic experience
around incidents and critical operations
onboard using 3D and virtual reality.
Turkish start-up MTR has been devel-
oping 3D animation, VR and computer-
based serious games since 2017, helping
shipping companies to improve their crew
competence. Currently, MTR has 35 long-
term clients of which the majority operate
tankers, bulkers, roro, and tug vessels.
Some notable clients are Zeaborn Tankers,
DFDS, and Geden Lines.
Ozgur Alemdag, founder and manag-
ing director of MTR, says that during acci-
dents, crew members are often in shock
and are not always certain of how to
behave. He believes it is important to train
students for real life situations.
MTR has created 3D animation videos
based on real incident reports in a reflec-
tive learning environment that shows the
root causes of the real incident. This allows
crew to see the chain of mistakes and facil-
itates discussion of the gaps to prevent
reoccurrence.
MTR also provides VR based 3D ani-
mated serious games that allow crew to
complete given missions onboard for vari-
ous critical operations including anchor-
ing, enclosed space entry, working at
do it. Infection under the skin or stitching
can be solved onboard but can be painful.
Having the doctor coaching alongside
means strong support for the captain
treating the patient,” Walther Boon, man-
aging director of MedAssist.online told
Digital Ship.
To use the tool, the doctor keeps his
hands against a green screen. The app iso-
lates the picture of the doctor and mixes it
with the video of the patient on a server,
before returning the view for both the
doctor and the captain. The technology is
based on a principle often used by TV stu-
dios. For example, a weather host who
appears against a map or the sky.
MedAssist.online adapted its technology
from this to ensure functionality on a
mobile device onboard a ship’s environ-
ment, where internet connection is often
limited.
The MedAssist live app has been creat-
ed as a medical service, but it can also be
used for a ship to connect with any expert
remotely during a critical situation. For
instance, in the event of an equipment fail-
ure, the crew can use the tool to remotely
connect with an engineer. It can also be
height, lifeboat lowering, activating a CO2
fixed firefighting system, testing emergen-
cy generators, and more. This kind of
immersive training creates a positive
opportunity for training providers to
improve the crew’s competencies in an
environment close to real life. This tool can
be used for both training and assessment
purposes.
Most recently, MTR has developed two
computer-based games that the crew can
download and complete with the given
credits. The first game is about enclosed
space entry, and the second helps seafarers
to improve language skills.
Space entry games start from the tool-
box meeting and filling the necessary
forms and continue with the necessary
actions that need to be completed before an
enclosed space entry.
The second game tackles communica-
tion and English skills that can be an issue
during accidents. The 3D animated serious
game is combined with voice recognition
to measure and improve the language
skills of the seafarers. The modules are
prepared in parallel to IMO Standard
Marine Communication Phrases (IMO
SMCP) requirements. Seafarers are
required to complete various missions
inside the game by walking to the
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 40
used to enhance collaboration between col-
leagues and an office. Mr Boon says that
it’s a great tool to fix problems during inci-
dents onboard, due to its simplicity and
low cost.
Mr Boon estimates that 80-90 per cent
of ships at sea that have internet will be
able to use this new technology by
MedAssist. With support of the European
Space Agency (ESA) it’s built to work
over a standard satellite connection that
will usually be available on general cargo
ships. The app consumes less bandwidth
than Skype. However, the app will not
work if the ship has internet for emails
only. MedAssist.online enables a ship’s captain
MedAssist.online has recently finished and a doctor to collaborate during critical
the CE medical device certification pro- medical situations onboard.
cess. As the app is considered a medical
device, it has completed many quality
checks. The app is currently available as a In addition to the live app, MedAssist
business app and will be offered to fleets offers a Skills App which is a collection of
very soon. MedAssist.online is looking for practical video instructions on how to take
long-term partnerships and typically care of ill crew members, for example
enters into five or three year contracts to administering an injection. The app is
supply ships with the app and the ipad. being used onboard 500 ships. DS
MedAssist can also offer a medical service
if a client chooses. Find out more at www.medassist.online
Turkish start-up MTR provides 3D animation, VR and
computer-based games for crew training.
required place onboard, responding to the sometimes be difficult for shipping compa-
questions and pronouncing the answers in nies to implement such training as super-
the correct way after listening the narra- intendents are not always familiar with
tion. MTR says that it’s a useful tool to active learning and problem-solving meth-
practise language at home. At the end of ods that MTR staff is experienced in. MTR
each game, a detailed results report is gen- offers training to superintendents on how
erated by the platform. to facilitate soft skill learning. DS
MTR also offers soft skill development,
mental health and resilience training for Find out more at
crew. Ozgur Alemdag noticed that it can www.maritimetrainer.com
p40-44_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 16:05 Page 2

webinar

Maritime maintenance management startups

1 Oct. 2020
Voyage weather routing in practise – sponsored by Coach Solutions
8 Oct. 2020
Making maritime digital projects work
15 Oct. 2020
Connectivity – sponsored by World-Link Communications
27 Oct. 2020
Vessel performance monitoring projects – sponsored by IB Marine
5 Nov. 2020
Future of data in maritime – sponsored by GTMaritime
10 Nov. 2020
Chartering technology startups
19 Nov. 2020
Making maritime digital projects work
3 Dec. 2020
Vessel performance monitoring projects
17 Dec. 2020

All webinars are free to attend

To sponsor a Digital Ship webinar or for more information To sponsor a Vessel Performance To contribute to a webinar
on our events contact: Optimisation webinar contact: please contact:
Narges Jodeyri Ria Kontogeorgou David Jeffries Vaida Stockunaite
t: +44 (0) 20 7017 3406 t: +44 (0) 20 7150 5292 t: + 44 208 150 5293 t: +44 20 7017 3403
e: narges@thedigitalship.com e: ria@thedigitalship.com e: djeffries@vpoglobal.com e: vaida@thedigitalship.com

Search for The Digital Ship @TheDigitalShip Search for The Digital Ship

Register Online www.webinars.thedigitalship.com

p40-44_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 16:05 Page 3
TRAINING AND E-LEARNING START-UPS SUPPLEMENT
Seably – an online learning community for and by the maritime industry
Swedish start-up Seably is creating a new
type of digital learning platform for the
maritime industry.
Seably aims to become the leading dig-
ital platform for maritime training by cre-
ating a marketplace where shipowners
and seafarers can find and build the
courses they need under one platform.
Seably promises to share 50 per cent of its
income with training providers through a
shared economy model with monthly
payouts. Seably now welcomes maritime
experts around the world to create cours-
es on the new platform free of charge. All
types of training courses are welcome,
with the only limitation being that the
content should relate to the maritime
industry.
Seably.com was launched in January
2020 to the home market Sweden, but the
aim is to operate globally. Seably is linked
to the Swedish Shipping Association,
being an offspring of its digital training
pioneer Shipgaz Training.
“The problem for shipowners is that
they buy components from various suppli-
ers and they have to go for training to mul-
tiple places. Our idea is that they can do
that all on Seably. We aim to serve a glob-
al demand and are looking forward to
cooperating with numerous shipping com-
panies and suppliers within the shipping
industry”, said Tomas Lindberg, CEOof
Seably.
The start-up offers editing and publish-
ing tools that authors can use to create,
Rotterdam’s ECMT sees success from online STCW courses
ECMT, a maritime training company in
Rotterdam, is seeing a good uptake of its
online STCW course.
ECMT, a maritime training company in
Rotterdam, has reported a healthy interest
in its online Standards of Training,
Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW)
courses, which are available at stcw.online.
The courses have been available on the
current website since May 2020 and else-
where prior to this.
STCW offers a wide range of security
awareness courses, including safety for
dealing with passengers – crowd manage-
ment, crisis management, passenger
safety and the latest cybersecurity risk
awareness.
Hundreds of individual seafarers have
already completed these courses since
May. Seafarers of 16 different nationalities
were observed on the platform from
Honduras, South Africa, China,
Newfoundland, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine,
and almost all European countries includ-
ing Iceland, Finland, and Germany.
Walther Boon, managing director of
STCW.online believes that online courses
are faster and reduce logistical challenges.
He said that seafarers are often happy to
complete the courses. He observed that
there are many connected to the platform
on weekends, especially Saturday after-
noons. He has also seen a spike in use on
Monday mornings, which shows that the
courses are being completed during both
weekends and regular office hours.
market, and sell their courses. All building
tools are available within the browser and
are intuitive to use. A minor Photoshop
element is built-in to improve images.
Automatic compressing of videos, drag-n-
drop of elements, and rich text formatting
are some of the features included.
Seably will allocate 50 per cent of its
monthly income in a so-called "Royalty
Pool" that the company shares with the
training providers, depending on the num-
ber of people who complete the respective
courses.
Currently, Seably's library caters for
tankers, bulk carriers, ferries and ro-pax
vessels. Flag-state approved STCW train-
ing, and various customer demanded
courses from oil majors are blended with
training from subcontractors, insurance
companies, and classification societies.
Shipowners will benefit from an all-
inclusive marketplace where they can
select the content appropriate for their sea- The Seably team. Tomas Lindberg, CEO of Seably is positioned second from the left.
farers. They also have access to tools to
build introductory training for newly hired Awareness training, they can purchase this cate is downloadable immediately follow-
personnel and tools for assigning, notify- course individually to help improve ing course completion.
ing, and measuring employees' training. employment opportunities. Employees are able to access all content
“A few shipowners are already produc- Seably focuses on user-friendly content on the marketplace for a fixed fee per
ing their courses from COVID-19 instruc- distribution on mobile devices. Apps are month. The price for shipowners to use
tions to cybersecurity and whatever else available for both Android and iOS, and Seably depends on the segment they are in.
is missing in their training matrix”, Mr users can access courses both online and An intense training segment will have a
Lindberg explained. offline. Seafarers are able to mark the con- higher monthly rate. Seably's website indi-
The courses are open to individual sea- tent and consume it offline when at sea. cates costs start from 4 dollars per user
farers who may wish to complete a course The technique is similar to platforms such per month. DS
required for a certain level of employment. as Spotify and Netflix where an online sta-
For example, if they are missing Security tus is not required at all times. The certifi- Find out more at www.seably.com
“We had people who needed to fly out
for the ship the next day but needed a spe-
cial course. It was a Belgian captain who
needed three courses the next day. We
worked with him and overnight he got
those certificates online. Of course he put
in many hours online but he had a job”,
said Mr. Boon.
Seafarers can find quality study online
for a reasonable cost, which varies based
on how extensive the course is. Typically,
they cost under 100 euros. According to
ECMT, the quality is always kept the same
and it does not depend on the instructor or
time the seafarer is taking the course.
Course structure
STCW.online focuses on producing con-
tent that is enjoyable and easy to remem-
ber. The course makes use of images and
movies while keeping text to a minimum
to help maximise understanding and
memory. Each course consists of various
slides with videos, photos, and questions. STCW offers a wide range of security awareness courses,
including safety for dealing with passengers.
Slides focus on 3-4 key elements as any
more than this is likely to be overwhelm-
ing and more difficult to remember. es and the tests can be downloaded and ers can train in safe environment at home
The course includes an end assessment completed offline. A certificate is received where no COVID-19 restrictions apply.
that requires a certain score to be achieved if the seafarer passes the test. Other schools and training providers
in order to pass the course. Answers are Currently there are 11 courses on are given the opportunity to use the con-
mixed and in the case of a re-take, the STCW.online. The company plans to tent of STCW.online for their own stu-
questions will not be the same as the first extend the number of courses to 40 within dents with their logo. No identical content
test taken. the next year. by other providers will be found on the
The course material is readable on a STCW believes that the courses offer a platform. DS
phone screen as seafarers often like to useful alternative for shipowners to move
access the courses while at sea. The cours- their class-based training online as seafar- Find out more at www.STCW.online
Digital Ship October / November 2020 page 42
p40-44_p1-14.qxd 29/09/2020 16:05 Page 4

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With the CT-SECURE460, USB drives become a thing of the past. As
defined in the new Cyber Security risk management resolutions,
shipping companies are subject to meet steep cyber security
requirements, among which eliminating the use of removable
media.
Through the use of the CT-SECURE460, which is fully compliant with
IEC61162-460, your ECDIS can now securely retrieve its chart data
without having to transfer any files via USB sticks or even DVD’s.
CT-SECURE460
 Supported By

Partners

YOUR EVENT, YOUR WAY

THE ADIPEC 2020 VIRTUAL EVENT EXPERIENCE

1 ACCESS ADIPEC VIRTUAL WHEN YOU WANT ANYTIME,

ANYWHERE AND ON ANY DEVICE
The ADIPEC 2020 Virtual Conferences can be streamed live and on-demand on any
device that has an internet connection. You can actively participate in the conference
from anywhere in the world, and with on-demand, at any time. Providing you with the
opportunity to consume world-class content at your own convenience.

2 ENHANCE YOUR KNOWLEDGE WITH WORLD CLASS CONTENT

The ADIPEC 2020 Virtual Conferences will provide the thought leadership that will frame
the future of the oil & gas landscape and connect global organisations to define new
energy business models and strategies, that will shape the industry.

3 NETWORK WITH THE ENERGY COMMUNITY THROUGH THE

VIRTUAL MEETINGS PROGRAMME AT THE VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
ADIPEC 2020’s Virtual Meetings Programme is a bespoke AI based integrated matchmaking
service. Speakers, conference delegates, sponsors, exhibitors, visitors and media partners
can book virtual one-on-one individual or group meetings from a central available time slot.

TO BOOK YOUR DELEGATE PLACE ONLINE VISIT www.adipec.com/confreg FOR EXHIBITION ENQUIRIES
OR EMAIL US AT adipec.delegate@dmgevents.com adipec.sales@dmgevents.com

www.adipec.com/virtual #ADNOC #ADIPEC #ADIPEC2020 #ADIPECVirtual

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