Cesma News - Collegio Capitani

                   The participants of the conference saw the very nice exhibition “Lighthouses and other

           means of navigation support on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast”in the lobby of the congress center,

           then they were taken to Burgas VTS tower where they were acquainted with newest technologies

           used to observe, control and manage the traffic. The lunch was in the small island St. Anastasia in

           the bay of Burgas where all attendees were able to get acquainted with the exciting history of the

            island and to visit the local lighthouse.

                                                                                                                Captain Dimitar Dimitrov

Magellan, although Portuguese, is “sponsored” by Diego Barbosa on behalf of Carlos I of

Spain (future Emperor Charles V). The instructions received are:

        1- Sailing in the Atlantic towards the south coast of the American continent, further south

than the last expedition of Solís (Río de Solís or de la Plata, in 1515)

        2- “Seek the strait of these seas” and go to the South Sea to reach the Spice Islands

        3- “Not to call or discover land, or anything else within the limits of the Most Serene King

of Portugal, my very dear and beloved uncle and brother, nor to his detriment...”

        4- Once in these islands, make “...peace settlement and deal with the king or lord of the

land...”

        

The important issue for this council meeting was the resignation of deputy president Captain Roberto Surez, elected in 2016 in Cork, Ireland. On second thoughts, he could not combine his tasks in his professional career with the activities of the deputy presidency of CESMA. For this reason an election was necessary for a new deputy president. Three associations had presented candidates, making an election procedure necessary. As members of the board were also acting as council members (entitled to vote), the election procedure was handled by the hosting association, the Montenegro shipmasters. After two rounds of voting, necessary for a normal majority, Captain Dimitar Dimitrov was elected as deputy president. Captain Dimitrov has a long experience in the CESMA council and will present himself further on in this issue of the CESMA NEWS.

Communication with members and informing other parties has improved by the new lay-out of the CESMA NEWS and the re-installation of the website. Other means were discussed but face book was considered not applicable due to safety of information issues. We keep looking for means to reach younger seafarers and interest them for association membership. Good cooperation with other maritime associations and organisations such as IFSMA, The Nautical Institute, EMSA and ECSA are important and will be continued as they could influence discussions and decisions on maritime safety and security being made at IMO in London. Concluding the Council Meeting. The president Capt. Hubert Ardillon thanked all participants for their input in the discussions and decisions.

The day was concluded with a visit to the maritime faculty in Kotor. The Dean of the faculty explained about the aims and possibilities of the faculty. The visit was concluded with a visit to the simulator which is very important for training purposes of the students.

As council member I joined CESMA in 2007, being Chairman of the Board of Bulgarian Shipmasters’ Association and since then I attended CESMA AGA’s during all the years up to now. Our association is not big but we try to unite our colleagues from Bulgaria and to express their voice in the European family of shipmasters. We face problems, shared by all colleagues, that young officers and shipmasters are no longer interested in participation of professional organizations as they have internet, facebook, twitter and all the other means of communication and they think they do not need membership of organization like ours. During the CESMA AGA in Riga 2017, I established a face book group “CESMA” and tried to promote a new way of communication between our members in order to be more attractive and closer to our young members. We have to be in line with the new trends of the industry as automation, computerization, digitalization, etc. At the same time I reconfirm my opinion, as expressed in the previous edition of CESMA News of the necessity to keep traditional navigational skills and especially mentality of maritime professionals that even on board automated, computerized and digitalized ships we still need our safety culture and readiness to act in any situation of failure of electronic systems, computers on board ships and other equipment and systems accordingly. Going further, we have to transfer that safety culture to the maritime industry stakeholders and future shore based captains navigating autonomous ships from shore and computers which will run autonomous ships. In the last ten years, CESMA remained a purely professional organization, independent from business or trade union influence. In that way, our opinion on industry or professional matters is valuable as all members are non-profitable organizations and so we put safety at sea as our primary goal without commercialization. At the same time we have to be careful to keep the attractiveness of our organization and to be in favor of the daily life of shipmasters. Good example was the intervention of our secretary general, captain Fredrik Van Wijnen in Panama and his attendance during the trial of Bulgarian shipmaster Svetlozar Sobadzhiev, accused of drug trafficking in Panama. Support of our members in their daily life on board as well as providing actual professional information is the key factor to attract more colleagues to join our associations and to retain them during their professional career. TO BECOME MARITIME AMBASSADOR, CAPT. DIMITROV MEETS MR. KITACK LIM, IMO SECRETARY GENERAL 5 Being Deputy President, my intention is to assist in the activities of our CESMA board and our Secretary General, representing CESMA on regional, European and international level. Our ambitious number of resolutions requires a lot of efforts from either the CESMA board or all member associations to get into practice our ideas and to be in assistance to all member shipmasters. Latest discussions about training of young seafarers and necessity of harmonization and standardization of different approaches in European countries and consolidation of our opinion, express how our common interests could unite us. (Capt. Dimitar Dimitrov)

It is with great sadness that we have to advise that Captain Nicholas Cooper (Nick) passed away on 30th April 2018 at the age of 72.

Nick had a long and successful career both at sea and ashore and was fortunate enough to work around the world, gaining vast experience across the shipping industry. He was passionate about the maritime profession and continued to be a great supporter of modern seafarers.

Nick was a Past President of the Nautical Institute and was very well known and widely respected across the shipping community, resulting in his recognition with the Merchant Navy Medal for services to the industry and the United States Coast Guard Silver Medal for the demonstration of extraordinary bravery in performing a rescue.

Nick had great stature and a ‘commanding’ presence, speaking with great authority and was able to do so in a range of languages, including Arabic. We will sorely miss his presence, wry observations and extensive knowledge. However, we raise a glass of Shiraz to Nick and wish him safe travels as he starts his next voyage. Nick was also an individual member of IFSMA. His input in various meetings was highly appreciated. As representative of NVKK, I was fortunate to meet Captain Cooper throughout the years, He showed a keen interest in the activities of CESMA. His last command was on a Maersk container ship. (FVW)

At this moment, there is the possibility to harmonize the procedure for mutual recognition of EU-issued Training Certificates. In my opinion, the best option would be if all certificates were mutually recognised, without any restrictions and limitations throughout the EU, regardless of which EU Member State they were issued. It is essential that they be recognized both for serving on-board EU flagged vessels and for certification and re-certification purposes.

The proposal, currently developed by the EC, does not have a harmonized provision for mutual recognition of training certificates for seafarers' certification, but ONLY for serving on-board. This does not address the issue of removing unnecessary administrative and financial burden from European seafarers.

There is a lack of logic in the proposal. The aim of certification/re-certification is to verify and ensure the compliance of the seafarer's competence with the provisions of the STCW Convention, in order to issue a new COC, on the basis of which the seafarer can serve on-board safely.

A COC includes competencies covered by Training (course) certificates, as is seen in tables of the Chapter II and III of the STCW Code as amended and is also explained in the B-I/2 regulation. The issuance of any STCW Certificate in any EU country (Training Certificate or COC) already attests the compliance of relevant competences to work safely at sea. The quality of training is continuously monitored by EMSA in all Member States.

If Training Certificates are recognised as good enough for serving on-board EU flag vessel, demonstrating that the seafarer in these particular competences is capable of ensuring safety at sea, why would it be questioned in the certification process? Why should the seafarer, in order to be certified, in many cases have to pass the STCW regulated and strictly supervised (including EMSA) costly training course again, in case if the course was passed in another Member State and a seafarer has a valid STCW training certificate?

The European Commission, as an argument, mentions a questionnaire carried out in February 2018, where the majority of respondents were in favour of the mutual recognition of Training Certificates only for serving on-board. In my opinion, in the questionnaire, this question has been asked inconsiderately or even provocatively, as it can be interpreted. It is also not understandable, who were the 42 respondents to whom the questionnaire was sent. The questionnaire was sent to the Maritime Administrations and 24 responses were received from them. Two answers came from ETF and ECSA. Who were those other 16 respondents who determined the result!? Did all respondents who replied, particularly these 16, are so competent in the STCW Convention and Certification issues? Why has the principle of proportionality been violated: the same number of respondents from each Maritime Member State?

Adopting the provision of the renewed Directive, in which there will be no fairly harmonized procedure for the mutual recognition of seafarers' Training Certificates without restrictions on their use, additional burden will be created for European seafarers, and it will call for their lack of understanding and dissatisfaction.

Mr. Jaco Verpoorte from NLR (The Netherlands Aerospace Centre) gave an insight in the general causes of radio interference and which tools we have available to cope with this problem. The worldwide spectrum of radio frequencies is quite overloaded. It needs only a small deficiency, causing you to end up in somebody else’s frequency space. So regulations and controls are crucial. We do not only depend on GNSS for navigation and positioning. For example banking and telecom companies use GNSS as precise clock for the synchronization of their processes.

GNSS signals are very weak, caused by the limited sending power of the satellites. Also by the enormous distance of 20.000 km from the earth. Not all disturbances originate from human actions. Also activities of the sun can hamper GNSS signals and not all disturbances are caused by humans is wanton. Poor connections or poor protection means can lead to wrong signals in the frequency bands. Disturbances which are caused intentionally are to be divided in jamming and spoofing.

In jamming, a strong signal on the spot or nearby a GNSS frequency is sent, causing the receiver of the GNSS signal to be unable to find the correct GNSS signal. In doing so, the use of GNSS is denied. Spoofing is much more advanced. Signals that seem to originate from GNSS satellites cause GNSS receivers to be diverted, away from the original location. Jammers are very cheaply available on the internet. They are often called ”Personal Privacy Devices”. Persons who do not want to be traced by his or her employer or police, use this method.

It is possible to counteract against intentional disturbances by using a multi-constellation / multi frequency GNSS and the protection of antennas. Also the use of additional sensors and building in of “clever” filters in receivers. Even the use of completely alternative systems than GNSS, could be considered as back up.

Captain Rupret, born in 1980, finished his studies at the Maritime Faculty in Portoroz in 2012. He received his Master’s License in 2012 at the Harbour Office in Koper. After his exam he was promoted to Chief Officer on mv ”Portoroz”. After serving on several vessels as Chief Officer he was promoted to Master on mv ”Rosanna”. Captain Rupret recently joined ZPU and as such is a CESMA member.  

During his visit to mv ”Rosanna” Capt. Ribaric also met Chief Officer Ms. Urska Weber, who obtained her Master’s certificate in 2016 and was promoted to Chief Officer on mv “Rosanna” in January 2017.

Mv ”Rosanna” is a bulkcarrier with registration in Monrovia, Liberia. She is built in China in 2016 and measures 38.557 MT and has a length of appr. 180 metres. She is equipped with 4 single deck cranes. Owner is SPLOSNA PLOVBA, an international shipping and chartering company, based in Portoroz.

Mr. Dupont is notably the author of the Communication of the EU Commission on enhancing maritime transport security. It included the proposal for regulation on enhancing ship and port facility security, issued on 2nd May 2003. It concerns Regulation 725/2004. He is also in charge of the Directive 2005/65/EC on enhancing port security.