Affordable port radar tracks to Seawork
Among the many exhibitors returning for Seawork 2009 is Pembroke Dock based Ledwood Technology, which placed its IRIS radar on the market in 2006, offering all the functionality required of a port VTS at a price that is affordable to even the smallest port.
Over six years ago, the Ledwood team decided to harness the power and economies of scale offered by the personal computer and began the development of a low cost but powerful port radio solution. IRIS has now been sold to the Ports of Holyhead, Dover, Heysham, Sunderland, Tyne and Fowey Harbour amongst others.In addition, systems have been sold overseas in India and Taiwan and boat systems to Stonehaven Search and Rescue and the Swedish Search and Rescue Services.
The Port Marine Safety Code makes it increasingly important for even the smallest ports to control their waters effectively. AIS is only a partial solution because its accuracy depends upon the correct configuration of the equipment on the vessel and small vessels and those wishing to evade surveillance will not be covered. Radar completes the solution.
Ports with few traffic movements cannot justify a full VTS, so historically ports have used a ship’s radar. However, these do not meet the IALA VTS requirements or provide features such as recording and playback, vessel databases or alarm/auto acquire zones which are essential for port radar.
Should an incident occur, record and playback allows subsequent analysis and it can also be a useful training aid. Alarm zones can be used to monitor prohibited or sensitive areas, auto acquire zones automatically initiate the tracking of targets in specified areas.
Talking about his port’s system, Captain Mike Sutherland, Harbour Master at Fowey Harbour said, ‘Installation of the Iris VTS had an immediate effect on how people operated in the harbour. People slowed down. Previously they’d slow down going past the harbour office and once out of sight, they’d open up and we wouldn’t know. It’s made the harbour safer.
‘It clarifies who did or said what when investigating an incident. We’ve had occasions when yacht owners have said one thing and we’ve proved something else by playing back the radar, CCTV and VHF voice recordings. It allows us to monitor everything going on in the harbour and review situations and especially reviewing the Royal Regatta.
‘Not only does it allow us to see what’s going on day to day but we can see patterns of shipping develop.
‘The radio log is very useful. It allows us to fulfil the requirements of the Port Marine Safety Code in an area where we feel we were not covered but the stakeholders in the port expected.’
Fowey have an Iris VTS system with remote radar and integrated radar, CCTV, AIS and VHF voice recording. The system was installed in early 2006 with a VHF voice recording upgrade last year.
