Tideland takes stock of African navaids

Attendees included representatives from Angola, Benin, the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Ghana, India, Kenya the Indian Ocean, Mozambique, Namibia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Togo.

The event was specially designed to introduce newcomers to the marine industry as well as more experienced participants to recent developments and significant issues in aids to navigation (AtoN). Subjects discussed included the challenges of managing effective AtoN operations in African waters, overcoming problems of theft, vandalism and harsh operating conditions.

The conference was led by Anthony Parker, Tideland’s international consultant for African markets. Among the new technologies presented were the latest high reliability, low maintenance LED lanterns such as Tideland’s Nova-65 and Nova 250 lanterns. The latter replaces older and more complex rotating beacons, capitalizing on the longevity and minimal maintenance of LEDs to achieve ranges in excess of 15NM. The high intensity version of the compact Nova-65 lantern has a range of 10NM, making it highly suitable for solar power operation both in ports and harbours and in offshore oil and gas installations, including hazardous area.

Also discussed were technical issues relating to the deployment of Tideland’s SeaBeacon 2 System 6 racon. Of the more than 1,000 racons of this type in service around the world more that 50 have been installed around the coast of Africa.