Summary of Working Paper No. 91-1997
I.1.2 Operational Aspects Volume 2 - 1994 Project Work.
By A. Baskin, Central Marine Research and Design Institute, St. Petersburg,
Russia, A. Buzuyev, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg,
Russia, and E. Yakshevich, Central Marine Research and Design Institute, St.
Petersburg, Russia, et. al.
This project consists of two parts. The first part is prepared by CNIIMF as a
continuation of the 1993-1994 investigations on operational aspects of sailing
the NSR. It is composed of seven sections:
1. Legal Support. This work intends to treat the legal and normative acts of the
Russian Federation regulating the Arctic navigation. Under the IMO Resolution
A.741 (18) of November 4, 1993, the International management code for the safe
navigation of ships and for pollution prevention (International safety
management (ISM) Code) was adopted. Since the ISM Code was adopted as Chapter IX of the
International Convention SOLAS-74 whereupon its provisions became mandatory;
the order of the Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation of July 26, 1994
#63 "On measures to improve the safety of navigation" was issued to bring the
provisions into effect. This work has been performed to bring changes and
updating of the legal base of merchant shipping of Russia into line with the
requirements of the ISM Code.
2. Route Planning. The provision of Russian nautical charts for mariners has
drastically changed. This report describes these changes and tries to show the
tendencies involved.
3. Navigation and Positioning. Two problems of positioning in the Russian Arctic
are considered. One is the introduction of a differential GPS service in order
to provide the positioning accuracy needed for sailing the NSR safely. The
proposed configuration of the DGPS sub-system is described. The second problem
concerns the practical use of highly accurate position fixes produced by DGPS, i.e.
plotting the fixes on local nautical charts. Recommendations on mathematical
methods for relating a position in one datum to co-ordinates in another are
given.
4. Communications. Here the development concept of communication system for
support of marine transportation in the Arctic basin of Russia is considered.
Requirements to the communication system are formulated. The system structure and
functional principles are proposed having regard to the Arctic region.
Organisation of distress and safety communications to comply with the GMDSS requirements
is discussed. Recommen-dations on composition of radio equipment are made.
5. Crew Training. The basic form of the simulation training is practical work on
the navigation bridge; the trainees are arranged on the bridge according to
their functional duties imposed on the watch on duty, i.e. on the master, chief
mate, pilot, and watchman; the course of training is completed with individual
check-up exercises.
6. Vessel Performance. The main purpose of this Section is to prepare, on the
basis of comparative calculations, proposals for the identification tables of
Arctic classes of the running Rules of the Russian Marine Register of Shipping
(MRS) and of leading foreign classification societies. The proposals for the
identification tables have been developed by the comparison of the Rules requirements
to elements of the ice belt with due regard to the analysis of the results
obtained at the first stage of the work. Principal results are shown in tables.
7. Marine Casualty. Actual data on ship accidents during the shipping season in
the Russian Arctic Seas, and data on ice accident rate are submitted.
The second part is prepared by AARI and deals with hydrometeorological
problems in the context of operational aspects. There chapters are titled:
1. Features of obtaining data on information conditions at a normative-legal
regulation of shipping along the NSR.
2. Regioning of the NSR zone by the difficulty and safety of navigation.
3. Considerations on type and state of ships for providing effective and safe
navigation in various ice conditions of the NSR .