Navigation
DeepDraft navigation analysis looks at how ships are actually handled, monitored, and kept safe at sea. This section covers bridge decision-making, electronic navigation, passage execution, watchkeeping discipline, situational awareness, and the operational traps that turn small navigational assumptions into serious incidents.
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Rumpon and Rope: Indonesia’s Hidden Propeller Fouling Hazard
Large thermocol fishing floats may look harmless, but the suspended rope below can become a propeller-fouling hazard for drifting ships off Indonesia.
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Navigating in a Sea of Visual Pollution
We spend a lot of effort making ships visible at night. Sometimes we make them harder to understand. Anyone who has kept a navigation watch at night knows how little light it takes to disturb the bridge team.
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Airborne Wind Propulsion: The Missing Manual Behind the Fuel-Saving Claim
Airborne kite propulsion offers credible fuel-saving potential, but its real test is launch, recovery, tether safety, crew workload, and operational control at sea.
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ECDIS Corrections: Why Updated Charts Still Confuse the Bridge
Updated ECDIS does not always mean the correction picture is understood. AIO, EP polygons, No Overlay areas and date-dependent corrections still need operational review.
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When Bridge Windows Look the Wrong Way
Off-Axis Bridge Windows: The Collision Risk Hidden in Modern Ship DesignA bridge window is not passive glass. It shapes how the watchkeeper reads heading, bearing, movement, and risk. I first noticed the shape during coastal passage off Japan.
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Similar-Size VLCC STS: The Risk After All Fast
Similar-size VLCC STS is not unsafe by default, but it is less forgiving than it looks.At anchorage, the real risk begins when two hulls stop moving as one controlled system.
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Hormuz to Malacca: How Chokepoint Risk Reaches the Bridge
The industry keeps asking if ships can pass Hormuz. The better question is what happens before they try. By the time a Master receives revised voyage instructions, the real decision has been made ashore. The cargo may have been swapped.
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ECDIS Certification Is Not the Same as ECDIS Competence
The Certification Paradox ECDIS carriage requirements were introduced through 2009 SOLAS amendments that entered into force on 1 January 2011 and were phased in by ship type and build date from 1 July 2012 to 1 July 2018, the transition revealed a persistent gap between…
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VDES and AIS: What Actually Changes on the Bridge
There is a familiar sequence in shipping whenever a new system enters the bridge environment. The technology is positioned as a solution, the regulatory framework follows, and equipment begins to appear onboard. Only after that do we start to understand what the system actually does…
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Inertial Navigation Systems: Why Merchant Ships Still Don’t Have Them
Modern ships rely on GNSS as the single source of truth. When that signal is manipulated, the entire bridge remains consistent but wrong. This article examines GNSS vulnerability and argues for inertial navigation as an independent reference to restore credibility in modern navigation.