Voyage planning, seafarers' competencies and watchkeeping procedures

The purpose and scope of this paper is to outline the best practices regarding the watchkeeping procedures, seafarers' competencies and voyage planning in the restricted sea areas, when piloting the vessel and turning the ship in the narrow channels and sharp bend fairways. The author describes the basic principles concerning the navigational equipment settings, their data reliability and limitations. He presents the method that can be used for the classification of the sea areas and estimating the safety of navigation by means of the turning circle diagram, Wheelhouse Poster, Sea Trials Report, ROT technique, Pivot point knowledge and the author¿s own concept with his new model of the navigational risk assessment. He also describes the factors to consider when determining the ship¿s domain parameters. He explains how to use the ship¿s domain model to estimate the safety of navigation and navigational risk in the restricted sea areas, including the best practices for the passage planning, dead reckoning and position fixing and monitoring. He uses the systematic approach to the ship¿s operation in the aspect of estimating its safety when navigating in the restricted waters.