Hurtigruten Fleet to Use NAVTOR ENC Service

E-navigation specialist NAVTOR has secured arguably one of its most high-profile customers to date, with the news that the entire Hurtigruten fleet has signed up to use its innovative ENC Service.

The agreement has been reached ahead of the July 2014 deadline for existing passenger vessels to conform with IMO’s ECDIS Carriage Requirement (ECDIS Mandate).

NAVTOR’s ENC service, launched in 2011 and compatible with all makes of ECDIS, is distributed on the pre-loaded USB-based NavStick, allowing navigators to instantly download global charts and licences. An online synchronisation feature ensures that the latest updates are available on demand, ensuring minimal administration duties. This ease of use was apparently decisive in Hurtigruten’s move to sign up with NAVTOR.

Prior to confirming the agreement with NAVTOR, Kai Albrigtsen, Master of MS Finnmarken, and his crew put the firm’s ENC Service through a rigorous three-month trial. The results, as he explains, were compelling: “The feedback then, as it is now, was overwhelmingly positive. The simplicity of use, ease of chart update and feeling of ‘complete control’ the service delivers has made it a real hit with the team on the bridge. Together with the on-going support that is on offer to us, alongside their commitment to further innovations in the future, we’re delighted to have NAVTOR on board.”

NAVTOR’s ENC Service is now in operation on the vessels Nordkapp, Finnmarken and Fram, the latter of which is Hurtigruten’s cruise ‘expedition’ vessel, travelling to locations such as Greenland, Spitsbergen and Antarctica. The system will roll out across the rest of the fleet as their existing ENC provider subscriptions come to an end.

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Press Release, December 10, 2013