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Winter is coming – yet another STM-service goes live

Winter is coming – yet another STM-service goes live

Published: February 09, 2018

The Winter Navigation Service came into use for the first time when “Baltic Bright” shared her Voyage Plan with the Finnish Transport Agency (FTA).

The Winter Navigation Service can help ships:
• Providing active ice route recommendations used for route planning.
• When they are approaching the ice covered area, the ships will receive detailed route recommendations from icebreakers and shore centers directly to their navigational equipment
• Providing other information related to icebreaker assistance as text messages
• Shore center and icebreakers can monitor that the ships are following the recommend routes, i.e. identify deviations from the Voyage Plan

Tuomas Martikainen, Senior Officer, Finnish Transport Agency tells us more: “Today most of the information is provided to ships over VHF radio, and pen and paper is used to transfer information between different systems. STM Winter Navigation service will enable icebreakers, test-ships and shore centers to share information digitally, through machine-to-machine interfaces rather than by voice. The information will become more precise and up to date and the amount of manual tasks for information management will be reduced, both on-board the icebreakers and merchant ships. This will help to reduce the risk of errors and misunderstandings. Ships will also receive more individually adjusted route recommendations, taking into consideration the ships type and its ability to navigate in the ice covered waters.”


“Baltic Bright” and her Voyage Plan. Pictures: Shipspotting and FTA

The “Baltic Bright” has an updated navigation equipment – ECDIS – from Adveto, one of four ECDIS-suppliers, soon finishing the installations on all their contracted STM ships.

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