It is clear that global civil navigation systems have already had a major impact on marine users, and are likely to continue to do so for the future. There is not a marine industry as such in this context, but a number of different classes of marine user, each of which has different requirements, different expectations, and even different viewpoints within a single class. There is even a difference between the viewpoint of what I might call the establishment — governments, IMO and the like — which are concerned with safety, protecting the environment, and such matters, and whose interest embraces a numerical minority of vessels and sea, and vessel operators in general, who represent a potential market of very considerable size and importance. This market, I suspect, will be driven by commercial considerations, and not — at least initially at any rate — by regulation.

A Conference sponsored by the Institute was held in Cardiff on 2–3 April 1985 to discuss current and future navigation equipment and training standards. A list of the papers presented is given below. The book of papers, entitled RIN 85, is available from the Institute office at a cost of £20 to members and £30 to non-members plus postage.

At the International Boat Show in London this year, the former Director was presented with a special Yachtsman of the Year award for ‘services to yachting taking into account his achievements in offshore racing and distinguished service to the art of small craft navigation’. The following account of his single handed transatlantic voyage last year may thus be of some interest to Members even though its strictly navigational content is limited.

In 1967 a compilation of visual wave data was published as a book with the title Ocean Wave Statistics, which is still widely used. In 1983 work began on the development of a new global atlas of wave statistics which will be available both as a book and as a computer database. This task is being undertaken by NMI Ltd in collaboration with the UK Meteorological Office with funding from the Department of Industry and is expected to take about three years. A preliminary account of the project has already been published. This article briefly recapitulates the case for the new atlas and updates the indication previously given of the proposed form of the contents, which has been revised in the light of comments received. Reference will be included to the plans for an associated database not mentioned in the previous account.

The International Association of Lighthouse Authorities held its eleventh five-yearly conference in Brighton in April 1985, attended by the lighting and buoyage authorities of some 60 countries and by observers from twelve international organizations. The International Association of Institutes of Navigation was represented by its President M. W. Richey and E. R. Hargreaves.

The purpose of this note is to outline a system of celestial navigation which is both decimal and coherent. In a decimal system there can only be one unit, with its decimal multiples and submultiples, for measuring any quantity. It follows that a decimal system of celestial navigation requires one unit for measuring time and one unit for measuring arc. In a coherent system these units must be related by a factor of one.

A seminar sponsored jointly by the Institute with the Nautical Institute was held at the City of London Polytechnic on 12 December 1984 to hear papers on the Cost 301 project. A summary of the papers appears below; the full set may be obtained at £10 from the Nautical Institute.

This paper discusses some of the implications of speed control in the vessel traffic picture, emphasizing how speed relates to other safety factors so that control can be utilized with understanding and sensitivity. Speed control can seldom if ever be examined in isolation. The structuring of vessel traffic schemes implies a need for some form of speed control as an integral part of almost all those schemes. One technique reinforces the other. Speed limits become extremely critical at the lower end of the speed scale, the higher the traffic density, the more critical the limits. Again, the requirement for enforcement becomes clear. No over-emphasis of these operational limitations should be allowed to cloud the indisputable fact that — for the individual ship as well as for traffic management — speed control can be a most useful tool. At least three papers have been published in recent years pointing out that speed reduction by ships for safety purposes, either by individual ships themselves or through general imposition by a shore-based vessel traffic system (VTS), needs in all cases to be used with great care, reluctance even. Their warnings can easily be turned into a negative approach to such control. A number of points would therefore seem to demand looking at again.

Between proof stage and printing, a line in the paper by Dr Nagaoka published in Vol. 37, May 1984, p. 216, was omitted. The paragraph in question should read: ‘9. conclusions. A method for obtaining a rough estimate of the indicated altitude of cruising aircraft from the ground using data taken by a height-finding radar is presented. The data contains the measured height, the pressure and temperature of the air on the ground.’