Fenno's advice: 5 reasons why RACA saves time and fuel

RACA is a new service which enables performing a remote assisted adjustment to ship compasses. Fenno Oosten, compass adjuster at Datema Nautical Safety, helps the captain and crew of these ships to perform the adjustment. In this article, he lists several reasons why this is not only an easy way to optimize the compass, but also why RACA saves time and a lot of worries.

‘Before RACA, all adjustments were performed onboard. Every time I performed such an adjustment, I needed to get to the ship itself. To get there I used another ship. Then, when I arrived, the larger ship needed to leave the port so there was enough space to perform the adjustment. Both ships needed to start up the engines to perform an adjustment. This process uses a lot of fuel. When using RACA, the second boat is no longer needed.’
 

‘For a small ship an adjustment can easily be performed within the harbor. Large ships do not have enough space to turn, so they need to leave the port. This already costs a lot of time. But just leaving the port and then continuing the voyage is not sufficient. As a compass adjuster, I do not want to tag along for the journey to another country. The ship thus needs to return to the port so I can leave the ship. RACA removes the need to leave the port only to perform the adjustment and return again to let me off, because I never board ship in the first place!’

‘It is much better if a ship can immediately continue the voyage after performing an adjustment, without returning to the port. RACA makes this possible. The adjustment can even be performed in the middle of a journey, out on the open sea.’
 

‘Some countries have strict adjustment regulations. Take the USA for example, where an adjustment needs to have been performed within the last year. What if the ship is planned to go to the USA without a compass adjustment performed in the last year? The ship can dock, but is not allowed to venture out again. This means you have to find a local adjuster to adjust the compass. It can be quite a hassle to arrange this adjustment. So how about just contacting Datema and performing the adjustment before the ship even reaches the American shore?’
 

‘Sailing out to sea to perform an adjustment costs a lot of time. Now there are many ways to monitor the weather conditions outside of the port, but surprises can and do happen. It’s better to not adjust a compass in extreme weather conditions. A remote adjustment can be performed anywhere, anytime. If the weather is not up to par, we can easily postpone the adjustment a day or two.’
 

There are several reasons why using RACA costs less time and fuel and, ultimately, less money. Do you want to know more about RACA or do you want to contact Datema Nautical Safety to start using the system? Contact us today!