RACA: remote compass adjustment on board

You are on your way to the next location, but your deviation table is about to expire. It is time to adjust the compass again. After picking up a local adjuster, you heading out to sea again to perform the adjustment. This procedure takes precious time and fuel. What if this could all be done differently – easier? The new service RACA, Remote Assisted Compass Adjustment, powered by Datema Nautical Safety provides a new and easy way of performing this adjustment: remotely. Fenno Oosten, compass adjuster at Datema, introduces this new service and its benefits.

‘While most ships do have a GPS compass on board as well, the primary means of navigation is still the good old magnetic compass’, Fenno says. ‘As you may know, a magnetic compass needs to be adjusted regularly. The compass of small ships can be adjusted within the harbour, thus easily providing the new deviation tables. A large ship, however, has to navigate all the way out to sea, as the harbour is too small to perform the adjustment. The adjuster needs to be present on board all this time. The sailing time, the costs of the adjuster and the fuel needed for the journey make an adjustment a costly affair.’

‘RACA is a new way to handle these compass adjustments. This new adjustment service by Datema Nautical Safety provides means to perform the adjustment remotely while on the journey. Before using RACA, it was needed to search for local adjusters and then head for a location to perform the adjustment. With RACA, this adjustment can be performed at any time, anywhere.
If you need a compass adjustment, just contact us and we will guide you through this easy process. Through the RACA system we can remotely measure the compass readings and provide new, accurate deviation tables for the compass. You will also be notified when it is time to update the deviation tables again. So this service saves time and a lot of worries.'

Fenno: ‘If a ship is on its way to the United States of America or to the Panama Canal, the last compass adjustment needs to be performed no longer than 1 year ago. It is not always fully possible to perform the adjustment in time, which means it needs to be performed at the local harbours. RACA makes it possible to perform the adjustment anywhere. On your way to the USA? No problem, just contact Datema and we will help to adjust the compass with the correct deviation tables. Again, it saves time and a lot of worries. ’

‘Is your deviation table about to expire and you need a compass adjustment? Usually an external adjuster sails along to perform his duty. The crew on board is not involved with this practice. With RACA, the crew on board has to actively monitor the compass during the adjustment and afterward implement the deviation tables. This means the crew itself becomes more involved with this process, making it an active part of ship maintenance during trading voyages.’

If you want to use RACA for your ship or fleet, Datema Nautical Safety will help to introduce this new and easy service. When it is time to perform an adjustment, just let us know. The captain will be contacted with instructions on how to perform the adjustment on board. After that the new deviation tables will be forwarded to the ship. If you have any questions, contact us today and we will gladly help.