On October 12th, we celebrated a momentous occasion at the headquarters of our client, REEDEREI NSB in Buxtehude, as they inaugurated two state-of-the-art ship handling simulators. This refurbished and upgraded facility included the Voyager Worldwide Voyager Planning Station (VPS). 

What made this event even more significant was that it marked the first time these simulators will be available to third party clients, in addition to nautical officers managed and trained by NSB. NSB’s crew and training managers as well as senior managers from current and potential clients attended this launch event.  

REEDEREI NSB is a leading supplier of ship management and maritime services worldwide, responsible for a fleet of 50+ vessels with operations at all main maritime hubs. The group’s ship management services cover vessels and crew and include a maritime training centre. 

NSB believes that operating a vessel safely is the result of highly sophisticated teamwork. To provide state-to-the-art training facilities and courses, NSB operates its principal training center in Buxtehude, with affiliation to facilities in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. 

The relevance of its training, and especially its simulators, lies in providing a realistic experience for the crew. The Buxtehude centre features a full mission bridge, adaptable to various types of vessels and has the capability to simulate a wide range of sea conditions. 

“I am delighted that our comprehensive navigation software, VPS, has been included in NSB academy’s new state-of-the-art ship handling simulators. With its advanced e-navigation, compliance, and safety management capabilities, VPS is in complete alignment with NSB’s mission to provide mariners the tools they need for simplified planning and voyage execution. Voyager Worldwide is proud to stand alongside NSB on this journey.” said Kent Lee, CEO  

“We strongly encourage collaboration and communication between the crew members to pass on and learn from experience and we made it mandatory for every crew member,” explains Tim Ponath, CEO, REEDEREI NSB. “All these actions have one goal: be the difference in real life between a safety incident and a safe and reliable operation.” 

Orestis Pitsavas, Head of Sales, EMEA Voyager Worldwide, added: “Voyager Worldwide puts customers at the heart of our product development strategy; we want to help by giving navigators access to the information they need in the most logical way that enables them to work safely and more efficiently.” 

Using VPS, navigators can plan and optimise routes, validate passage plans and purchase and download the exact permits and chart updates. They can then seamlessly transfer this data to the ECDIS using Voyager’s V-Drive data transfer tool.  

VPS eliminates the inefficiencies associated with planning digital navigation, reducing time required for passage planning and making end-to-end route planning simpler, more cost-effective, and significantly more efficient. 

Voyager Worldwide Product Manager Noel Fernando is a former mariner who has seen the benefits that digital voyage planning can bring to safe and efficient navigation.  

“Planning a voyage on paper was a lot of work, working with small and large-scale charts and verifying compliance with company requirements at every step. Creating a paper plan could easily take 2-3 hours, with VPS it is easily done in 10-15 minutes, thanks to the ability to easily make validation and amendments. For a busy mariner, this kind of time-savings makes a huge difference.”