PT 7, Ch 9, Section 3.1.8 states that an autopilot, track control system or alternative means of automatically maintaining the ship's heading or a straight track is to be present at the navigation workstation. At any time, it must be possible to immediately restore manual control. To satisfy this requirement, M/S MERSol is equipped with an autopilot system. The autopilot is connected to multiple pieces of bridge equipment, such as the gyro compass, magnetic compass, speed log, (D)GPS and ECDIS. The autopilot can perform heading control and track control and has multiple adjustable parameters which can improve the performance of the autopilot. The OOW has the option to manually select whether they want to use the autopilot or manual steering at any time by performing the simple action of flicking a switch. Whenever the autopilot is engaged, there is an override system connected to the NFU tillers. Whenever one of the NFU tillers is used during autopilot mode, an audiovisual alarm is activated and the autopilot is automatically overruled, and manual steering is engaged.


Steering control system electrical drawing, M/S MERSol

Last modified: Saturday, 18 March 2023, 6:28 PM