SOLAS Requirements
Solas requirements, chapter V annex 13, can be summarized in their main
points as follows:
1)"All ships (excluding fishing vessels and
pleasure craft under 150 gross tons) to be fitted with a magnetic
compass or other means to determine and display the vessel's heading
independent of any power supply. "
2) "They must also be fitted with a pelorus,
or other means to take bearings over an arc of 360° of the horizon
and a means for correcting heading and bearings to true at all times"
3)"all ships of 150 gross tons and over and
all passenger vessels carry a spare magnetic compass stowed away from
the bridge structure".
The proper way to comply with these
regulations is to be fitted with a reflector binnacle above the pilot
house, the heading visible from the helm station below my means of a
mirror. This also satisfies the pelorus requrement, because
bearings can be taken directly from the compass, and the errors of the
compass conveniently found. Stow a spare compass away from the
bridge and you are SOLAS compliant.
A compass in a reflector binnacle above the
pilot house works better than a compass mounted inside a steel pilot
house because:
1) It receives the full strength of the earth's
magnetic field because it is not surrounded with steel.
2) Its errors are conveniently found by direct
compass bearings
3) correcting the compass is convenient because the
binnacle is supplied with B and C magnets, heeling magnet, quadrantal
spheres, and flinder's bar.
Some designers of tugboats don't seem to
understand these SOLAS requirements. I have seen several tugboats
with a standard compass reflector binnacle but no way to read it from
the helm, and a second compass mounted at the helm station, usually on
top of a steel plate. This does not meet the "stowed away
from the bridge structure" requirement, and these inside compasses are
difficult to adjust and not as reliable as the standard compass
above. This is an illogical and unseamanlike arrangement, and
does not meet SOLAS. Of the many seagoing ships I have been
aboard, none of them have a compass inside the pilot house. A
standard compass binnacle above the pilot house is all that is needed.
