Boating New Zealand - July 2018

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commercial shipping sector, but also within the oil and

gas, energy, ofshore ishing, aquaculture, marina and

port industries. Virtual AtoNs are recognised by the

International Maritime Organisation.

A virtual AtoN, says Vesper Marine chief executive

Jef Robbins, is all about enhancing the safety of people

and assets – “in a simple, cost-efective way. hey’re an

easy, immediate alternative to the expensive installation

and maintenance of physical buoys or infrastructure and

they can be ‘seen’ at greater distances in any weather.”

Another appeal of virtual AToNs, he adds, “is that they

can be used for warning or protection in places that are

diicult or impossible to mark. For example, we’ve used

a virtual AtoN to mark a dangerous rock at the entrance

to Doubtful Sound. A previously installed physical buoy

failed because of the wild sea conditions. By contrast,

a virtual AtoN operates in even the worst seas, reliably

alerting traic to the rock’s location.”

Virtual AtoNs can also be used in ‘protective’

applications. “Because they can be created easily and

instantaneously – and moved with changing conditions

just as easily and quickly – they could even be used, for

example, to alert traic to the presence of whales or

dolphins in a harbour.”

Virtual AtoNs

can also be used

in ‘protective’

applications.

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