On the Development of an Anchor Watch Supporting System for Small Merchant Ships

This paper describes the results of a study that aimed at developing an effective anchor watch supporting system to prevent dragging anchor accidents of small domestic merchant ships. The authors performed an experimental study using a training ship in order to investigate the characteristics of the hull movement of a ship lying at single anchor, the cable tension caused by the above movement and etc. Based on the results of the study, the authors propose a standard procedure for safe anchor watch and a new anchor watch supporting system using a personal computer (PC), a differential global positioning system (DGPS) and an anemometer.