No Look Ahead Feature

With our ECDIS in "route monitoring mode", it is impossible for the OOW to 'temporarily view' an area of chart (ENC or ARCS) that does not encompass the ships own position.

As part of maintaining good situational awareness you need to always have detailed knowledge of the chart in the immediate area into which the ship's route has been planned. Unfortunately with our ECDIS (SAM Mutipilot) in "route monitoring mode", it is impossible for the OOW to 'temporarily view' an area of chart (ENC or ARCS) that does not encompass the ships own position.

To this end, it is impossible, for example, for the OOW to match a light characteristic visible from the bridge with charted equivalent if it lies outside the area of the chart on which the ship is currently positioned. Yes, it is possible to increase the radar range scale (for ENCs) or switch to a smaller scale chart ( for ARCS) to 'look ahead', but in doing so the display becomes overly cluttered and too detailed for any information to be of any practical use.

One might therefore propose removing chart layers to reduce this clutter, however, in terms of situational awareness, positioning integrity etc. there is a concern that the ECDIS verges on distracting, rather than assisting the OOW with his cross checking and general situational awareness as there can be real tedium in seeking the required information. Certainly with our equipment, this shortcoming reinforces the need for an overview chart on the table, where lights, marks, place names, report points etc. can be glanced at well before the ship enters the vicinity. Or a second display with an ARCS Chart in Planning mode - that allows ahead scanning to take place.

Ideally SAM should consider a software upgrade to the equipment to enable the easy scrolling of a detailed chart ahead of the vessel. Maybe the display should automatically revert to showing ships own position if no further scrolling had happened in the last 30 seconds or so.