Not Unlike many other emerging disciplines, there were few if any,
books, few syllabbi, and the odd simulator specification. Simulators were also expensive,
not merely to acquire but even more so to maintain, They needed, we now know, an
infrastructure of maintenance staff, that were not intrinsic to maritime training
institutions. As a result, the spatial distribution of simulators was characterised by
concentration in a few well developed maritime states principally in Western Europe. In
any single nation, there was no great concentration of simulator facilities at any one
point in time.
All these issues meant, that simulator lecturers often developed in
splendid isolation. The splendid referred to the elaborate and expensive facility that had
to be kept in pristine condition and was often the showpiece of the institution, envied by
those who were not involved with it. The isolation was heightened by the realities of a
not very distant past, where neither fax nor email was known or envisaged. Generally
speaking, most simulator lecturers were seen as the envied keepers of an expensive grail,
ever busy, and respected for the relevance that their work brought to an increasingly
irrelevant educational regime, with no particular stimulus to disturb their comfortable
existence.
It is a tribute to the foresight of those who organized the first
meeting in 1977, that they saw the need for looking beyond their comfortable horizons. The
author's overriding memory of that event was the discovery by all, at how varied were the
methods and practices employed by different institutions. While there was an excellent
paper comparing training ships and simulators there was also an attempt at producing a
radar simulator specification for IMO that did not become a reality till over a decade
later.
The consistent rationale for INSLC therefore has been to provide a
forum where those who work with simulators may improve their capability to use this
resource, by sharing experiences and discussing problems.
Objectives
The main objectives of INSLC are to create worldwide a better
understanding of the role of radar and navigation simulators for maritime applications and
to provide for their optimum use, and, for the development of common training standards.
The increasing perception that simulators enhance the quality of maritime training has
been accompanied by their more extensive deployment internationally. In more recent years,
this has culminated in the requirement for mandatory provision.
Such mandatory provision will render these objectives even more
critical. The use of simulators has transcended the requirement for training officers and
masters of deep sea ships. It has become commonplace to train controllers for Vessel
Traffic Services, operators of High Speed Craft, and pilots, in addition to deploying
simulators for port design, casualty investigation, decision making and other research.
A Historical Perspective
The tremendous developments in simulation are reflected in the evolving
titles of the Conference. The first four meetings were titled International Radar
Simulator Teachers Workshops (IRSTW); the next two were titled the International Radar and
Navigation Simulator Lecturers Conferences (IRNSLC), and more recently, the word Radar was
dropped to reflect the change towards a more integrated concept of navigation. This gave
rise to the more recent acronym of INSLC.
These events have been held in various locations around the world, as
shown in Table 1. However, the location invariably biases the attendance profile, so
institutions are encouraged to hold national events in the intervening year between the
Conferences. In this way, a single regional delegate can provide a medium for feedback and
for dissemination of the outcome of
