- traffic coming from or going towards the Port de Brest with
hazardous cargoes.
- Decree No.54/84 of the port-admiral for the Atlantic of 31 July
1984 regulating entry, movement and berthing of foreign ships in the internal waters of
the second maritime region.
In addition to these provisions of a regulatory nature) also relevant
are the Franco-British MAREP recommendations regarding ships of more than 300 tons gross
tonnage and in particular those facing specific difficulties.
Application of these recommendations for the Ouessant area is as
follows for the VTS:
- for northbound traffic, taking account of the information
transmitted by ships approaching the TSS, plotting and radar monitoring and sending to the
Jobourg VTS of MAREP information for ships having hazardous cargoes or facing specific
difficulties in order to allow this VTS to set up an arrival forecast for the ship at the
Casquets TSS;
- for southbound traffic, prior receipt, by the Jobourg VTS, of
MAREP information concerning hazardous shipping or shipping facing specific difficulties
and which have reported to Les Casquets. Plotting and radar monitoring of the ships
identified.
7 SHORE-BASED FACILITIES TO SUPPORT OPERATION OF THE SYSTEM
The Corsen/Ouessant vehicle traffic service is set up at the Regional
Centre for surveillance and rescue operations at Corsen. This service has radar and radio
facilities.
7.1 Radar facilities
The surveillance radar type THOMSON TRS 3405 is installed at the Stiff
tower at Ouessant. The installation includes three transmitter receivers, a main antenna
and a stand-by antenna. The nominal range of the radar is 64 miles. The antenna is
positioned at 110 metres above the chart zero. Technical staff are permanently on duty at
the tower. Radar messages are sent to the centre at Corsen via a radio-relay system where
they are processed and then used by the staff on watch. The watch is carried out using
visual display screens. The operators work using synthetic radar display. Each ship
detected in the area of applicability has its echo noted as an automatically referenced
radar track. Additional information is collected by the operators for each track
identified. The vessel traffic service is equipped with a system for processing and
storing radar data that allows statistics and course calculations to be printed. A
complete reorganization of the processing and display chain will be carried out in the
near future. The extraction and follow-up performances of the new system will be improved.
Aids for the operators will form part of the new equipment. The operator will be alerted
automatically as soon as violations or unusual behaviour is detected. It is also intended
to add the Lloyds file, on CD ROM, to the "ships" file. It will be possible to
obtain the record of a ship track rapidly, to print texts and courses automatically and to
write messages. Other databases will be used on office-type computers.
7.2 Radiocommunications facilities
Surveillance staff use the radio equipment installed at the Stiff tower
in the Corsen centre. The vessel traffic service has the use of four single-channel VHF
transmitter receivers. If necessary, the VTS
