The September 1996 issue of the Journal has an article by J. C. Hines which, as a RYA instructor and former maritime lawyer, I found very confusing.

I agree with him that there are many yachtsmen and some professionals who I would not let out in a pram dinghy, let alone in the vessels they are commanding.

It is significant that many commercial ships will have one watchkeeping officer on the bridge, no other lookout, and a helmsman on call. The ship will be on autopilot and, upon a target being seen, it will take two minutes or so before the helm is manned.

This paper, and the following seven papers, were presented at the Institute's NAV94 Conference held at Church House, London, in November 1994. The full proceedings may be obtained from the Director, RIN, price £25.00 (plus p & p).

I should start by explaining that the main purpose of my paper is to pass on the Inmarsat vision of satellite navigation in the future.

But first a little about mobile satcoms, our original reason for being. If you have followed us even at a distance you will be aware of:

• (i) how we started with satcoms for ships;

• (ii) how we contributed to a new maritime safety system;

• (iii) how we developed an aeronautical satcoms system in close cooperation with the civil aviation world;

• (iv) how land-mobile communications now account for one-third of our total traffic.

We have to welcome this initiative to bring together, during these three days of NAV94, system designers, service providers, users and administrations. We are all concerned with the need to contribute to the efficient functioning of the transport system taken as a whole, and the Ministers of Transport have underlined the contributions that can be made by satellite navigation systems and information technology.