Palladium

Anchor Control

The SiMON Anchor System eliminates the guesswork in deploying anchor chain and establishing optimal swing room for an anchored vessel. SiMON displays the amount of chain being deployed or retrieved, the scope of the chain ratio to depth, the direction of chain movement, and the swing radius at a glance. Working in conjunction with the alarm system, SiMON alerts the captain to low levels of chain remaining in the locker. The alarm points are user-definable and can be set for both caution and critical alarms. An optional feature provides full control of weighing and releasing the anchor via SiMON’s Anchor System.

How it Works

A proximity sensor on the windlass records each revolution of the shaft. This information is submitted to the SiMON controller which records the direction of the windlass and calculates the amount of chain deployed and remaining. Palladium’s relays interface to the windlass controllers and send information to SiMON for its calculations. The SiMON Anchor System calculates and displays the scope ratio for each windlass based on water depth provided by the ship’s instruments through the NMEA 0183 interface. SiMON also displays the direction of chain movement.

Simple, easy-to-understand graphics help the crew to maintain an anchor watch and quickly grasp pertinent information. The profile view of the anchoring process shows the amount of deployed chain, its direction of movement, and the calculated scope ratios for port and starboard windlasses. SiMON calculates the swing radius utilizing data from the ship’s instruments concerning water depth, user-defined constants of the ship’s construction, and the actual amount of chain deployed. Latitude and longitude from the ship’s navigation equipment are provided for instant positioning in conjunction with the anchor calculations.