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In the latest instalment from Ship Concept 2035, our brand new magazine, Splash reporters detail a recent, pertinent workshop at Geneva Dry.
Starting off the 2025 edition of the world’s leading commodities shipping event, Geneva Dry, was a specialist workshop sponsored by Inmarsat exploring how connectivity at sea drives digitalisation, decarbonisation and particularly crew welfare.
Hosting the panel, prior to the main conference at the Hotel President Wilson in the Swiss city of Geneva, Richard Watts, managing director of HR Maritime, tasked a stellar lineup of speakers with giving a rundown on the subject of how crewing and operations have changed in the digital age and how different areas of shipping and shipmanagement are being impacted.
The first panellist to address the room was Audra Drablos, strategy director at maritime connectivity specialist Inmarsat, describing vessels in the past as remote islands compared to connection hubs or remote offices that they are today.
Drablos argued that things have really changed for crews in terms of connecting back home and having less feeling of isolation, as well as operationally, because they don’t have to make decisions on their own, but also noted that although massive changes are taking place, this is far from universal.
Are we turning a ship into a micromanaged hell?
“I was shocked to hear that 13% of vessels still don’t provide connectivity to their crew,” she said, “but things are changing rapidly; there’s been a lot of disruption in terms of connectivity and how it’s delivered.”
From the perspective of Silje Moan, chief commercial officer of Norwegian maritime software developer Dualog, changes in connectivity onboard ships over the last 10 years have been moving towards a high- or office-like bandwidth, low-latency situation.
“We can move from focusing on saving costs on bits and bytes and compressing absolutely everything to focusing more on what kind of value we can bring to the end user on board and also in the office. Now we don’t have to take into account how much data this will require,” she said.
Moving a little bit sideways, the discussion turned to ESG and how connectivity is helping the increasing requirement for collecting data and reporting.
Peter Schellenberger, founder of maritime consultancy Novamaxis, highlighted that, while there are positive and negative impacts of connectivity increase, it is “the first real disruptor” that we see on a technology basis in the maritime sector that could hopefully be followed by many others if put in the right frame.
“Now we can start thinking about what we are going to do with it meaningfully,” he said.
Schellenberger noted that “surprisingly or not”, connectivity is still the number one driver for the crew.
“If, as a company, you want to be relevant and retain and win new people, then these are the tools that you have to provide almost no matter what the cost is,” he said, adding that a move to declare connectivity a basic human right for a seafarer is something worth pursuing.
Speaking of challenges that come along with better connectivity, Schellenberger called attention to loneliness on board when people disappear in their bunks, a lack of team building and onshore offices pushing more work for their colleagues at sea.
“It’s not an enablement of the vessel; it’s an overload of bureaucracy,” he stressed.
The microphone was then handed to Shubpreet Singh, senior managing director of strategy delivery at shipmanager V.Ships, who emphasised that the company has a standard of what it wants as a minimum connectivity, but that not all vessels are at the same level.
“I have to admit that there are vessels that are more progressive. Vessels that are delivered new from the yard come with certain packages for monitoring the main engines or the systems onboard, and we, as managers, see the benefit of it.”
Still, he observed that “the needle and the drivers” for most of the vessels are pointing to having better and more connectivity as an enabler, not just for the commercial work, but also for the crew.
“So, going forward, I think the shift would be towards having more enabled vessels,” he said.
The panel was put on the spot again with the moderator’s question on whether a move towards more connectivity is seen as all positive or if it is a little bit more nuanced than that.
Singh argued for the latter, saying that if connectivity is not used properly, the crew onboard could actually get disabled.
“As we are getting more connectivity, we have to unlearn some of the things that we used to do in the past and, you know, relearn so,” he said, explaining that for the masters onboard, the idea is not to always take their autonomy away and that managers as well as owners also have to be mindful and have checks and balances put in place for the mental health of the seafarers.
Inmarsat’s Drablos shared that the company is seeing a lot of customers asking whether they can control the amount of internet that’s provided.
“We are getting a lot of requests about restricting time so that they can manage fatigue. Basically, they don’t want the crew to be on the internet for such long periods of time,” she said.
However, she also maintained that this is done due to the sense of camaraderie on vessels, because, in the past, most people spent their time in mess rooms.
“So, bringing the crew back into the mess room, I think, is also another important thing that we need to think about now that we have so much internet connectivity,” she argued.
In terms of regulating the crew, Singh reminded delegates that back when the master used to sail out without connectivity, ships still worked. “It’s not as if we had a disaster every day,” he said, adding, “Internet connectivity onboard for crew is like a kid in a candy shop…and if you try to control it, you will have challenging conversations.”
Meanwhile, Drablos said that a lot of the crew, when they’re deciding whether to join, the first question they ask is about the internet onboard.
“I don’t know anyone on land asking that question in a recruitment process,” she said, noting that it also has to do with the new population coming onto the vessels that are used to having internet all the time. “So, you know, the concept of a floating home and a floating office is something that they think is a basic need.”
Dualog’s Moan reckoned limiting internet use is a bit of a minefield but also revealed that certain companies have been working to create a sense of belonging for the new generation of seafarers by giving them their company identity.
Speaking from the audience, Manish Singh from Aboutships and a third-generation seafarer, observed that some of the language used during the panel, if seafarers were in the room, they would find it “borderline patronising, if not offensive”.
“So we are trusting them with our ships, with our cargo, with the safety of life and the marine environment, but we can’t trust them with connectivity!? Try having that conversation with your children at home. That will tell you where this rhetoric needs to move on,” he said.
He further stressed that shipmanagers need to stop taking ships that don’t have the basic levels of connectivity and welfare and that the conversation has to move to digitalisation and decarbonisation.
Singh from V.Ships agreed that seafarers don’t need to be patronised and that the company is already preparing them for the new types of vessels, but that in this mass of the seafaring community that’s not really linked to owners or managers, at some time they could lose people, and that there have to be many other solutions that have to be reasons for the seafarers to stay with that company.
“There are a lot of intangible things that need to be done, and it’s really a battle of hearts and minds. We are very much at the mercy of making sure that we treat our seafarers equitably, rightly,” he divulged.
Adding to the discussion, Dimitris Monioudis, chairman of the technical committee of INTERCARGO, reminded the panel of the necessity of all stakeholders to take part.
“Rather than just putting all the focus on the crew or the shipmanager, we should take into account the obligations that other stakeholders, such as ports, fuel suppliers, and charterers have. So, everybody has to play their part,” he asserted.
The final question from the audience came from Graeme Somerville-Ryan, founder of Eyesea, asking, “Are we turning a ship into a micromanaged hell?”
Coming from the manager’s perspective, Singh told delegates that there’s a lot of “instant gratification” wanted from ships these days, which was not the case in the past.
“From a very commercial perspective, it’s about getting the information right here, right now, from a ship manager’s perspective. It’s about getting things right all the time,” he said.
Discussion drew to a close with remarks on autonomous ships now, with Inmarsat’s Drablos saying that with the levels of connectivity that the industry is seeing, “it could leapfrog us, but regulation is going to be a burden there for sure”.
Dualog’s Moan believed it is not about having autonomous ships as the goal but instead about running an efficient ship. “I don’t think the goal should be to remove the crew but rather to find the correct balance of using IT and the digital to run it efficiently,” she said.
Schellenberger closed the session by saying, “What is quite clear is that as long as we don’t have standardisation of the technology, we will always have people on board. So, I will reassure the seafarers who want to join the trade; we will need them for a long time.”
To access the whole of Ship Concept 2035 for free online, click here.
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