TRADITIONAL AIDS TO NAVIGATION - THE NEXT 25 YEARS

The authors of this paper are the three General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. it was pres ented on their behalf at the RIN-96 conference by Captain Turner. The paper gives a brief overview of the policy of the GLAs (i.e. the Corpo ration of Trinity House, the Northern Lighthouse Board and the Commiss ioners of Irish Lights) regarding the provision of an aids to navigati on service with emphasis on the future prospects of traditional aids t o navigation over the next 25 years. The three GLAs have recently carr ied out a consultation exercise on marine aids to navigation into the 21st century. The results of this consultation exercise are discussed. It should be noted that, for clarity, the General Lighthouse Authorit ies (GLAs) refer to the systems that they provide as 'aids to navigati on' (AtoN), to differentiate their provision from the equipment carrie d on board ships for navigational purposes which are referred to by th e GLAs as 'navigational aids'. This paper therefore in the main deals with AtoN.