Bulgarian Naval Academy Acquires VSTEP Simulators

The Bulgarian Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy in Varna purchased a 360° Class A Full Mission Bridge simulator and an Incident Management Simulator for training of its Naval and Merchant marine students.

The simulators were officially opened by the IMO Secretary-General Mr. Koji Sekimizu and the Dutch Ambassador in Bulgaria Mr. Tom van Oorschot during a ceremony at the academy on September 14th.

The ceremony was attended by high ranking officials from the Bulgarian and Romanian Navy, as well as the Bulgarian Maritime Administration and was concluded with the official acceptance of the simulators by the Naval Academy Commandant, Captain Boyan Mednikarov.

The NAUTIS DNV Class A Full Mission Bridge (FMB) Simulator and the RescueSim incident Management Simulator were delivered and installed at the Naval Academy in Varna by VSTEP and its Bulgarian partner NavySim.

The NAUTIS Full Mission Bridge simulator has a complete 360° surround horizontal field of view and is compliant with the Class A DNV Standards for Certification No. 2.14 for Maritime Simulator Systems and IMO model courses 1.22 and 1.32. At the request of the Naval Academy, VSTEP has also added advanced oil spill recovery and onboard fire training to the simulator.

The RescueSim Incident Management Simulator will be used to train and prepare for any thinkable incident, both on and offshore. It has specialized modules focusing on training for Shipboard incidents, port incidents, industrial incidents as well as offshore incidents. The port of Varna was custom made in full 3D and implemented into the RescueSim simulator.

VSTEP Director, Pjotr van Schothorst: “It is an honor to have our VSTEP simulators become part of the rich tradition of the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy. To have Bulgaria’s finest maritime students use our simulators to become better mariners makes us very proud. Throughout the project, it has been a real pleasure working with the Naval Academy and we look forward to continue this strong relationship in the future.”

The Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy is the oldest technical school in Bulgaria. With its illustrious history and traditions in training sea specialists, it is one of the symbols of Varna and Bulgaria in the world maritime community. At present, the Academy trains specialists for both Navy and merchant marine in all areas of maritime life.