The VDR Audit Guide: What the Bridge Data Shows, and Where to Start

A VDR navigational audit is an independent review of recorded bridge data — audio, radar, ECDIS and helm — that shows how a bridge team actually works, not how it performs for an observer. I have written nineteen articles on what that data shows. This VDR audit guide puts them in one place, grouped by the question you are probably trying to answer.

If you are new to VDR audits, start with the first group. If you already run them, the later groups of this VDR audit guide follow the passage itself: the bridge watch, the port approach and pilotage, and the vetting standards that now ask for this kind of review by name.

Start Here: How a VDR Audit Works

What Is a VDR Navigational Audit — what the audit is, why it shows what a clipboard visit cannot, and when to run one. The argument throughout is to audit people, not ships, and to coach rather than catch.

How a VDR Navigational Audit Works — the process step by step: choosing the voyage, the documents requested alongside the data, then the audio review, radar replay and ECDIS review, and what a ship manager receives at the end.

The First VDR Audit Your Fleet Runs Should Be Announced — why the first audit in a programme should confirm the data will actually arrive, since every VDR system is different. Everything else follows from that.

The Port Approach Is Already on Film — how the data you are already recording on every passage can be used beyond a one-off compliance audit, including as an institutional memory of port approaches.

When VDR Data Works For You, Not Against You — the VDR was designed as an investigation tool. This article asks what an investigator would find on your ships today, and what a regularly audited bridge team looks like.

The VDR Playback Software Is There — whether the ship can actually access its VDR data when it matters. SIRE 2.0 Question 4.1.11, RISQ 3.15 and the OCIMF recommendations, and why the gap is usually a written procedure that has not kept pace with the equipment.

What the VDR Shows on the Bridge

Ghost Fix — a manual ECDIS position with no radar activity to support it: why experienced officers plot one, the GPS spoofing risk, and the three signals to look for in the data.

The Radar Log Says Done. The VDR Says Otherwise. — the radar performance monitor check recorded watch after watch, and what the VDR shows about whether it was actually carried out.

The Radar Is Running — how the radar is actually being used: stabilisation mode, display orientation, parallel indexing, position fixing by ranges and bearings, and over-reliance on ECDIS.

Passage Planning Mistakes Ships Make — two incidents with the same failure: plans that were prepared, approved and loaded, then followed into avoidable risk. The problem is the process, not the route.

The Lookout During Port Approach — the lookout the manning matrix requires, what COLREGS Rule 5 says, and what VDR audio can and cannot establish about whether the position is filled.

ECDIS in Tidal Ports — why the safety contour alarm stops protecting you in tidal ports, what the OCIMF framework says, and how the manual no-go area works.

When Risk Becomes Routine, the Bridge Goes Quiet — why experienced bridge teams go quiet on approach, how normalisation of deviance explains it, and what a training matrix cannot tell you.

Port Approach, Pilotage and Anchoring

The Master Pilot Exchange — the exchange as the VDR hears it: a completed checklist set against a conversation in which the Master actually contributes, and what SIRE 2.0 looks for.

Tug Bollard Pull, Ship Fittings, and the Conversation That Doesn’t Happen — the MPX box for tug bollard pull, whether the figure is compared with the ship’s fittings, and where the conversation stops too early.

The VDR Track Shows More Than Where the Pilot Boarded — what the pilot boarding ground is for, and the three margins that shrink when a ship goes past it: time for the exchange, the ability to abort, and room to make a lee.

The Anchor Is Down. The VDR Doesn’t Know That. — what VDR data shows around anchoring, the anchor watch and weighing anchor, and why rest hours matter.

Where VDR Audits Meet the Vetting Standards

SIRE 2.0 Question 3.2.4 — the VDR audit report asked for by name: what the question requires, why it is not a new idea, and how DryBMS reaches the same place from a different direction.

Bridge Procedures Is a DryBMS Priority Area — DryBMS Subject Area 21, and why Excellence requires a third-party navigation assessment supplemented by remote VDR-based review, not either alone.

On the TMSA side, TMSA Navigational Audit covers what each stage requires, and The Ship’s Navigational Audit covers the ship’s own first line of defence.

How to Use This VDR Audit Guide

If you are deciding whether to start, read the first two articles in this VDR audit guide and stop there until you have a view. If you are building a programme, read the announced-audit article next, because it deals with the practical problem every programme meets first. If you want the data read independently, the VDR navigational audit service is where that work is described, or you can get in touch with a question first.

Two companion guides cover the frameworks and documents around this work: the TMSA compliance guide for the TMSA and DryBMS frameworks, and the ship safety management system guide for the SMS itself.

More from the VDR Series