About the Maritime Authority
The Maritime Authority of the Velocity Interoperability Network is responsible for the safety of navigation in the waters of the Velocity Interoperability Network and for the registration of vessels belonging to member organisations and citizens. It makes and enforces the Navigation Safety Regulations, issues Notices to Mariners, maintains the lights, buoys and marks in the Network's waters, keeps the Vessel Register and surveys the vessels entered on it.
The Authority was established on 6 September 2026. Its harbour office is at Southbank, the principal harbour of the Network, and its surveyors attend vessels at Southbank Harbour, Northgate Landing, Eastfield Landing and Westbrook Quay. The Authority has 12 surveyors, nine harbour staff and three patrol launches. The operation of harbours and landings as commercial facilities rests with the Ports Authority of the Network; the Maritime Authority is concerned with the safety of the vessels that use them and of the waters between them.
Responsibilities. The Authority's work falls into six areas.
- Navigation safety
- Making and enforcing the Navigation Safety Regulations, setting speed limits and traffic schemes, and investigating incidents in the waters of the Network.
- Notices to Mariners
- Issuing notices of changes to buoyage, works, hazards and restrictions, in a weekly edition and at once where safety requires.
- Aids to navigation
- Maintaining the five lights, 46 buoys and 16 beacons and marks that guide vessels through the Network's waters, and keeping the register of them.
- The Vessel Register
- Registering vessels belonging to member organisations and citizens, issuing certificates of registry and recording changes of ownership and class.
- Surveys and inspections
- Surveying vessels in classes B to F before registration and at intervals thereafter, and inspecting vessels in harbour for compliance with the Regulations.
- Statistics and reporting
- Publishing quarterly statistics on the fleet, vessel movements, aids to navigation, surveys and incidents.
Organisation. The Authority is led by a Harbour Master, who is responsible for navigation safety and the harbour office, and a Registrar of Vessels, who is responsible for the Register and the survey service. Both report to the Director of the Authority. The Authority is funded by the fees set out on the Vessel Registration and Surveys and Inspections pages and by an allocation from the Treasury of the Network; its accounts will be published annually.
For the Authority's origins and the milestones since its establishment, see History; for the position at establishment, see Statistics. General enquiries may be sent to contact@maritime.gov.vin.