Autonomous shipping company Massterly, a joint venture between Kongsberg Maritime and Wilhelmsen, reports that its Remote Operations Centre (ROC) has successfully begun supervising three vessels simultaneously for the first time.
The company’s Chief-to-Shore (C2S) project, which launched in November 2024, transitioned to its latest phase following internal testing in February 2026. During the first day of the trial, ROC Technician Kenneth Vestly coordinated operations for the Yara Birkeland and the ASKO vessels Marit and Therese from a shore-based facility.
Project Coordinator Frikk Sandvik said that while the technology is a significant factor in successfully managing this process, the primary challenge involves changing operational procedures and building trust between sea and shore teams.
“I thought this would be all about technology. But the real work is changing mindsets, procedures, and how sea and shore teams trust each other,” said Mr Sandvik.
The Remote Operations Centre (ROC) is designed to mirror the environment of a ship’s bridge, featuring alarms, camera feeds, and General Arrangement (GA) drawings. These are supported by visualisations and dashboards developed in partnership with Kongsberg Maritime.
Onboard the Therese, Captain Ted Fredheim and Navigator Jannicke Wilskow monitored the trial.
“It felt almost like standing on the bridge – just from a comfier chair and better coffee. Good tools help, but it’s the dialogue with the crew that makes it work. Otherwise, it would be quite lonely here,” said ROC Technician Kenneth Vestly.
The project previously received approval for the shore-based operation of a single vessel in July 2025, before expanding to two vessels per operator in October 2025.
Looking forward, the C2S project aims to focus on developing more advanced oversight tools, including fleet-level monitoring and ‘traffic light’ systems to aggregate data into simplified vessel dashboards.
