The Maritime & Coastguard Agency has issued a special safety bulletin to all mariners that use GPS to prepare for a rollover event on April 6.

On that day navigation data from some older GPS systems might become inaccurate generating errors in both the GPS position and time. However, if onboard equipment was installed after August 1999, or has regular firmware updates from the manufacturer, there should be minimal risk of an error occurring.

Luke Hallett of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency said: ‘If your GPS is more than 10 years old or it’s had no firmware updates then you’re definitely at higher risk of you GPS not working from April 6. If your GPS falls into either of those categories you need to check with the manufacturer before April 6, otherwise time and position data used for navigation could become inaccurate. It’s important that GPS users check their systems as soon as possible to ensure that they won’t be affected by the impending rollover.’