ABSTRACT: The transition from the S-57 electronic navigational charting environment towards the IHO S-100 framework is introducing a growing family of interoperable maritime data products and services. With S-100-capable ECDIS becoming installable from January 2026 under IMO resolution MSC.530(106), this evolution creates a pressing need for software environments in which researchers, hydrographic offices, educators and developers can experiment with, validate and demonstrate emerging S-100 services without depending exclusively on proprietary, safety-certified navigation systems. This paper identifies a set of requirements for such an open S-100 experimentation platform and evaluates the open-source application OpenCPN as a candidate host. Guided by these requirements, a proof-of-concept (PoC) implementation of S-124 Navigational Warnings was developed as an OpenCPN plugin and released publicly under GPLv3 with its full source code and cross-platform build automation. The plugin ingests S-124 datasets both from local GML (Geography Markup Language) files and from live Secure Communication between ship and shore (SECOM) service endpoints; it parses warning metadata, temporal validity and geometry, and renders point, curve and surface features as an interactive overlay on the OpenCPN chart canvas. The implementation was exercised against operational data from PING, the French national navigational-warning distribution platform, retrieving navigational warnings across multiple SECOM series. We evaluate the resulting system against the identified requirements and position it relative to existing S-124 efforts. The objective is not to present a type-approved navigation system, nor a quantified improvement in navigational safety, but to demonstrate that an open, modifiable navigation environment can serve as a practical basis for S-100 experimentation and for future research into presentation, interoperability, scenario-based testing, situational awareness, safety and maritime security.

KEYWORDS: Safety of Navigation, Maritime Education and Training (MET), e-Navigation, Maritime Communication, IHO S-100, Electronic Navigational Charts and ECS/ECDIS Systems, Navigational Warnings, Maritime Information Systems

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