The Marine Electronics Hub
In a last-minute addition to my Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) schedule, I was invited to take a ride on Avikus autonomous boat. Boy, am I glad I did. Despite being a pre-production system, what I saw and experienced was the most polished example I’ve seen to date of assisted boating.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida – AVIKUS, HD Hyundai’s autonomous navigation in-house startup and global marine electronics leader Raymarine, announced today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the 2022 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show....
Founded in 2018 and based in Austria, France, Portugal and the US, the tech startup had previously used the names OSCAR, BSB Artificial Intelligence and BSB Marine for its different branches and products. From now on, all products and all corporate entities will be gathered together under the new umbrella SEA.AI…
Brunswick Corporation announced today the formation of Navico Group, which will replace its current Advanced Systems Group (ASG). Navico Group will continue to be led by Brett Dibkey and represents a complete organizational integration between the legacy ASG business with two key acquisitions that were completed in late 2021 – Navico and RELiON Battery LLC. The newly formed Navico Group will be comprised of numerous industry leading brands that serve the marine, RV, specialty vehicle, and industrial markets. Some of the many brands that make up Navico Group include: Ancor, Attwood, B&G, BEP, Blue Sea Systems, C-MAP, CZone, Garelick, Lenco, Lowrance, Mastervolt, Marinco, MotorGuide, Progressive Industries, ProMariner, RELiON, Simrad, and Whale…
I work around boats pretty much every day of my life. So, what would cause me to jump in my car and drive 28 hours round trip to go see a boat? The answer: A brand new, luxury 44-foot sailboat ordered with no generator and no air conditioning. But fear not, although it was delivered without systems many regard as required, it’s now been outfitted with arguably the best air conditioning and power systems available.
It’s been a busy couple of months for Starlink since they rolled out portability. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s happened with the service since then: they’ve rolled out RV service, Dish network has filed a complaint against them, their mobile license was approved by the FCC, and they’ve introduced a maritime service offering. If you’re a boater looking to get internet connectivity on board your boat, that can be a lot to wade through. So, let me help you understand the developments and what it means for us as boaters.
The Simrad NSX may be a value-oriented chart plotter in Simrad’s lineup but “value model” doesn’t tell the story of how important NSX is to Simrad’s, and Navico’s, future. NSX is the first MFD running on Navico’s Neon operating system. I’ve been using an NSX in Panbo(at) for the last several months and I’m pleased to report NSX is an upgrade from the Simrad Go it replaced in nearly every dimension. If this is Navico’s future, the future is bright.
When Garmin introduced Surround View last fall, it seemed a lot like Raymarine’s existing DockSense Alert. A precisely engineered array of cameras network to a powerful central imaging processor that gives the helmsperson a synthesized bird’s eye view of the maneuvering situation plus individual cam views as needed. However, the underlying technologies are actually quite different, and worth understanding, I think, as Brunswick and others compete in this area…
RaceSense is such a novel concept that it’s hard to understand at a glance. While that screen looks like a virtual sail racing app that you play with your fingertips, what’s actually virtual are the folks normally needed to run a real event — plus their boats, the marks, the horn, etc. Instead, Vakaros Atlas 2 tablet-style instruments on each of the real sailboats form a meshed wireless network, and a built-in feature called RaceSense uses distributed artificial intelligence to create the course, call penalties, and name winners. Wow…
The International Marine Electronics Alliance (IMEA), a 501 (c) (3) supporting organization of the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA), has awarded two marine electronics industry scholarships to students currently enrolled in marine trade school technology programs…
