Want more width on the screens at your boat’s helm? Simrad Yachting’s new NSX Ultrawide might be the marine display to check out at the boat shows this year.

Simrad unveiled the NSX Ultrawide in early January, saying it is up to 63 percent wider than previous NSX displays—with the goal being to have the equivalent of dual screens in one place, without all the muss and fuss that usually comes with installing multiple screens at a boat’s helm.

“With a showstopping aesthetic and enhanced functionality, the NSX Ultrawide is setting a new standard in the marketplace, and we are proud to pave the way,” Kevin Steinbraker, vice president and general manager, digital systems of Navico Group, stated in a press release. “Whether in their cars, computer monitor at work, or the TVs in their homes, consumers have grown accustomed to and love the benefits of ultra-wide screens. Now they can have those same experiences at the helm with immersive graphics and flexible viewing splits.”

The NSX Ultrawide is available in 12- and 15-inch screen sizes. Simrad says it’s versatile enough for small to midsize center consoles, surf and wake boats, and cruisers. Multiple NSX Ultrawide displays can be combined at a single helm station, for boaters who want to see even more data and information all in one location.

The latest C-Map Discover X charts are optimized for NSX, which includes this new Ultrawide display. The high-pixel density of the Ultrawide display shows super–sharp resolution, according to Simrad, giving users unprecedented levels of detail. For avid anglers, extra detail can be added with an upgrade to Reveal X, which has shaded relief and satellite imagery.

The X-Gen charts also have features such as the new C-Map Safety Alerts, which are built to automatically alert users to hazards up ahead, ranging from shallow waters to buoys.

Additionally, in what Simrad says is an industry first, the C-Map X-Chart Manager lets users manage C-Map chart updates and upgrades directly from their device, with the ability to choose custom areas for a near-instant download.

Do most people prefer bigger displays? The National Institutes of Health sure thinks so. It cites a study on its website that says the answer is yes, at least when it comes to screen sizes on smartphones. Researchers found that a large screen, compared to a small screen, promotes perceived ease of use.

Take the next step: visit simrad-yachting.com

The post Simrad Unveils NSX Ultrawide appeared first on Yachting.

Dynamic positioning systems have become a must-have feature in recent years, making it far easier for skippers to keep their boats on the same heading or in the same exact spot. This technology makes boating a lot easier for people who, for instance, must pass through a series of opening bridges before heading out to do some coastal cruising. In the past, waiting in a crowded waterway for each bridge to open could be a nerve-wracking challenge. With dynamic positioning, the stress of waiting in place vanishes with the push of a button.

Now, Dockmate—makers of wireless remote controls that skippers can use to control the boat from pretty much anywhere on board—has added dynamic positioning to its products. The new feature is called the Dockmate Positioning System.

The Dockmate Positioning System has two modes, for use in open water and close quarters. In open-water mode, DPS uses the engines to keep the boat in its target position. In close-quarters mode, DPS uses the engines and the bow and stern thrusters to keep the vessel in its target position.

“We have spent a significant amount of time and research over the years to ensure that the Dockmate remote control system provides boaters with the best control of their vessels in some of the more stressful situations like docking and close-quarters maneuvering,” Dirk Illegems, president of Dockmate, stated in a press release. “Whether you are entering a marina or waiting for a bridge or lock, holding your position while stepping away from the helm can be just as important as having fingertip control when pulling into a dock. Our customers have been looking for a dynamic positioning system, and we are happy to deliver.”

Dockmate says this system is driven by a unit that includes a compass, accelerometer and gyroscope. A receiver is installed within the vessel, and it connects to Dockmate GNSS antennas that are installed on the hardtop.

The product is designed for installation on any vessel with at least two engines, and with Dockmate-compatible engine and thruster controls. The operating range for Dockmate with the standard antenna is about 165 feet, and an antenna extension cable can be ordered to increase range to more than 500 feet.

How long has Dockmate been in business? Since 2012 in Belgium, and since 2018 in the United States. The company warranties its products for three years.

Take the next step: click over to dockmate.us

The post Dockmate Adds Dynamic Positioning appeared first on Yachting.

Making sure you wire a boat switch panel correctly is absolutely critical. Whether you’re talking about the livewells, lights or bilge pumps, if that switch panel isn’t proper, sooner or later something won’t work. Worse, improper wiring could even lead to a meltdown and potentially, a fire aboard the boat.

Before digging into the details, there are a few important items you’ll need to know regardless of the specifics of the job. First, always follow the manufacturer’s recommendations when it comes to wire gauge, fuse and/or breaker size, and other specifics. Most boats and marine accessories are built to American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) standards, which include wiring and switch-panel specifics. These should always be adhered to. We also need to note that all boats are a bit different, and there are often good reasons to make exceptions to the generalizations we’re making here or do things a bit differently.

Choosing a Switch Panel for a Boat

The panel you’ll need depends on the size of your boat and the number of systems it has. As a rule of thumb, always choose a panel that has several additional switches to the ones you need to wire up. That way, you can add more accessories down the road and will have the switches available for use. Naturally, the switch panel must be rated for marine use and if it will be exposed, waterproof.

You can choose between a number of switch styles, which generally includes rocker switches, toggle switches or push-buttons. Most are illuminated, but not all are, and illumination can be quite helpful so you can see what’s activated and what isn’t at a glance. You can also get a switch panel with breakers or one with fuses. Breaker panels tend to cost a bit more, but they’re far more convenient since they allow you to reset the switch without having to carry fuses and replace them when necessary. However, breakers will have a set number of amps as opposed to being able to change fuses for different sizes. Sometimes you’ll see panels with no breakers or fuses, but in that case, a separate fuse or breaker panel must be added.

Also consider how many multi-position switches you need. If you want your running and anchor lights on a single three-position rocker switch, for example, a regular two-position switch won’t do the job. You’ll need at least one three-position switch (for off, anchor and running) on the panel.

Making Connections to a Boat Switch Panel

You’ll need to attach either ring or spade connectors to the ends of the accessory wires. Either is fine, but never try to fake it by attaching a bare wire end to a terminal.

When attaching a connector to the wire it should always—always—be crimped. Soldering and crimping together is best, but soldering alone is never recommended on a boat. Boats are subject to too many vibrations when running through the waves, and over time connections made with solder alone will weaken and break. Ideally, the connections should then be protected with waterproof heat-shrink tubing. You can purchase heat-shrink tubes separately, but you can also purchase connectors with the tubing already installed.

Getting Power to the Panel

Begin by getting juice to the panel itself. Again, follow the manufacturer’s and/or ABYC recommendations for wire gauge. And be sure to use tinned-copper wires, which are the most corrosion-resistant.

Run the main power line (positive, red) to a battery switch or isolator, not to the battery itself. Otherwise, you’ll likely suffer from a constant draw that could leave you with a dead battery from one week to the next. Note: automatic bilge pumps are an exception to this rule, and should have a separate power line giving them a constant feed regardless of battery switch position, as well as the lead running to the panel for manual activation.

At this point, we’re ready to attach the negative line (black). However, just where and how you will do so can vary depending on the panel and the boat’s existing wiring. Some panels have a small integrated bus bar, while in other cases there will be a separate negative bus bar that provides a common ground. Either way, the negative line connects directly to the negative terminal of the battery.

With the power supply complete, you can begin wiring in each individual system or accessory to each individual switch. As you do so, be sure the wires are physically supported with cushioned clamps or at the very least tie-wraps, so they don’t swing and sway. Remember that any physical motion in the lines will be amplified over and over again every time the boat is subject to vibrations, and eventually, that motion will lead to failed connections.

When wiring the boat’s switch panel be sure to keep the wiring as neat as possible, eliminating excess wire as much as possible. Everything on a boat eventually needs to be serviced, including wires and connections, and the bigger the mess is the tougher it will be to identify and isolate specific wires and connections down the line.

The post How to Wire a Boat Switch Panel appeared first on Yachting.

“Person overboard!“

Few phrases conjure darker fears among mariners. The good news, of course, is that contemporary beacons and geofence-breaching pendants can swiftly alert a skipper and crew about an MOB emergency, and can often help with rescue efforts. The less-than-cheery news, however, is that this equipment requires crewmembers, guests and family to carry or wear the equipment. This scheme can also presuppose that a person who has gone overboard is still conscious, treading water and capable of activating a beacon, probably in a seaway, maybe at night.

For the owners and captains of superyachts that carry at least 18 feet of freeboard, MARSS Group’s groundbreaking MOBtronic system provides safety without active user participation.

The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010 mandates that all cruise ships operating in US waters carry equipment that can detect or capture imagery of people who have gone overboard. The resulting ISO standards are strict: Systems must achieve a 95 percent probability of detection while recording no more than one false alarm per day, on average.

Flash-forward to today: UK-based MARSS has developed a solution called MOBtronic, which it has been selling to a few superyachts longer than 300 feet. While MOBtronic currently has a significant freeboard requirement, it employs active-detection technologies rather than pendants or beacons. It can autonomously sense a person overboard and immediately advise its human-on-the-loop operator.

MARSS is also exploring a solution with lower freeboard requirements for smaller yachts. While this technology is not currently available, MOBtronic offers a look at what’s possible when sensors and hybrid intelligence converge.

With regard to hardware, each installation involves a network of MOBtronic sensor pods that are installed along a vessel’s upper decks. Collectively, this equipment creates 360 degrees of coverage. There’s a virtual or physical server running NiDAR CORE, which is MARSS’ hybrid intelligence system that blends detection technologies and human input. There’s also a dedicated touchscreen display. Each sensor pod measures 14.1 by 10 by 3.6 inches, weighs 14.55 pounds and carries an IP66/67 rating. Each pod houses Doppler-enabled, microsize solid-state radars that constantly sweep an area measuring roughly 262 feet long and 26 feet wide (and at least 18 feet high). The package also incorporates a thermal-imaging camera and a processor. Additionally, owners can spec a daylight camera, but this isn’t required by ISO standards.

For scale, a large cruise ship might be fitted with 12 sensor pods, while a 300-plus-foot yacht might carry six.

“The sensor pods themselves have computers built into them, and they are doing most of the heavy-lift processing,” Mike Collier, MARSS’ business development manager, says of the radar- and video-feed analytics. “It’s very light on data that has to go back to the central server.”

The way MOBtronic works starts with radar, which effectively serves as the system’s tripwire. From there, it progresses to thermal imagery and analytics. Each MOBtronic radar pipes its signal to its processor, which has been trained via digital signal processing to identify an overboard person’s volume, size, shape and velocity (think bird mode, but for finding human beings).

Should the radar signal detect a possible match, the pod’s thermal-imaging camera begins working to verify, via video analytics, if this is actually a person in the water.

“It’s a five-stage process,” Collier says. “It takes data from the radar and does two calculations on that, and then it looks at the thermal-imaging-camera data and does some analytics on that as well. And if both things match, then an MOB alarm is raised.”

A human operator is then notified, and that person decides whether and how to escalate the situation. Go-to procedures include conducting head counts, notifying rescuing authorities and nearby traffic, and launching rescue craft and drones.

MOBtronic provides the vessel’s networked navigation system with its GPS location at the time of the emergency. In turn, the nav system can often calculate the person overboard’s predicted set and drift. Some nav systems can also cue a networked camera to follow that real-time position.

MOBtronic doesn’t track the person in the water, at least not outside the area of sensor coverage—but Collier says this isn’t the point. “The system was always focused on the detect part because that’s the most difficult part,” he says. “The bit that was always missing from the puzzle was accurate detection of someone falling from a vessel, and that’s what we focused on. The operator of the vessel can make the decision what they do next.”

As for the system’s 18-foot freeboard requirement, which is currently a limiting factor for many yachts, Collier says it has more to do with meeting and exceeding ISO standards than it does with sensor blind spots.

“It’s really difficult to achieve 95 percent probability of detection and only one false alarm a day,” he says. “We need to give the radar sufficient time to create a track … and for that track to continue all the way down to the water.”

Relaxing the freeboard requirement for use outside of the cruise-ship sector is already in the works. “It won’t be the same technology,” he says. “It might be something slightly different.” One possibility is to add a form of AI called machine learning to the camera feed, which could help MOBtronic understand what’s happening faster and with greater accuracy.

In addition to superyacht-level freeboard requirements (and costs), the system will generate some human-on-the-loop work for the bridge or helm watch. That said, these drawbacks are small prices to pay for an active, autonomous detection system that requires zero participation from the people it’s protecting—especially on a charter yacht, or one with landlubber guests who make unseamanlike decisions. Going forward, this technology could be a compelling safety proposition for many yachts. After all, few things assuage fear faster than situational awareness.

The post MARSS’ All-in-One Detection System appeared first on Yachting.

The skies darkened fast. Capt. Art Sapp was runnng home to Lighthouse Point, Florida, from the Bahamas aboard Native Son, his SeaVeei 39, when he saw the storm wall. “I ran 30 miles to get around the thunder and lightning,” he said, adding that he used dual 16-inch Raymarine Axiom 2 XL multifunction displays, and networked radar and satellite weather, to pick a less-awful route. “It’s got a fluidlike feeling on the screens. It’s wild,” Sapp said of the Axiom 2 XL. “It makes it so accurate, there’s no missed touch.”

While screen-tap accuracy matters, there’s more going on with Raymarine’s latest displays than screen coatings. And it’s been developing for years.

In 2017, Raymarine unveiled its Axiom displays with quad-core processors, RealVision 3D sonar and the Android-based Lighthouse 3 operating system. Lighthouse 3 was Raymarine’s all-new operating-system architecture, and it made the company an early Android adopter within the marine space. Raymarine’s Axiom 2 displays come in three models with screen sizes ranging from 9 to 24 inc hes. All of them have six-core processors, global navigation satellite system receivers, 64 gigabytes of solid-state storage, the latest version of Raymarine’s Lighthouse 4 operating system and next-generation screen coatings. The resulting displays, which include angling- and cruising-specific versions, can give boaters better speed, power and improved user interfaces.

The Axiom 2 family starts with Axiom 2 Pro S (from $3,050), which is available in 9-, 12- and 16-inch screens. It comes with a single-channel, chirp-enabled sonar.

“The Axiom 2 Pro S is targeted at cruising boats,” says Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas marketing manager. “It’s got our HydroTough coating on the glass. It’s a nano coating that bonds with the glass on a molecular level. Your fingers just glide smoothly over it, which enhances the functionality.”

In addition, the Axiom 2 Pro S, along with the fishing-specific Axiom 2 Pro RVM, uses Raymarine’s HybridTouch user interface, which employs a touchscreen as well as hard-button-and-knob keypads. Those can be helpful when the seaway starts sloshing the coffee.

RVM stands for RealVision Max sonar. Axiom 2 Pro RVM displays are identical to the Axiom 2 Pro S, save for their sonars. While the Axiom 2 Pro S has a conical chirp-enabled sonar, RVM models (from $2,750) are built with a 10 kW, dual-channel chirp sounder and a 600-watt RealVision Max high multibeam chirp sonar.

“It’s definitely targeted at the hard-core fishermen,” McGowan says, adding that RVM displays deliver chirp DownVision, SideVision, RealVision 3D and high-chirp-sonar perspectives, plus the traditional dual-channel 1 kW chirp sonar.

Given that there are three bands of chirp—low, medium and high—anglers can cover all three bands with an Axiom 2 Pro RVM that’s networked to a Raymarine RVM transducer and to an Airmar low- and medium-frequency chirp transducer.

Axiom 2 displays employ different transducers (sold separately) than previous-generation Axiom offerings. These transducers have piezoceramic elements inside that are larger, McGowan says. Larger ceramic elements equate to greater acoustic sensitivity and better beam-shaping capability. While those features are beneficial, the reality is that boaters need to add the new transducers in order to realize the system’s full acoustic capabilities.

Axiom 2 XL is the most recent addition to Raymarine’s display family. As the name portends, the premium-level XL models (from $7,800) are designed for use in an all-glass bridge aboard large yachts or high-end center-consoles. The touchscreen displays are available in 16-, 19-, 22- and 24-inch glass. While they don’t include an embedded sonar or hard-button controls (owners can add a Raymarine RMK-10 keyboard), they do have HDMI input and output capabilities.

“They have a pretty robust video input and output,” McGowan says. “It’s unique to that level of Axiom. The standard Axioms don’t have it.”

This functionality allows Axiom 2 XL owners to add a Raymarine RVM1600 black-box sonar ($2,000), creating a setup that gives Axiom 2 XLs the same fish-stalking capabilities as Axiom 2 Pro RVMs, just with more-spacious glass.

These HDMI capabilities also allow Axiom 2 XL owners to network a touchscreen-compatible personal computer to their display via a USB connection, and to drive their computer using Axiom 2 XL’s touchscreen pass-through interface. Additionally, the HDMI input and XL-size glass can be used to stream satellite TV or other content.

While each Axiom 2 model has its sweet spot of capabilities, all three models share important DNA. “Because of the six-core processors, the ability to pan across a chart or to zoom in or zoom out, it is very, very snappy,” McGowan says. “The pinch-to-zoom feature is immediate. You’re never waiting for anything to load.”

And the latest version of Raymarine’s Android-based Lighthouse 4 operating system lets third-party software developers create vetted apps that run on Axiom 2 displays.

“We curate the apps that we allow. They have to be largely navigation-focused,” McGowan says, adding that some apps are validated by Raymarine, while others are developed with a partner agreement. “The Android platform gives us the flexibility to do that because there are so many marine devices that are built on or around Android.”

Another benefit of Lighthouse 4’s Android-based architecture, McGowan says, is that navigation software isn’t a heavy lift for the processors: “You’re not really pushing the limits of the hardware out of the box, so that gives us the ability to keep developing new features and new innovations and adding more stuff into the code. We still haven’t even begun to stress the limits of the processor and memory.”

As far as Axiom 2’s pros and cons, the positives are plural, while the drawbacks are largely limited to costs (including installing the larger transducers) and the fact that Raymarine no longer allows owners to pilot DJI Mavic drones from Axiom displays.

But if you’re more concerned with cruising, fishing or creating a premium-level all-glass bridge, then Axiom 2 could be the logical next addition to your yacht’s helm.

Pro Moves

Raymarine’s RVM1600 sonar module can be networked with an Axiom 2 XL to yield the same sonic capabilities as an Axiom 2 Pro RVM.

Sky-Talker

Axiom 2s are agnostic about satellite-communications connections. They play nicely with mazu’s M2500 ($1,100), which uses Iridium’s global, short-burst data service to provide weather, email, SMS messaging and an optional sport-fishing app. It appears as an app, so users can see it on Axiom’s sunlight-readable screen.

The post Raymarine’s Axiom 2 Multifunction Displays Explained appeared first on Yachting.

The software-defined wide-area network from Videoworks is a way of combining various technologies to link yachts to the internet with a signal similar to the one at home or in an office. SD-WAN uses several third-party-built connections—including 4G/5G cellular, Starlink or OneWeb, VSAT-GEO and shore-based Wi-Fi—to yield fast, stable, reliable and cost-effective data transmissions.

SD-WAN uses two software-based virtual machines (one is yacht-based; the other is cloud-based) to create a two-way communications tunnel with the internet. SD-WAN also can bond discrete protocols to yield a georeferenced connection with increased bandwidth and stability.

Alessio Musetti, Videoworks’ yachting sales manager, says the company faced numerous challenges while creating SD-WAN. These include combining different connectivity technologies that have different bandwidths in different regions, optimizing cloud services, guaranteeing 24/7/365 service and creating an at-home-like internet experience aboard yachts at sea.

While these hurdles were high, Musetti says Videoworks cleared them by creating a platform that harnesses the best connectivity technologies afloat, including virtual machines, the Linux OS and various web interfaces.

Behind the Connection

SD-WAN can channel-bond discrete communicators’ protocols with similar latencies (such as 5G and Starlink) by splitting internet packages across all connections and then reaggregating them on the opposite end. On the back end, Videoworks maintains a network-operations center that allows it to monitor and improve the network. The SD-WAN is flexible, and, because it’s software, it’s easily upgradable by Videoworks.

Take the next step: videoworksgroup.com

The post Videoworks’ SD-WAN Reliably Connects Boaters appeared first on Yachting.

Boating in homelike comfort for more than a few hours at a time takes more electricity than most battery systems can provide, but adding a generator to the mix gives boaters a constant feed of power. A generator is a rather involved upgrade, but it can be boiled down to a few basic steps.

Determine Your Vessel’s Power Needs

There’s a big difference between the power requirements of a 40-foot cruiser and a 30-footer. Take air conditioning, for example. Both boats may have it, but one might need a 20,000-Btu system to chill down the salon while the other can get by with 5,000 Btus. So, the bigger boat will not only have more systems to feed, but each one is larger in scale. That means step one is simply figuring out how much power is enough. And remember that bigger isn’t always better. Generators are designed to run under load, and if you regularly run one at less than 25 percent of its output and don’t typically run at closer to 50 to 70 percent of load, it will often lead to soot formation, poor piston-ring seals and clogged injector tips.

What if you need only minimal juice? In that case, could carrying a portable generator aboard make sense? Maybe so, but these usually hold enough fuel to run for just eight or nine hours. If you want electricity for longer than that, you’ll have to carry a gas can and plan to refuel from the deck of a pitching, rolling boat. Obviously, that raises safety concerns. Plus, these generators generally aren’t marinized for use in the saltwater environment. As a general rule of thumb, carry-on generators have limited applications on boats.

Determine Your Boat’s Available Real Estate

The biggest limiting factor in how much power you can bring aboard will be engine-room space. Generators are often shoe-horned in, which makes for tough maintenance, but even tougher installation. You need a solid, level mounting surface, as well as room for cables and hoses. Also consider access to the area, because it won’t do you much good to buy a generator only to discover it doesn’t fit through the hatch.

Mounting a Boat Generator

Generators are weighty, and they require secure mounting. Screws or lag bolts aren’t sufficient—you need stout through-bolts or hefty brackets. Think of it like mounting an engine in a boat, because, well, they are engines. True, the generator won’t be bearing any thrust, but all that weight creates an awful lot of leverage when the boat rocks and rolls. If you’re adding a generator to a boat that originally offered one as optional equipment, check with the manufacturer to see if pre-tapped mounting plates were laminated into the stringers. You may have an ideal mounting point ready and waiting for you.

Plumbing a Boat Generator

Ready to start running hoses? You’ll need a cooling water feed via a through-hull with a seacock, and an exhaust run. Intake lines need to have a sea strainer between the seacock and the generator, and should not depend on a scoop-style through-hull, which can force water into the generator when it’s not in operation. Exhaust lines need an anti-siphon loop installed at the manufacturer’s recommended minimum height above the waterline.

Obviously, you’ll also need to get fuel to the generator. In the interest of minimizing the hazard of mixing up fuels and increasing the workload, most boaters want to choose a generator that burns the same fuel as their vessel’s powerplants and tap into the existing supply. Otherwise, installing a fill and vent lines will be necessary in addition to installing the tank itself. You’ll also need to plumb in a fuel filter between the tank and the generator.

Wiring a Boat Generator

Wiring is a stage that can get quite tricky, and the bottom line is that you must follow the manufacturer’s specifications for both the boat and the generator. That said, there will usually be cables for an externally mounted battery for starting the generator, the AC output, and you may wire in a remote-control panel above decks, as well. Care must be taken to make sure that all wiring is up to manufacturer and ABYC specs, and that it’s supported and protected from stress and chaffing. AC wiring must be done as per the manufacturer’s recommendations. Note that generators must also be grounded and bonded in accordance with USCG regulations.

Insulating a Boat Generator

Generators can be notoriously loud. If your boat’s engine room isn’t thoroughly insulated, choosing a generator contained in an insulated soundshield is a smart move. Adding acoustic insulation to an engine room after the fact is rarely as effective. Air intakes, exhaust type and mounting will also have an impact on the noise and vibration levels.

So, is adding a generator to a boat really all that involved? You bet it is, which is why few DIY boaters ever even consider giving it a shot. It’s also risky to try installing one yourself from both a safety and a reliability/longevity standpoint. So, 99 times out of 100 this is a job best left to the professionals.

The post Adding a Generator to a Boat appeared first on Yachting.

Let’s be honest, driving a boat with a joystick seemed altogether bizarre when Hinckley Yachts introduced the JetStick a quarter-century ago. “It’s a strange sensation,” Yachting’s editor-in-chief wrote in 1998. “It is intuitive and vastly different from any other steering and control function on any production powerboat I have been on. In simple terms, the joystick handles all facets of the boat, except for the rpm. I don’t need to do the usual hand dance and alternate between grabbing the wheel, throttle and gear shift.”

The JetStick was mind-bending stuff for old salts, but it made perfect sense to the Atari and Nintendo generation, who today are boat buyers in their 50s and 60s. And, just as video game technology has been evolving this whole time, so have joystick systems for boats.

Hinckley’s JetStick 4 is the newest iteration from the Maine boatbuilder. Hinckley’s team acknowledges that JetStick driving is becoming ubiquitous but adds that their goal is to have top-performing tech among all helms.

“We’re not the only ones in the industry offering this kind of innovation,” says Scott Bryant, Hinckley’s vice president of sales and marketing, “but the integration and functionality of JetStick 4 is the best of its kind.”

JetStick 4 has many of the same features as JetStick 3, but with better underlying GPS and digital processing, which Hinckley says add to the boat’s performance and maneuverability. Dock Hold and Heading Hold features now operate with more precision, and the transition between modes is more seamless.

No, this joystick system doesn’t let a skipper play Space Invaders or Super Mario Bros. at the helm, but who knows? Engineers are surely working on version 5 as we speak.

The post Hinckley’s JetStick 4 Adds Updates for Precision Boathandling appeared first on Yachting.

For many owners and charterers, a superyacht is a treasured place to relax in privacy. The trouble, of course, is that these yachts can sometimes be tempting flyby targets for unmanned aerial vehicles at the hands of recreational operators or paparazzi.

The good news? Countermeasures exist.

Marss Group’s NiDAR CUAS Compact system (NiDAR Core is the company’s software-based AI platform, while CUAS means counter unmanned aerial systems) can detect and thwart up to 1,000 drones. The customizable system uses artificial intelligence and sensors for drone detection and optional electronic countermeasures, with the software-driven setup being updated monthly to keep owners ahead of the UAV technology curve.

To understand this technology, consider that consumer-level UAVs rely on two sets of radio-frequency communications. The first set includes flight-path commands that are relayed to the UAV from the human-operated controller via telemetry and the (ballpark) 2.4-gigahertz frequency band. The second set transmits the UAV’s video imagery back to its operator at about 5.8 GHz. While modern drones use frequency-hopping schemes to help ensure connectivity in RF-rich environments like cities, most UAVs are programmed to return to their operator if their RF stream is interrupted.

Sharp readers just spied an Achilles’ heel. Where there are communications, it’s also possible to jam them.

The NiDAR CUAS Compact (from around $250,000) has networked sensors and smart software that’s bundled inside a mast-mounted radome, plus a belowdecks black box that networks with the superyacht’s navigation system. Customers can spec a range of sensors (and countermeasures), and the system can sometimes use the yacht’s existing networked instrumentation.

“It’s a multilayered approach,” says Johannes Pinl, CEO and founder of the Marss Group. “There’s not one solution that fits all.”

The updatable NiDAR Core acts as the system’s centralized brain by drawing on different sensors—such as daylight and thermal- imaging cameras, Doppler-enabled radars and RF-detection sensors—to detect and identify multiple targets before alerting a human operator with a suggested response. Pinl says the omnidirectional RF-detection sensors can spot a microsize drone at 6-plus miles, sometimes with its precise location, altitude and speed. The system’s radar is composed of four high-definition solid-state radar panels on the radome’s lower pedestal, delivering 360-degree coverage. This radar can spot a recreational-level UAV at almost 1 mile out, and its Doppler post-processing provides flight-pattern information that can help the system differentiate UAVs from seabirds.

Most systems employ two cameras: one daylight/low-light camera with a 14x continuous optical zoom and one thermal-imaging camera with a 30x continuous optical zoom. These are housed in a radome that can pan through 360 degrees and tilt through minus 45 degrees to plus 90 degrees. These cameras also help identify potential threats, with live video feeds of the target(s) on networked displays or tablets.

NiDAR Core also uses the video feed to perform AI-driven image classification for fixed-wing drones, quadcopters, seagulls and such. For example, Marss trained NiDAR Core to know that birds flap their wings roughly once every three seconds. If wing motion isn’t detected, the absence can escalate a detection situation.

While the NiDAR CUAS Compact system can automatically identify, track and defeat UAVs, it is built with a human-on-the-loop scheme where input from a person is required to initiate countermeasures. This setup also creates what Marss calls “hybrid” intelligence between the system’s AI and its human operator.

System- and vessel-depending, these countermeasures often start off analog before going digital. For example, crewmembers can alert the yacht’s helicopter about a potential hazard or advise anyone enjoying the yacht’s sun decks of the situation, and suggest that they relocate.

Should the drones linger, the next step sometimes involves jamming the drones’ Achilles’ heels and sending them home. While effective, this step can include legal concerns.

“Jammers are not allowed to be used in all jurisdictions,” Pinl says, adding, “They are allowed to be owned in most of the jurisdictions and, in general, are allowed to be used in international water.”

Most recreational drones share these RF vulnerabilities; however, savvy operators sometimes program their UAVs to fly pre-scripted routes, and they set the drone’s camera to record its video imagery locally. These actions close the door on telemetric countermeasures.

The fine print on jamming is that these devices are often legal to own, but they can be illegal to use. As a result, such countermeasures are typically reserved for installations that protect heads of state (see sidebar). Marss does offer GPS jammers on some high-end military-facing systems, and customers can also sometimes buy this technology from third-party vendors.

So, if you aren’t interested in providing headline fodder for the paparazzi, investing in a Marss NiDAR CUAS Compact system could be wise. Timing, of course, matters, and Pinl advises against waiting until a crewmember discovers a UAV with flat batteries perched on the helipad (a true story).

Physical Countermeasures

While electromagnetic pulses and lasers are years away, Marss’ AI-guided Interceptor is a counter-UAV system that’s designed to protect heads of state, ships and military installations. Each Interceptor can fly at almost 180 mph to autonomously defeat multiple small and medium-size UAVs at ranges over 3 miles using battering-ram tactics.

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Aqua superPower is the first company to supply AC and DC charging stations for electric yachts to select marinas at no cost. Aqua superPower manages the grid connection and the installation process, and then the company owns, operates and maintains the stations, as well as the back-end network, mostly via the cloud. Each charging station is connected to Aqua superPower’s office, and customers pay Aqua superPower directly for usage. Aqua superPower seeks installation sites that are popular with commercial or recreational marine traffic, and geographic areas with higher rates of adoption of electric-powered vessels.

Safety is always paramount when dealing with high-voltage electricity. “We explored various charging protocols and adopted the universal electric-vehicle Combined Charging System, which uses connectors to provide power up to 350 kilowatts,” says Alex Bamberg, CEO of Aqua superPower. “This plug is particularly suited for marine applications, as it doesn’t go live until it has made an electronic handshake with the battery. If it’s dropped into water prior to connection with the boat, it’s not live.”

Aqua superPower’s app can help customers find charging stations, check availability, provide real-time charging management and tackle billing. As of now, most charging stations are in the United Kingdom or other areas of Europe; however, Aqua superPower is making US inroads.

Supercharged

Aqua superPower’s charging stations deliver AC power (up to 22 kilowatts) and DC power (up to 350 kW; their typical output is 150 kW). While recharging 80 percent of a typical electric boat’s battery takes eight to 10 hours on the AC charger, the amount of time needed reportedly can be reduced to 20 to 60 minutes using the DC supercharger. Aqua superPower station equipment is IP65-rated.

Take the next step: aqua-superpower.com

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