This is the upper helm on a big Marlow Explorer being shown at the Miami Boat Show. Look how many brands are involved; Furuno NavNet, a Nauticomp montior for a PC system, Raymarine instruments, and Simrad autopilot—and that’s just the top half! And of course there is an even more elaborate helm below. The radar scanners indicate that Nobeltec Admiral is probably the main charting/radar system with NavNet for redundancy. I would guess that this is a tremendously powerful system overall, but what a stew of data interfacing to install, not to mention man/machine interfaces to learn. I don’t know much about Marlows, but my buddy Bill Pike—who may have tested more power yachts than any man alive—loves them (here and here).
And, yes, sharp-eyed readers, the yacht is the background is named “Lucky Sperm”. Ewwwww! Actually, another writer friend knows the owner of that boat, and thinks he’s just being damn honest about the source of his money.
I can’t tell much about what he’s using—a small Furuno radar, B&G instruments, some PC program (MaxSea?)—but I do know that Francis Joyon is half way across the Atlantic and looking good to get the single handed record (better than 7d 2h 34m 42s) aboard his 90’ tri IDEC. Yesterday, he set a new solo 24-hour speed record of 543 miles! His site seems to be French only, but has great pictures. The one above is captioned “Francis etudie la carte” and was taken by Jocelyn Bleriot. Team Ellen is understandably keeping close track of Francis (in French & English); if he makes a new record, Ellen will try to break it in September.
Update, 7/6: Joyon took 22.5 hours off the transatlantic record!
Update, 7/7: Damn! Joyon elected to sail on alone to France after the finish, over slept, and totally wrecked IDEC on the coast of Brittany. What a strange single-handed mirror to the national joy of England getting the Olympics, immediately followed by the horror of terrorist bombs.
Monitoring and control systems can potentially do anything. Once you have a system of sensors, cable backbones, PCs, screens, and so forth performing the core task of collecting and distributing information and system commands, well heck, why not blend in security, entertainment, communications, inventory/maintenance management, digital documentation…whatever. A case in point is Hyperion (above), the 157’ super yacht built in 1998 by Royal Huisman for the legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jim Clark. Clark had to start a small company called Seascape Communications to create the system he envisioned, and what a humdinger the resulting “Genisys” is. 24 onboard computers monitor 50,000 data points and display on 22 touch screens throughout the vessel. Clark and his crew could mind and manage everything from windshield wipers to ballast transfer pumps to e-mail wherever they wished onboard. Clark could even “cruise” the yacht by satellite from his den in California (or his airplane), leading to the waggish comment that it was the world’s largest remote control toy. And guests had their own screens mounted into berth-side drawers so that they can amuse themselves with the system’s 1200 CD’s on hard disk, 400 DVD’s in changers, world band tuners, and masthead cameras!
Since then, Clark had Royal Huisman build him the even larger yacht Athena, launched last fall, with more Seascape software on board. Now he’s announced the formation of CommandScape, which sounds like Seascape repurposed to automate large homes as well as yachts. Clark was the subject of the wonderful biography The New, New Thing, which begins with a hysterical description of Hyperion’s trail run in rough weather—failing computers, seasick film crew, et all…a must read excerpt here).
It was bittersweet driving Charlie down to Spruce Head Marine to launch his Golden Hind Sophie. It was yet another gray day in this record breaking spring, and, besides, Charlie now lives out of state and had to jump in his car as soon as got Sophie onto her mooring in Rockland. But I did get a chance to see all the work that he’s put into the boat. The electronics — a slick Tacktick Sailmaster depth/wind system and an old Magellan 2000 XL GPS, both on a swing out arm — may be somewhat minimal, but the boat is otherwise ready go gunkholing or ocean voyaging. She is amazingly roomy for 31 feet, in a Brit sort of way, and Charlie put a nice new, and extra tall, rig in her. Sophie is for sale and will be a happy deal for someone, I think.
It was some fun getting a little wheel time on this Alden Brenton Reef 40 on Vineyard Sound last week. Despite bright sun and huge glass, you can see that the screen of the Raymarine C120 was up to the task. The radar overlay worked nicely too, and is much appreciated by the owner, who’s seasoned in boats and planes. I was there to write about cruising, not electronics, but presume that the C120 is getting heading info from the Simrad AP25’s compass via the fast version of NMEA 0183. You can also see (bigger here) an Icom VHF, an ACR pan & tilt spotlight, and ZF (Mathers) single lever electronic controls (whose delicacy took some getting used to). The owner laments that the E Series wasn’t yet out when he chose this rig, because he’d like to try the Weather Channel Marine satellite system that he’s heard will become an E option. And it shouldn’t be too long before fully electronic Yanmars and NMEA 2000 will create the choice of a second E in place of the analog gauges. The picture is courtesy my sharp shooting neighbor Jamie Bloomquist.
I’m back in Maine, but unfortunately won’t be able to make the Homecoming ceremony for single-hander Bruce Schwab that starts in Portland today. Bruce just sailed from France to Maine aboard his Open 60 Ocean Planet, which must have seemed like a day sail after two circumnavigations in three years, the second non-stop in 110 days racing the Vendee Globe. I understand that our Governor will declare today “Bruce Schwab Day”—kind of goofy, but wonderful to have this great sport better recognized here in the U.S.A.
I particularly wish I could make Bruce’s “Truly Offshore Seminar” on Sunday, which will include a discussion of electronics and “trouble-shooting and repairs on the run”. I got aboard OP in 2003, after the Around Alone race, and know that Schwab removed the Furuno radar and fixed PC/monitors he had then in favor of a lighter laptop with a Nobeltec PC radar dome. Many people think such a setup unreliable but it apparently held up fine on the grueling Vendee course, though there was a problem with the scanner’s tilt mount mechanics. Bruce’s posts describing how he amazingly got to, and fixed, the mount while underway are here (look around 12/21/04).
I wish I knew. ReggataNews.com has been posting some great photos of the yachts, but they almost never show electronics (generally the case for megayachts, unfortunately, as owners and charterers don’t often drive them). Above is a tight crop from a hi res image (more here, credit: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex) of the 174’ (53m) Drumbeat. You can make out massively complex helm stations port and starboard (there’s redundancy!) and at least one large hooded ECDIS or radar unit. The guy in the middle may be “handling” 26,000 sq. ft. of sail with a little forest of joysticks. I must say that wearing PFD’s on this flying bridge seems a bit over the top. On the other hand, some of the boats that went too far north have been getting pounded. The skipper of Sojana reported dryly, "We're hammering along at 12 knots right on course, right down the great circle at 075 degrees true. Some of the electronics aren't working as well as they used to, but we are reasonably happy.”
Yike! Above is the OPC’s prediction for 8 pm tomorrow night, my time. Today, 20 of the mightiest sailing yachts on the planet will set off from New York in a Transatlantic Challenge meant to celebrate, and smash, the 12 day, 4 hour race record set by Charlie Barr 100 years ago (also well explained by Josh Adams here). Somewhere the famously hard-driving skipper may be chuckling. If I’d been invited to join the fascinating mix of swells, enthusiasts, and pros (some apparently obnoxious) making the crossing, I’d be feeling a bit like a squirrel in front of a truck. That low looks like a lot more weather than is normal this time of year. I’ll bet the onboard weather guys and routers like Commander’s are quite focused right now. It seems like communications and forecasting technology will play a big role in whether these boats get a sleigh ride or a pounding. I’ll be following the race with interest this week (and hoping to learn more about the electronics used).
Monday, 11 am update: the Grand Prix boats have headed way south and are now making 18 knots. Meanwhile the big low may stall right over Cape Cod, which is where I was supposed to go boating later this week. Drat!
Tuesday, 12 am update: the gale warnings here in Maine and on the Cape have been upgraded to storm warnings, NE gusts up to 50k tonight, but it’s still not clear how the racers will fare, though the ones who went way south are looking pretty smart right now.
A description of how this Greenpeace ship was Wi-Fi enabled. Somehow I missed this article before, it even got slashdotted.
"In the crows nest is a wireless bridge, there is the option to switch from an omni to a directional Vagi (not Yagi) antenna, should the host be far away. That runs to a switch in the radio room. Also running there is a standard 802.11b AP used by the crew and anyone else who wants to check their Email in the proximity of the moored vessel."
Randy Repass has a new boat, Convergence. If you are the founder of West Marine, the world's largest retailer of boat accessories, then surely there must be a lot of electronics on board. And that is true. Here's an article from 48� North, and here you can find the specifics on this Tom Wylie designed ketch rigged catboat.
"We have used PC-based chart plotting, primarily Nobletec, for several years in waters between the San Juan Islands and SE Alaska and like it very much. For long distance cruising we think PC-based plotting is more practical than dedicated plotters using vector charts. We have a PC at the navigation station, which is networked with Ray Marine's RL 80 radar, RayNav300 GPS, ST 290 speed, wind and depth instruments, and 8001 autopilot all on the HSB2 link. While we are able to display information from anything on the Ray Marine link we plan to use the LCD of the PC in the pilothouse to display electronic charts. We also have a Garmin 276C GPS at the navigation station and a faithful selection of paper charts."
Raymarine instruments, and Simrad autopilot—and that’s just the top half! And of course there is an even more elaborate helm below. The radar scanners indicate that Nobeltec Admiral is probably the main charting/radar system with NavNet for redundancy. I would guess that this is a tremendously powerful system overall, but what a stew of data interfacing to install, not to mention man/machine interfaces to learn. I don’t know much about Marlows, but my buddy Bill Pike—who may have tested more power yachts than any man alive—loves them (here and here). 
I’m back in Maine, but unfortunately won’t be able to make the 
I particularly wish I could make Bruce’s “Truly Offshore Seminar” on Sunday, which will include a discussion of electronics and “trouble-shooting and repairs on the run”. I got aboard OP in 2003, after the Around Alone race, and know that Schwab removed the Furuno radar and fixed PC/monitors he had then in favor of a lighter laptop with a Nobeltec PC radar dome. Many people think such a setup unreliable but it apparently held up fine on the grueling Vendee course, though there was a problem with the scanner’s tilt mount mechanics. Bruce’s posts describing how he amazingly got to, and fixed, the mount while underway are 
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Randy Repass has a new boat, Convergence. If you are the founder of West Marine, the world's largest retailer of boat accessories, then surely there must be a lot of electronics on board. And that is true. Here's an