Best Of Big-Boat Electronics 2017

With innovations in global technology making life ever more efficient on land, the yachting industry is striving to implement similar advancements at sea, where owner demand is trending toward total connectivity for business and pleasure, just like at home.

Marine technology companies are launching smarter and more sophisticated systems, from communications and onboard entertainment to navigation. Keeping up with the quickly evolving landscape can be dizzying, so here are a few game changers you can expect to see this year.

HEADS UP

Team Italia brings high-performance aircraft technology to a wheelhouse near you.

Head-up displays (HUDs) have long been the near-exclusive province of high-performance aircraft, military jets in particular. HUDs allow fighter pilots to maneuver, acquire targets and fire weapons at high rates of speed without losing track of what’s going on outside the cockpit. They’ve been employed in other environments—most notably in automobiles—but rarely on yachts.

Recently, electronics innovator Team Italia introduced what may well be the first HUD commercially produced for large yachts. According to Team Italia’s co-founder and CEO, Massimo Minnella, the Team Italia HUD is being offered as an integral component of the company’s I-Bridge electronic navigation system. The first unit is scheduled to deliver during the second quarter of this year for a new build expected to launch in early 2018.

This HUD employs a 55-inch display that is 90 percent transparent, Minnella says. The programming offers three optional views for the helmsman. One is a conning mode that is best for close-quarters handling or for maneuvering in shallow water where the greatest need is technical information, such as wind and current. The second is the conning information merged with a video source, such as radar or a chart plotter. The third presentation is a 3-D mode: The vessel’s projected course and other pertinent information are displayed in real time and in direct relation to the vessel’s heading.