All In One

Ancient history. In archaeology, it means a thousand years ago. In marine electronics, it means 1992. Back then, I wrote an article called "The Grab Bag Dash," which predicted the demise of the mixed-electronics helm. In those days it was common to outfit a helm with a brand X radar, brand Y autopilot, and brand Z loran, none of which did a very good job of sharing information with each other. Then came integrated packages like Raytheon's SEATALK and B&G's NETWORK systems, which use a proprietary language to share data. That was the beginning of the end for the grab-bag dash, but these systems still required individual, dedicated units to display information. Now, even these systems are taking a back seat at the helm of megayachts, thanks to the ever-expanding role of the personal computer (PC) aboard. One of the big benefits of integrated systems is that they can calculate data--such as current set and drift--that was previously unavailable from isolated instruments alone. Still, you have to look all over the helm to get the big picture of what is going on around you, but today's PCs are capable of showing any and all data on monitors or flat-screen display panels. Essentially the future is here, with onboard systems that can show all of the vital information you need in one central location.

A good example of this is currently being installed aboard "Katharine," a new 132-footer now under construction at Trident Marine in Tampa, Florida. Maritech Electronics is handling the electronics installation, and according to Sean Farrell, Maritech's president, Katharine's electronics package is state-of-the-art.

"This is the way things are going," says Farrell. "The yachts will still have radar, GPS, and autopilots with `hard copies' of the gear, but the data will be fed into a central computer. This makes operating the equipment easier, and you don't have to reach all over the place to get to it."

At the heart of Katherine's system is a Hewlett Packard PC server, running a Windows NT network operating system. At the helm, the captain has three non-dedicated flat-screen display panels, and he can call up any information he wants on any screen. To his left, a fourth display sits at the communications desk, while a fifth display is mounted in the back of the captain's chair. Guests in the pilothouse can watch all the action from a bench seat behind the captain, and fixed mice installed in arm rests control the screen displays. So if you know how to use Windows, you'll be able to switch any display to show just the information you want.

When the installation is complete, virtually all of Katharine's navigation and communications electronics will be routed first to the server, and then to the display screens. The captain will not only be able to view things like radar displays, chart presentations, and other electronics on the flat-screens, but he'll be able to control their operation as well. Though the yacht will still have the traditional control heads of all electronic components mounted elsewhere in the pilothouse, the captain's primary control interface will be through the computer displays. Moreover, while he's busy with the navigation of the ship, a mate can be over at the communications desk, sending and receiving faxes, or inputting waypoints into the computer at the same time. The computer system will also let the captain "tile" presentations on screen, so he can look at multiple pieces of data simultaneously. And even better, thanks to Pinpoint Navigation's TITAN Radar software, he can overlay a radar image on top of the Maptech electronic chart display for a full appraisal of the situation around the vessel.

In addition to the usual high-end electronics that will feed nav/com data into the system, a vessel/engine monitoring system from DMP will also be available onscreen. This system monitors virtually every system aboard the yacht, including bilge water levels, tankage, engine/generator temperatures and pressures, and more. The key to this system is a series of converter boxes which are daisy-chained together. They take VARIABLE analog signals such as fluid levels, engine rpm, pressure, and temperature, and convert them into their digital counterparts before sending that information on to the server via fiber-optic cables. Digital signals, on the other hand, are in the form of either on or off (such as a door open/closed, light on/off, bilge pump on/off), and since that information is already digital, it needs no conversion as it's passed through the boxes and onto the server.

In the end, you get a totally customizable, graphic display of every item that's tied into the system. And perhaps best of all, since it's all going through a central server, if the high-water bilge alarm comes on while the captain is looking at the chart and radar display, a warning window will pop onto the screen (and in fact to all the TVs around the vessel), alerting him to the situation. Another window may pop up that shows the view from the video cameras mounted in the engine room, and Farrell says audio voice warnings and even voice recognition are upgrades that are "down the road" but in the planning stages.

What it all comes down to is a central computer that takes inputs from a wide variety of sources, and makes it possible to control everything from a single location at the helm. So what we know of today as a stand-alone radar display may eventually be reduced to a black-box sensor that simply collects and feeds data into a central computer system.

In looking ahead to the future of shipboard electronics, Farrell says, "Instead of being NMEA compliant so they'll interface with other electronics, the new stuff will be USB compliant so they'll work with Windows applications." Farrell sees a GPS receiver, for example, as just a peripheral of a computer like a mouse or a joystick. And when I pressed him for a definition of "down the road," Farrell quoted Moore's Law (CEO of Intel), which states, "The processing speed of computers will double every 18 months." "So if you apply the law," says Farrell, "`down the road' may not be that far off anymore." But at a minimum, the central command-and-control console for megayachts is here today.