Re-Boat Control

It's a fairly common problem these days, and it's spreading from the family room to the main saloon of your motoryacht. It's the proliferation of remote controls, and in today's electronic world these things are multiplying like rabbits in a hutch. You need one for cable TV, another for the VCR, another for the stereo, and yet another for satellite TV. It's gotten to the point where people are putting fancy storage boxes on tables where the coasters used to be, just to keep track of the little buggers. And not only that, but you have to remember how to use each one or you'll spend more time looking for a movie that it takes to watch one.[text1]While companies like Radio Shack sell combination "5-in-1" remote controllers as a simple solution to the problem, a new venture called "Dare To Dream Yachts" is taking the centralized control concept to a vastly higher level. Essentially, the company has developed an integrated control system that can run everything from your entertainment center to your electric blinds, and this system is appropriately named "Smartboat."

Jeff Jani is CEO of Dare To Dream Yachts, and he says the company has a lot of experience in designing centralized control systems. His first venture was on land with "Smarthome" systems, and now he's simply taking that concept and making it available to the larger production- and custom-built yachts. "Our approach with Smarthome," says Jani, "has been to centralize all of the electronic functions of a house to a single control center that can be monitored and controlled by a PC-based automation program."

At the heart of the Smartboat system is an automation program produced by the Phast division of AMX, a company that's made high-end media controllers for years. Jani says the features of the Phast system make it comparable with "high-end proprietary systems" that would normally only be found in multi-million dollar homes, but at a fraction of the cost.

With Phast as a starting point, Jani says the company begins by interfacing virtually every entertainment, communications, and climate control system with the computer, and the end result is a yacht with systems that can be controlled by any of the identical infrared remote controllers located around the boat. In short, once you know how to use one remote control, you've got your cabin's--or even the whole boat's--controls in the palm of your hand.

To demonstrate the Smartboat system, Jani recently installed one aboard his own 23-meter Leopard "Dare To Dream", a 76-foot European express cruiser he plans to TRUCK across the country this summer. Here's a look at the innerworkings of this Smartboat.

Communications.

Since telecommunications are at the heart of every onboard office and long-range cruising yacht, "Dare To Dream" has a multi-line digital phone system that integrates landline, cellphone, and sat phone service into every telephone around the yacht. The fax/printer is also tied into the phone system. In addition, there are six computer data terminals set up in various locations so any laptop can access the printer or the internet through the phone system. It's even been set up so two laptops can plug in at the same location so your guests can play a network-compatible game.

Audio/Video.

There are six audio zones around the boat--one in each of three staterooms, and in the main saloon, the helm, and (get this) the bow sunpad area--and each can be controlled separately or together. In other words, each zone can listen to different music, coming either from the DSS-TV CD system, the in-cabin CD/AM/FM system, or the centralized CD juke box which holds 200 CDs. You make your selections from menus on any TV screen which are all connected via an internal cable system.

For your viewing pleasure, the single remote also tells any TV to get input from either the satellite TV or the local VCR. So while one guest is watching a video version of "Home Alone," another can be watching "Headline News." Or, with the push of a button, all TVs can show the same thing at the same time, so the Superbowl can be on no matter where you go around the yacht.

Lighting/Ship's Systems.

Smartboat can also control individual cabin lighting and heating/air conditioning systems, and it can adjust interior temperatures based on the outside temperature or time of day. You can even set it up so with the push of a button, the remote control will broadcast a macro-script for watching movies in the main saloon. In this case, it will dim the lights, turn on the TV, and even close the blinds all at once. Other interesting modes include the "sleep" mode for shutting down at the end of the night, and the ever-popular "party" mode. In fact, Smartboat can be intefaced with virtually any other system that can be relay controlled, and on "Dare To Dream" these include the electrically powered sunroof and the gangway.

User Control.

While the primary method of controlling a Smartboat is via handheld remote controllers, it's not the only way. The helm station has a fixed, color-coded touchpad that lets you control all the systems around the boat, and there's also a portable version that does the same thing. Jani says, "These touchpads are menu-driven and allow you to first select the room you want to control, and then the corresponding functions for that location." This explains how you might control the audio while suntanning on the bow, but I shudder to think about what will happen when the kids figure out what this little box can do.

In addition to all of this, the SmartBoat can "plug-in" to a SmartHome via connections at the end of your dock, and this will link the boat's computer network with the one in the house. In this case, you could tie into the home's high-speed ISDN internet connection, for example, and you'd get automatic landline connections for phone calls as well.

Even though you operate a Smartboat by remote control, installation of the system comes down to the hard wires that tie everything together. As you might imagine, it's much easier to install the Smartboat system while the boat is under construction, but Jani says it can be installed as a retrofit as well, though it's much more costly and labor intensive to do it that way. That's why Jani is targeting custom- and production-yacht builders as his primary clients.

To make life easy, the Smartboat system is available in three packages depending on how much of the boat you'd like to tie into the system--audio/video only, A/V plus climate and phone control, or all of that plus lighting, security, and miscellaneous systems. Either way, it looks like Smartboat really adds up to a Planned Parenthood program for virtually all of your onboard remote controls.