RAYMARINE ASSISTED DOCKING SYSTEM
FOR MANY BOATERS THE hairiest part of any day on the water comes at the end, when they have to return to the dock – especially if they need to navigate through tight spaces along the way. Raymarine’s Docksense assisted docking system makes it easy to plunk your prize back into the slip at day’s end by creating a virtual bumper around the boat.
This digital proximity barrier doesn’t just sound an alarm if you get too close, it can actually assume control of the boat and steer you out of trouble, making it impossible to crash into the dock or hit someone else’s yacht.
A series of FLIR stereoscopic cameras mounted around the boat monitor how close your hull comes to foreign objects as you manoeuvre closer to the dock. Muff it up and the system automatically engages the vessel’s joystick piloting system to prevent a collision from occurring.
What’s truly impressive is that the system uses position- sensing technology in the form of GPS and an Attitude Heading Reference System (AHRS) to automatically compensate for the effects of wind and currents in real time, so not even unexpected gusts or wakes from passing vessels can cause you to mess up.
Once the vessel is correctly lined up in the slip and you’re ready to make that final move to bring it home, simply press a button on the control panel to manually override the system, and a gentle nudge of the joystick brings you to the dock. The Raymarine system will even hold the boat there regardless of currents or wind, giving boaties plenty of time to secure those mooring lines – a huge benefit when operating solo.
Raymarine’s Docksense assisted docking system was a major hit of the Miami show, with systems displayed on two very different vessels – a Boston Whaler 330 Outrage centre- console with twin outboards, and a pod-driven Prestige 460 motor yacht.