Docking assistance technology for yachts – plus other new gear
What is it? Technology that simplifies close quarters manoeuvres, in a similar manner to the aids that facilitate parking a car.
Who is it for? Anyone who’d like to take the stress out of berthing.
Acouple of decades ago few drivers would have been likely to admit openly their parking skills would be significantly improved by using aids such as reversing cameras and autonomous parking systems. Yet these systems are now commonplace across the motor industry.
Similarly, a host of companies across the marine industry are developing systems to make berthing a yacht easier and less stressful. At first sight it might be tempting to discount these as gimmicks for inexperienced skippers, but if the motor industry is anything to go by they are likely to be widely accepted. A number of these systems are now becoming a commercial reality.
Many have their roots in the integrated joystick control systems that were first applied to sailing yachts almost 10 years ago, having already been rolled out in the motor yacht arena.
The first demonstration, in early 2010, was by German company Comfodrive, which equipped a shaft drive 43ft Beneteau Cyclades with bow and stern thrusters, plus servomotors to operate the standard mechanical gear and throttle cables.
Beneteau’s Dock and Go system, developed with Yanmar and ZF Marine
and unveiled at the end of 2010, offered a more radical solution thanks to its rotating saildrive unit. This rapidly spins round to produce thrust in any direction – rotating the saildrive 180° takes less than half a second. This therefore obviated the need for a stern thruster, yet enabled a yacht to be moved bodily sideways in either direction, rotate on the spot, and manoeuvre in a more conventional fashion forwards and astern.
Other boatbuilders quickly followed suit with their own systems. However, the joystick controls were in fixed locations at the helm station and it’s only very recently that any degree of intelligent autonomy has been built into the systems.
What follows are a selection of the latest products aimed squarely at easing or automating the process of docking a yacht.
Dockmate
This system allows the engine and thrusters to be controlled from a wireless control pad, enabling the skipper to move about when manoeuvring to get the best view. In addition, if berthing solo, the skipper can tie a midships line to the dock, then remotely adjust the gear, throttle and thruster to keep the boat in position until the remaining lines are secured.
To date the system has mostly been installed on motor yachts, but it is fitted to Jimmy Buffet’s Surfari 50 (see Yachting World August 2018), which is configured for easy single-handed
operation. A prerequisite is engines with electronic control, but with Yanmar now producing such engines in sizes down to 40hp for instance, this technology is clearly now within the scope of even relatively modestly sized sailing yachts.
UK distributor Allboat Services also says it’s possible to convert existing conventional mechanical gear and throttle control systems.
Price: £5,394 for a typical entry-level system. www.dockmatedirect.com
Raymarine Docksense
This semi-automated system maintains a virtual buffer zone around the boat, with throttle, gears and thrusters automatically adjusted to ensure nothing encroaches within this field. There are therefore some similarities with automotive adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance systems that take action to avoid a collision without the need for driver input.
Think of it like having a guardian angel who will give the boat a gentle nudge in the right direction if anything starts to go wrong during a manoeuvre. The virtual bumper size can be tuned to suit different circumstances. It could, for instance, be set at 5m when entering harbour, before gradually scaling down to 0.5m on approach to a berth.
The surveillance aspect is through five on board stereo visual cameras developed by Raymarine parent company FLIR. These provide full 360° 3D vision that detects everything around the boat, including buoys, piles, pontoons and other vessels. Additional data inputs are from GPS and the 9-axis motion sensor used by Raymarine’s Evolution series autopilots. The system automatically compensates for wind and tide to the extent that, if you stop with the throttle in neutral, the boat will remain stationary over the ground on a constant heading.
The system integrates with Raymarine’s Axiom MFDS, showing a central image of the boat and buffer zone, plus indication of thrust, direction of motion, rotation speed and any nearby objects. The live streams from each of the stereo cameras are shown around the edge of the screen.
Docksense was launched at the Düsseldorf boat show this year, and is initially available only in partnership with Jeanneau’s Prestige motoryacht brand, powered by twin rotating Volvo Penta
IPS drives. However, the system
architecture was engineered from the outset to be compatible with sailing yacht systems.
“We thought of that and designed it to work with shaft drives and thrusters on sailing yachts,” says product manager Chris Jones. Pricing will initially depend on the number of volume orders from OEMS, but he says it will be affordable and not excessive.
Price: TBA. www.raymarine.com
Volvo Penta automated docking system
This fully autonomous system is in the later stages of development prior to a launch scheduled for next year. It combines a number of elements of the company’s existing technology, including the Dynamic Positioning System, with dockside sensors that provide more accurate positional information than is possible with GPS.
The Dynamic Positioning System, which was also first rolled out 10 years ago, automatically maintains the boat’s heading and location, keeping it within a precise area, even with strong current or winds. It’s an optional part of the company’s Integrated Propulsion System (IPS) with joystick control of twin rotating pod drives that can be used to rotate or move the boat in any direction.
The system was first demonstrated at the Gothenburg stopover of the last Volvo Ocean Race, when a 68ft motoryacht was automatically docked stern-to in the middle of the fleet of Volvo 65s with no input from the captain. The requirement for hardware installed on the dock is a drawback, although Volvo Penta expects sensors to be installed by many marinas.
Price: Not yet commercially released. www.volvopenta.com
Autonomous boats
Just as a self-driving car has to park itself safely, so do autonomous boats. Yanmar, which also has expertise in the automotive and agricultural machinery spheres, has developed a small fully autonomous vessel as a proof of concept. This has the capability to dock automatically, both alongside or stern-to. The positioning data for this is primarily from GPS, but dock sensors can be added for increased accuracy.
Price: Not yet commercially released. www.yanmar.com
Final thoughts
While there are some senses in which the marine industry moves relatively slowly, we know from the uptake of joystick systems that they quickly proved to be popular options. Over the years joystick control systems have been refined, with early teething problems resolved, improved integration between the various components, and increasing volumes across a wider range of engine sizes driving costs downwards. They are also offered as options by a wide range of boatbuilders.
The signs are therefore that the next revolution in boat handling technology is well under way. The time when we can leave our boats to berth themselves successfully while we simply sit back and enjoy a coffee may be a lot closer than we realise.