Raymarine: Does it make sense to use Docksense?

Raymarine: Does it make sense to use Docksense?

I spoke with Raymarine’s representative, Chris Jones about their new virtual dock assist called DockSense. Are you thinking about going up a size on your boat but not sure if you can manage a bigger vessel? Now you can go as big as you like!! 

Raymarine talks about DockSense to Skipper’s Review

SKIPPER’S REVIEW:  Hey Sarah O’ Kelly here with Skipper’s Review TV I’m at the Miami International Boat Show 2019 and I am here with Chris Jones the representative, inventor of DockSense.

RAYMARINE: The product manager, maybe I’ll introduce myself. I’m Chris Jones here from Raymarine product management for DockSense a fantastic new docking system.

SKIPPER’S REVIEW: So you say,  would you mind telling me why you feel that this is so fantastic?  I have to say, It is something you’re probably going to be interested in.  It’s actually not on boats yet is it?

Would you like to have virtual assistance docking your boat?

RAYMARINE: No it’s not on boats yet. The feed back that we’ve had is everybody hates docking especially here at the Miami Boat Show the more people that watch you dock the harder it gets. Our system senses what is around the boat in terms of their collisions and then prevents the boat from crashing into those objects.

SKIPPER’S REVIEW: So when you say your system, what does that involve?What is your system?

RAYMARINE: So our system entails five stereocameras that see in three dimensions so they build up a three-dimensional picture around the boat and then we interact with the joystick of the the boat to effectively control the movements of the boat.  The skipper is in command all the time he drives the boat but the system over-rides the skipper’s command when he gets into a dangerous situation.

SKIPPER’S REVIEW: How is the system able to evaluate this is a dangerous situation, how does it evaluate the amount of wind, current the whatever is going on?

RAYMARINE: So we have a very clever GPS system that monitors the velocity of the boat.

Cars can sense danger and collision, why not boats?

SKIPPER’S REVIEW: Is this a little bit like they were with cars, how  it can sense the cars in front of it and it’ll hit the brakes automatically? Is it in the same realm of that?

RAYMARINE: Similar realm.   It senses if there’s a an object in the way and then effectively hits the brakes.    It uses propulsion to stop the engine which prevents the boat from drifting.

SKIPPER’S REVIEW: There are remote controls,  you can remotely control your boat.  Do you feel now remotes are gonna start to fade out and be replaced, along with captains of course, are they out the door too? 

What are people saying about Docksense?

RAYMARINE: No I don’t think so.  This assists the captain. We get a lot of feedback from boat builders that they want customers to trade up to larger boats. Customers are a little bit reluctant in terms of trading up because they don’t think they can handle that boat.  When a partner comes onto the boat,  not quite as experienced then Docksense compensates for that. We’re trying to make boating safer we are not taking the fun out of boating. It is fantastic technology. It will be available at the end of the year with Raymarine. We’re demonstrating it here at the Miami Boat Show on the Prestige460 This is our test boat at the moment. It’s a prototype so we’re still testing the system out. Hopefully we’ll be able to expand the system to any size boat but there will be maybe some limitations.

SKIPPER’S REVIEW: Do we have any idea of cost for this?

RAYMARINE: I have an idea of cost I’m not willing to give that out at the moment.

SKIPPER’S REVIEW: Hahaha. How many cameras are needed?

RAYMARINE: Five cameras are needed around their boat, that’s to get a full 360-degree view around the boat and protects the boat from all angles.

SKIPPER’S REVIEW: So of course every camera  would have to be connected to everything on the boat?

RAYMARINE: That’s correct the camera is connected to a central processing unit. There is some really clever stuff in terms of both the boat control but also seeing what’s around the boat as well and measuring distances from the boat.

SKIPPER’S REVIEW: Okay thank you very much and good luck!

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