The U.S. Government has stopped distributing electronic updates to the official raster charts for up to 12 months? That doesn’t sound good. NOAA’s download site doesn’t mention a time frame for the “Interruption” but the U.S.C.G. internal bulletin shown in part above is more dire. (It’s published in full on Kurt Schwehr’s site, where you can also check out the Chart of the Future.) This is bad news for all of us who like using RNCs (Raster Navigation Charts) in the many charting programs that support them, not to mention Furuno, which decided to go with U.S. RNCs (and ENCs) in NavNet 3D and is already taking some heat for it. When NOAA decided to serve up RNCs free back in 2005, one of the big pluses was that they would be kept very current, and there were even little patch updates available. Besides, isn’t it depressing to any American that our government can’t even keep a relatively simple and inexpensive program like this going?
There were 15 entries in the “Aftermarket Electronics, Electrical Equipment, Instrumentation, Navigation Equipment including Software” category of this year’s MAATS Innovation Awards, and not a dud in the bunch! Which is why it’s particularly noteworthy that we seven judges gave the award to Lowrance’s Broadband Sounder and an Honorable Mention to Lowrance’s LVR-880 VHF/FM radio. I’ll be writing more about both these products as I should have samples installed on Gizmo in a week or so. The photo above is from a pre-production 880 that I tried in the lab for a month or so; the NMEA 2000 DSC features weren’t yet ready for prime time, but I was quite impressed with how well it could bring in FM radio while also scanning one, two, or all VHF frequencies, muting the FM whenever squelch was broken. Congratulations, Lowrance!
PS: If you have a weakness for gadgets, for goodness sakes never visit Woot.com, especially on Woot Off! days like today. And don’t even consider downloading the Wootalyzer.
Geez, I was just getting used to the idea that Garmin really would buy Raymarine—lots of industry people seemed to think it would happen—but apparently now it’s off. Or maybe this is one of those Yahoo/Microsoft dances? I have absolutely no idea. But I am going to Portsmouth, England, in two weeks to join a British Marine Federation press tour (with quite the international cast of scribes, I just noticed), and I’m hoping that I can visit Raymarine’s R&D center before the tour. I’d be content just to see the operation, but who knows what I might find out?
This morning the Sunday Telegraph is reporting (link dicey, here’s alternate) that Garmin is the mystery bidder known to have approached Raymarine in late February. I’m fairly surprised, but what do I know! It seems to me that Garmin is competing well against Raymarine, at least on the lower side of the market (while Furuno comes on strong, particularly on the high side and if it can get product out the door). But it’s also obvious that Garmin is making a big play for the dealer/installer and boat builder business that it’s never done well with, but where Raymarine excels. On the other hand, don’t the Garmin and Raymarine product lines overlap a great deal? Or am I seeing the trees, not the forest? And what would this buyout mean for us consumers; might Garmin eventually dominate marine electronics to a detrimental degree? But note that even if this report—based on “sources close to the deal”—is true, it is not a done deal, and the Telegraph adds that “A number of private equity companies are also thought to be eyeing Raymarine.” Ray has its annual meeting this coming Friday, and maybe we’ll all know more after that. Your thoughts?
Well, I’ll be darned. Raymarine’s stock jumped today, the company stated that “it has received a preliminary approach which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company,’ and analysts can’t seem to figure out who the bidder might be. IBI suggests that Simrad, Garmin, and Furuno are all possibilities, but I’m hard put to see how any of those combinations makes much sense. The gossip line is open!
Whereas I got the week started on what’s largely a trade subject, let me add an unsolicited suggestion to everyone who makes plotters, multifunction displays, or any other marine electronics with a dedicated screen and some sort of accessible memory. If possible, please add a screenshot feature! My intent is obviously selfish; dumping .jpg or .bmp files to a CF or SD card is so much easier than photographing displays, and the results so much better for web and magazine readers.
It’s ironic that I wrote about a neat Maptech price/packaging move Friday afternoon, as I now know that simultaneously the employees were learning that the company would be sold, either whole or in parts, and that it would immediately go into a sort of maintenance mode, which included a few layoffs. Naturally the relatively tiny marine electronics industry has been a-buzz about this ever since, and naturally a lot of conjecture, if not pure BS, has already accrued. Here’s what I know:
Man, the AIS traffic was heavy out there in the Gulf of Maine! Actually I was using the very neat AIS Simulation software created by Mats KÃ¥gstrøm of Firma Mats Kagstrom. Specifically I was testing how many AIS targets a Raymarine E-Series can handle simultaneously, as I got a report from a user who says his resets randomly when more than 100 ships are within range. Well, I did see the test E slow down, even stutter a bit, but I was able to feed it the maximum number of targets the simulator can produce without causing a reset. That’s some 510 Class A targets (!), plus a Class B (which the E “saw”), and even SAR aircraft and ATON AIS target messages (which the E doesn’t seem to understand). You can see Kagstrom’s software in action below, and bigger here.
AIS Simulator is very thorough and is going to be terriffic for testing navigation hardware and software. But I’ll write more about later, because I don’t want to head back to my judging duties until I pass on the good news about Class B AIS. To quote one of the many cautiously optimistic emails I got on this subject yesterday (thanks, all!): “We heard from the FCC that it looks like the AIS Second Report and Order will be on the Commission's Agenda for the Feb. 26 meeting. There is a *chance* that the item will be voted on before that time.” Maybe our letters and emails helped, but I also know that the GMDSS Task Force, the USCG, and the RTCM have all been making their feelings known to the FCC. The latter even spoke with an FCC legal aid, very effectively too, as judged from this PDF documenting the meeting (also a good summary of the situation). Cross your fingers!
When I wrote about last year’s most innovative marine electronics a while back, I said I’d deal with the NMEA Awards separately. Well, here goes. But do understand that these awards are determined by mail-in votes from NMEA dealer and trade members and, while I don’t know for sure what the criteria are, I’d say that they’re more about performance and reliability than innovation. I’d guess there’s also a natural bias toward the sort of bigger gear that dealer/installers tend to work with, and probably also toward the brands that have particularly well developed dealer networks. “Best of Show” is a little different, however, as it’s voted on by everyone who attends the NMEA conference (mutts like me excepted).
Those of you not in the marine electronics trade—or the motley press corp that covers it—please avert your eyes. Seeing as the idea worked out pretty well for the Fort Lauderdale Show, I’ve put together a tentative schedule of Miami Boat Show press events. As before, I’m willing to add appropriate events—or modify existing ones—right up until the big show begins. And, whoa, it’s going to be a busy week for me. Besides the normal electronics mania, this year I’ll be one of the judges for NMMA’s Innovation Awards, and am also going to join a panel on new media at the Boating Writers International breakfast. See you there?
General tech innovation awards are interesting, but what about our little world? In fact, I was quite slack about reporting the various boating innovation awards all last year, and so I’ve compiled a list of all the electronics-related awards in the four competitions I know of:
That’s Charlie Hsu, sales & marketing guy for Alltek Marine Electronics Corp. (AMEC), along with the company’s chief engineer. They were at METS looking for companies interested in distributing their Class B AIS, mentioned here last April. When showing me the unit, Hsu pointed out some yellow colored targets and explained that they were “buddy” boats. “Oh, you mean like the Simrad AI50’s buddy feature?” said I. “Exactly like that!,” replied Hsu, laughing. Then he showed me a new MOB product Alltek is working on, seen below (with the AIS display used to plot MOBs). Of course I said “Oh, you mean like Raymarine’s LifeTag system?” “Exactly like!” answered a proud Mr. Hsu.
It’s interesting that Johnson Outdoors, makers of Humminbird electronics, announced the acquisition of GeoNav a few days ago. I’ve long thought that GeoNav gear was noteworthy, as noted recently, but never wrote much about it because it was never marketed in the U.S. The reason? GeoNav was owned by Navionics, which had made the decision some time back not to compete with their many OEM customers—Raymarine, Lowrance, Northstar, etc.—in the States. Now it looks like that restriction is finished and, though I have no idea of Johnson Outdoor’s plan, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some rejiggered GeoNav products come to America. One particularly interesting unit to look for is this GeoNav 3, an amazingly powerful but tiny handheld.
It’s a Panbo first, but this entry is meant only for the various agency and manufacturer personnel who work with the media that covers marine electronics. A hassle they have before the big boat shows is trying to schedule press events that don’t conflict. Often they’ll call each other and/or a geek like me who tries to make every event. That’s why I came up with the idea of an open and easily updated Panbo tentative schedule of FLIBS press events. The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is just a month off, and some major events are already on the calendar. There’s even a bit of conflict, which is going to happen sometimes regardless. I certainly don’t want to play referee, but am hoping that Panbo can be a neutral and useful source of information. If the idea works OK, I’ll do it again for Miami, starting earlier.
Garmin is making waves beyond its smart seeming autopilot acquisition today. For one thing, a bit of evidence in the incident involving the 15 British Royal Navy detained by Iran is the clever helicopter photo above, in which a wee little Garmin eTrex is being used to prove the ship was in international waters. Garmin was also selected as a new member of Wired magazine’s 40 most innovative companies, at 22 just above Amazon’s current rating, yet. But maybe the most interesting tell is a call I got today from a hedge fund researcher working on the investment premise that Garmin is such a juggernaut that publicly traded competitors like TomTom and Raymarine may be good shorts. I don’t know much, but I don’t think I’d bet on that.
Moments ago Garmin announced that it has acquired Nautamatic Marine Systems, the inventors and manufacturers of what’s arguably the most innovative autopilot system out there. When I first profiled the TR-1 Gladiator in a 2004 PMY column I noted that breaking into this niche has to be really hard as experimentation and testing are difficult and reputations are built over decades. Hell, I think even the Furuno NavPilot has gone slowly, despite the great name and what I understand is very good performance. At any rate, Nautamatic stuck with it, eventually began to prove its technology, and—yeehaa!—just made the big leagues. Naturally a Gladiator autopilot is going to be a lot more attractive as part of Garmin’s already ambitious Marine Network, both to individuals and boatbuilders, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Garmin engineers help Nautamatic shine up its user interface a bit (though the “Shadow Drive” feature needs none). Of course, the bigger picture here is that Garmin—obviously intent on going toe to toe with Raymarine, Navico, Furuno, etc. over serious recreational boat electronics—just stepped a dite closer, ramping up a competition that I think is good for all of us. It’s also ironic that today I’m finishing up my PMY feature on ideal electronics systems! At least I recommended designing such a system so that it is easily modified or even replaced.
I know I’m beyond the W.Weirdness window, but maybe you need a Monday distraction? Check out brand new MarineBiz online TV. There are lots of curious clips available but search on “Operation Training” and skip right to Part 4 for some work that would make Monty Pyth*n proud. Seriously, though, MarineBizTV is based in Dubai, and Dubai has become a marine industry buzz word. Why? Well, this country is building so much waterfront residential properties, like The Palm Jumeirah, that I’m told it will eventually exceed Florida’s by 50%, and new yachts, selling well already, are expected to number 100,000 in the next 10 years. Marine electronics opportunities…you betcha.
PS. Given that “The Vision of MarineBiz TV is to become the single point of contact and reference for all marine activities and information worldwide,” should I be worried?
PPS. Truly weird: I had a hell of time posting this silly entry, because it turns out that the correct spelling of Monty Pyth*n causes a .cgi error in this blogging software setup, a little joke by some programmer somewhere I guess!
It wasn’t surprising that Jeppesen Marine’s Miami press conference was meatier than Navico’s. Jep’s acquisition of C-Map had been through a many-month due diligence process and had already closed before the boat show. I came away thinking that existing C-Map customers, retail and OEM, have nothing to worry about, and that the products that evolve out of this combination are going to be interesting. For one thing, we were introduced to the new manager of the Recreational division, James Detar—to the left above, with Jeppesen Marine VP Tim Sukle and Nobeltec manager Shepard Tucker. Detar seems evolved for the task; he grew up in a Cape Cod boatyard, then went on to earn an advanced degree in cartography and work at C-Map for some 15 years, first in chart production, then business development. He even speaks fluent Italian. When asked if Jeppesen would change any of C-Map’s many existing OEM relationships, Detar said, very convincingly: “Absolutely not!” Sukle and Tucker described the overall vision of Jeppesen Marine, which is next generation charts/data/software (not hardware), both for OEM’s and their own products. Thus Nobeltec will help advance C-Map’s plotter OS much like it’s worked backstage on Simrad’s Glass Bridge and certain Northstar products. (I later spoke with a big C-Map OEM, and he’s excited). Tucker also described how Jeppesen is applying its massive resources to a set of Web services that will include facilities for users to share data, including POI info, with each other and the world. That made me smile.
Jeppesen, by the way, has a heck of a history. It didn’t seem to be in the movie (worth watching), but we were told that founder, and early mail pilot, Elrey Jeppesen famously said, “I didn’t do this to make money; I did it to stay alive!”
Just a month after the announcement in Miami, Navico closed its deal to buy Northstar, Navman, and MX Marine. I attended the post-announcement press conference in Miami, and even had a few words with Navico CEO Jens-Thomas Pietralla (above), but I really don’t know how this marine electronics conglomeration will play out. I did hear Pietralla say that he is not terribly concerned about overlapping brands, though the brands may become more “focused”. I’m guessing that may mean Simrad as the high-end yacht (and commercial) brand, costarring B&G particularly in sail, then followed by Northstar, Navman, and Lowrance as you move toward smaller yachts or further inland. But there’s also a promised sharing of technologies, not to mention differences in national tastes and distributing operations, and the unexplained “supply agreement” with Brunswick, to factor in. I note on the press release that Navico claims 2,800 employees globally, with revenues of close to 350 million dollars, and, besides its headquarters in Lysaker, Norway, it has development and manufacturing facilities in Egersund; Støvring, Denmark; Romsey, UK; Acton, Massachusetts; Tulsa, Okalahoma; Torrance, California; Ensenada, Mexico; and Auckland, New Zealand. Wow. What do you suppose this around-the-clock operation will mean to electronics?
NDI, or Nautical Data International, just announced that it’s selling its exclusive right to produce and license digital versions of Canadian charts back to the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS), effective on March 30. It sounds like that’s the end of a long and unpleasant affair I’ve discussed before, but who knows for sure? If you read the Q&A’s, you’ll find that NDI plans to stay in business, and to continue its suits against C-Map and Navionics. I haven’t followed this dispute closely, but have noticed that both those companies are now offering very reasonably priced Canadian charts, especially when compared to NDI’s PC charts. In fact, I know boats that have gone from PC to plotter mainly because of that price difference. Here’s hoping that CHS will make Canadian rasters and ENCs more affordable and easier to use.
I was out on a FLIR demo cruise this evening, well worth reporting on, but at one point a lot of cell phones got busy, belonging mostly to people who had once worked for Northstar, Navman, or the “Brunswick New Technologies Marine Electronics” mouthful they became. Brunswick has been trying to sell this unit for at least a year, and tonight a buyer was announced: Navico, the conglomerate that already owns Simrad, B&G, and Lowrance. I’m pretty sure that makes Navico the biggest swinging you-know-what in marine electronics, but, my, that’s a lot of brands, a lot of development platforms, to make sense of.
I just had the disheartening experience of having the Web version of something I once wrote censured because one the electronics companies involved—or someone who thought they had that company’s best interest in mind—didn’t like it. I’m not going to go into the details, but the big magazines I write for were not involved, and what I wrote was A) hardly negative, unless you’re truly thin skinned, and B) truly reported, i.e. information and opinion that really came from the sources, dealer/installers, I referred to. At any rate, I suggested that the editor give copies of the Cluetrain Manifesto to every executive, PR person, or publisher who pressures him like this, because therein they might learn that ultimately they are hurting their own businesses. I first came across Cluetrain in late 1999 when one of the authors, David Weinberger, spoke at a conference here. It turns out that the original site, including the whole book based on it, is still online. Some of the wording may be a bit obnoxious, especially if you’re corporate, but the ideas are not outdated. In fact, I think the Cluetrain concept becomes more self evident, and more powerful, every day:
Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked. Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.
The screens above, bigger here , show Maretron’s prototype for N2KView, an engine (and more) monitoring program. Of course it handles most any raw NMEA 2000 data in a boat’s backbone, including J1939 engines via Maretron’s gateway. But an extra neat feature is that N2KView is actually a server, able to deliver the goods to all sorts of Flash clients, including that WiFi enabled phone. Perhaps even happier N2K–wise is the news that Carling Technologies—the substantial old line manufacturer of switches, breakers, etc (and owner of Moritz Aerospace, i.e. Octoplex)—has just invested in Maretron. And soon I’ll be able to tell you about another big brand that is adopting NMEA 2000. Could we be reaching a tipping point? Heck, even some of the habitues of Google Groups are having an intelligent conversation about its costs (for a change). But I also just finished up an N2K feature for Sail, and this morning took this plug picture below. Left to right they are NMEA 2000 standard Micro size, SeaTalk2, LowranceNet, and SimNet. They all do the same thing with those 5 pins, and all could have the same name! (I also heard that Lowrance may not change plugs to the standard as promised {a rumor later shot down, thankfully}). Patch cables work but this confusing nonsense has really set a good multi-manufacturer data standard back. If you too want to see the tipping sooner than later, complain!
I’m still on the road, friends, now in Ft. Lauderdale, and this afternoon I got an eye-opening tour of ACR’s production and R&D facility. I saw a lot of impressive stuff in terms of engineering, testing, production techniques, and new products (that I can’t write about just yet), and was particularly intrigued with that somewhat odd looking box above. It is a Spirent GNSS simulator, able to mimic the entire constellation of GPS satellites. The Windows control application below lets the tester see exactly what the GPS receiver in the “oven” should be receiving, then stress it by degrading the simulated system, even introducing extreme meteorological conditions. Given that ACR is challenged to build GPS units that start cold in very unfriendly environments, this has got to be great tool toward improved performance.
“Such is the upsurge in demand for systems integration that any embedded system needs to communicate with both PCs and other equipment via open protocols such as the standard NMEA 0183 and/or the updated but slow-to-arrive NMEA 2000. So far, Simrad has stuck with the tried and tested NMEA 0183 protocol, although Raymarine offers both.”
That is SO wrong! I first saw Simrad’s very sophisticated NMEA 2000 support here at the NMEA conference two years ago. And that’s just one mistake in an IBI News feature on marine electronics (Aug-Sept issue) full of mistakes. I’ve ranted about this sort of thing before, but I don’t think I should stop. Can the media do worse than misinforming the trade (in this case) and public about issues they are already confused about? Now Simrad and all the other companies that have chosen to brand NMEA 2000 with their own name (SimNet) deserve some blame, but the media should be working hard to get the facts right. How about getting someone to do a technical edit, or even let the subject companies check the piece? IBI is often very interesting, by the way, as in yesterday’s rather gossipy bit about the state of Navman/BNT. Hopefully I’ll learn more about that story today, as well as see lots of new gear at the NMEA trade exhibit. Stay tuned.
Well, I’d figured that posting might suffer, but I had no idea how long a two day plane trip and a miserable hotel WiFi voucher card system could knock me off line (why is it so easy to serve Internet via WiFi, so hard to charge for it?). If you’re reading this, then I’ve figured a way to update Panbo via the hotel’s “business center”, and we’re back in business. Which starts with my first boat ride in the southern hemisphere. While the electronics—Raymarine ST60 wind, depth, speed and a JRC 1500 radar—weren’t exotic in the least, the boat was. Fuji Cat is a Scape Yachts 39’ multihull purpose built for day sail chartering. Hence the “bug eye” hard dodger—odd looking, but very effective off Cape Town where the ocean is wide open and cold, and the weather changes fast—plus the on-center helm with all sheets led to it under the platform, and thus out of finger pinch range. The hulls are fairly narrow, construction fairly light, and Fuji acclerated quite nicely even with about dozen bodies on board. There’s a “sport cruiser” model that’s clocked runs in the high 20’s, and can fly a hull if you’re up to it. Meanwhile I’ve been to the Cape Town Boat Show, and am getting a feel for how vigorous the boat building business is here. In more general sense, things are sometimes oddly familiar, other times a bit different. I just heard “Sweet Home Alabama” playing on an FM station, but that plate on Fuji’s snack bar features “South African sushi”—the local joke name for beef (I think) jerky.
“Navionics welcomes Boeing’s escalated commitment to the marine electronic charting market. No doubt, this will help both the technological and the regulatory part of the business mature and provide a better service to the mariner, ultimately increasing safety of navigation as well as expanding the market.”
Mind you that for over 20 years Navionics and C-Map have each been run by their respective Italian founders, Giuseppe Carnevali and Fosco Bianchetti, two gentlemen who were once partners and seemed to compete both enthusiastically and graciously. This is a big change in the little industry the two dominated. It could mean new opportunities for Navionics, or it could be challenging, but I think we can safely translate the statement above into a simpler term — “Game on!”
Intermittent WiFi in Cuttyhunk, fog in Fisher’s Island Sound, a greasy scallop and bacon pizza, one engine overheating…it was a hell of a cruise, really! I’ll share more later, but I’m tickled to arrive home and find that two Panbotes e-mailed me about the late Friday news that Boeing has bought C-Map. Wow.
I didn’t see this coming, and am not sure how it will work. The strategy stated in the press release is that C-Map will help Boeing’s Jeppesen subsidiary, already huge in aviation mapping, grow its marine division. I find it a little odd that the release never mentions Nobeltec, which seems to be the only real meat currently at Jeppesen Marine, even if it’s only listed under “Recreational Solutions”. It’s obvious that C-Map’s commercial vector charts will fit nicely into Jeppesen’s commercial goals but what happens to Nobeltec’s Passport charts? And what about the various recreational electronics products, like Standard Horizon plotters, that are actually built by C-Map? And does this affect BNT ME, i.e. Navman/Northstar, for sale and fairly committed to C-Map cartography? Your comments welcome (and a big thanks to Aaron and Milt for the head’s up).
PS, 8/21: I’ve called the various companies involved and no one can really say much during the “quiet period”, i.e. the 90–120 days it may take to have the deal OK’d by various regulatory bodies. But I did learn a little: * C-Map’s hardware manufacturing, as well as aviation/land navigation products, are actually separate companies, and are not part of this deal. * Jeppesen says it has every intention of continuing and improving C-Map’s existing OEM operations, i.e. no worries if you have a plotter using C-Map cartography. * The folks at C-Map and Nobeltec (and, of course, Jeppesen) all sound excited about future product strategies (that they can’t really talk about yet).
This is the first wheelhouse photo I’ve seen of Jim Clark’s Athena, and it sure looks like the thoroughly PC followup on Hyperion we expected.I wish I had more detail on the electronics, but neither Seascape nor Royal Huisman is giving much away. In some respects, the most interesting aspect of the photo above is that I saw it at beautiful resolution (shown here) in the latest (June/July) online edition of Professional Boatbuilder. PB, or ProBoat, or whatever, is one of the best marine publications out there, I think, but it used to be damn hard to qualify for a subscription. Now the whole magazine is available online to everyone, and in a format that I find very readable on my various PCs. ProBoat has actually been doing this for a year, which means that Nigel Calder’s interesting three part article on “Networking: The three-cable boat” is completely available, starting with the Oct/Nov 05 edition (and also means, by the way, that I was wrong when I first mentioned the series here).
Yesterday we learned for sure that Maptech has acquired a bunch more marine navigation products, which must somehow be integrated with all the products it already sells. Heck, the long list at right doesn’t even include its latest offering. Here’s a peek at how it’s going to work as explained to me by Maptech PR manager Martin Fox and others:
* The Capn charting software—apparently the main impetus for this deal—will become Maptech’s commercial level product, with customization and fleet pricing available. Recreational users may be offered an easy switch to Chart Navigator Pro, and certainly won’t be left adrift. Dennis Mills, always the chief developer of The Capn, stays on as Product Manager (and is tickled about it).
* The SoftChart brand, on the other hand, will not survive, but some of its technology will. The plan is not finalized but Maptech may adopt some SoftChart features like its highly saturated raster chart color pallet (very effective on dim monitors) as well as a much less obvious “vertices” technique that improves chart quilting. Supposedly there’s also some interesting vector chart assets changing hands. Like Mills, Dick Davis—director of SoftChart cartography since 1995, and head of NOAA’s raster development team before that—is pleased about where his work has ended up, though he will not be working for Maptech.
* Maptech is “not sure” yet what it’s going to do with MarinePlanner.com, but I recall that the site has some interesting weather forecasting, trip planning, and other goodies (though they’re almost all locked behind a “membership” scheme right now).
* Finally, Captain Jack’s online and print catalogs will come back to life, but as an operation “totally separate” from Maptech. Fox must have used that “separate” word a dozen times, which got me laughing and is an indication that Maptech is a little nervous about annoying its own dealers. At any rate, the new Captain Jack’s “won’t look anything like a Maptech catalog” and its emphasis will be on “solutions”, i.e. bundles of products like, say, a GPS loaded with waypoints from an included ChartKit Book. I dare say it will also still include a nice collection of PC charting accessories, and that’s good.
Maptech buys the Capn, Captain Jack's, SoftChart, & MarinePlanner.com
May 9, 2006
Another switcheroo in the business, and this one is complicated! Last fall, a huge outfit called SAIC bought IMAPS, which was a relatively short-lived conglomerate of small companies many of which had once been under the Pinpoint umbrella (and still are according to this antique site). Word had it that SAIC mostly wanted IMAPS’ military/aeronautics business and didn’t really give a hoot about the various recreational/commercial marine assets, which seemed born out by the apparent shutting down of Captain Jack’s and the enduring “temporarily offline” message above.
But now Nautical Technologies (makers of The Capn charting software) is at least partially confirming a rumor that’s been around for months now—that Maptech was acquiring some of the familiar brands that had been through the Pinpoint/IMAPS/SAIC mill. There’s some real irony here as certain of these assets were once Maptech’s most ardent competitors (there was even litigation). In fact, I was always a fan of Captain Jack’s print and online catalog of computer navigation products, which was quite complete except that it was missing all the Maptech products. Now does Captain Jack’s come back full of Maptech products? How will The Capn, SoftChart, and MarinePlanner.com fit with Maptech’s similar offerings? I’m hearing interesting things about all this, but am waiting for official word from Maptech.
PS I have spoken to Maptech; all the brands involved are confirmed; and come back tomorrow for more details.
To tell the truth I didn’t even know that there was an Inmarsat D+ satellite data service until I found the Satmatics booth in the far reaches of the Lauderdale Show. Satamatics, in fact, virtually owns this service, operating its own base stations and global tracking network, and making terminals like the 101 above, which it sells into many markets. Now, we’re not talking broadband here, but D+ is capable of moving small amounts of data quickly and reliably. With its low power needs and built-in GPS that means it can track a smallish boat (or vehicle) anywhere (as seen below, and bigger here). It’s also been approved for use as a SSAS (Ship Security Alert System), which would be nice to have non mandated vessels.
But all that’s just scratching the surface. Supposedly the 101 can also do SMS and text e-mail, and includes numerous inputs for monitoring, as well as relays for actually taking action on the boat by (very) remote control. While I think it would be fairly easy for a boater to use a Satamatics terminal just for tracking, like this Australian sailor did, and/or SSAS, the company has not made the other possibilities easy to use. I suspect Satamatics is just too big to develop the neat multifunction boating product that’s possible with this service and transceiver, both of which I understand to be reasonably priced at wholesale. So noodle with me; how could this product be made really useful for boaters by itself or integrated into other marine electronics?
Yesterday 
