Announced at around the same time was the GPSMAP 178 Sounder chartplotter and sonar designed for inland and offshore applications. Also the GPSMAP 172 fixed mount was launched in time for the start of the 2005 season.

January 2005 also saw the launch of the GPSMAP 192C and GPSMAP 198 Sounder both of which have sunlightreadable 16-colour displays and a starting price of around £572 for the 192C. As for the handheld units, late 2004 saw the launch of the GPS 60 and GPSMAP 60, the latter of which has a 24MB memory as opposed to the 1MB of the GPS 60.

In addition to the dedicated marine products the company has introduced the Street Pilot which, as its name suggests, is a car-based GPS, and the Forerunner 301. This is a continuous heart rate monitor combined with a GPS for personal training. In March the new iQue M5 Pocket PC and GPS will be available.

First we had Bluetooth.

Then the Johnson brothers brought us solar powered wireless instruments. Now the market is being flooded with wireless devices.

Raymarine has gone down the wireless route and during the London Boat Show the recently floated Plc launched a range of these products to the public. The company has developed two wireless remote controllers; the SmartController, a wireless autopilot remote control and repeater for instrument data and the more compact S100 wireless autopilot controller.

10m range The SmartController has a range of up to 10 metres (32 ft) from the base station, which is mounted below deck. The range can be extended by adding extra base stations.

When the SmartController is out of range of the base station, the autopilot automatically sounds a warning signal and drops into standby mode.

Raymarine also recently announced a long-term agreement with Groupe Beneteau for the supply of its marine electronic systems for all Beneteau and Jeanneau boats manufactured in France.

From the dealers, SMG's marketing manager, Kevin Turner, said that "like many others they found the London Boat Show a little flatter this year" but the company's first three months of this financial year show good levels of growth on last year which, in itself, was "exceptional".

The Raymarine E Series had a "good launch" and Turner has seen growth in sales of the ICS Navtex receivers, the NASA AIS radar, which he describes as a "hot product".

Once again the Garmin range is proving very popular, but SMG is still seeing demand for some of Garmin's older models, which must be making it difficult for the company to cease production of these models. They have also seen movement in the Icom range since the recent price adjustments but Turner feels the most significant demand has been for the GME MT400 406 MHz EPIRB which is now selling "on the street" for around £299.

Having now broken the £300 barrier it's made a 406 EPIRB an affordable item for many and it's likely to be just a matter of time before others match the sub-£300 price. The effect is likely to be a significant boost to numbers of products sold in this area.

A company that enjoyed a "stunning London Boat Show" was Chartwork which reported its sales were "more than doubled" by a number of commercial, bespoke contracts awarded at the show.

Gillain Lovegrove told us that "in addition to these significant orders the company also saw growth in the sales of the Interface Chart Plotter range which they began selling last September".

With more advertising planned over the coming months it's expected this trend will continue.

Chartwork has also commissioned a couple of new items of hardware. These include a £129 AIS receiver, tests of which are proving highly impressive, and what Lovegrove calls "an economically priced waterproof screen" for binnacle mounting and for use with a laptop or marinised PC.

Both the screen and AIS were shown as prototypes at London but the first deliveries have now arrived and are being shipped out. As a result of this growth the company may be looking to expand its sales staff in the not too distant future.

Shipped the first Another company which had a "good boat show" was C-Map which, by the time this article is published, should have shipped the first of its new Max range. MAX has a number of new features including town and street information as well as marine charts. Land elevation, aerial photographs of approaches, animated tidal flow arrows, and a rolling road type of chart display.

"This is one of only a few major changes of the C-Map range that has happened over the last few years, " said CMap's Paul Sumpner. "The Max range is brand new and is not retrospectively compatible but designed to be used with the new plotters.

Bristol based Marine Electronic Services has seen a 22.5% increase in sales over the same period last year. This has been brought about partly by a 28% increase in sales from the Schroders London Boat Show which David Williams said was "very successful".

He feels that despite some exhibitors finding visitor numbers were down those that did attend were looking to specialist suppliers and were ready to buy. With Raymarine introducing the E Series the price of the old Pathfinder range has been reduced considerably and this is now proving to be a high volume seller.

As for the coming year, MES will be attending more regional events, marketing the Digital Yacht system extensively and expanding its GPS sales into the automotive market to grow the business.

A relative newcomer to the marine electronics sector (in the UK at least) is Yaesu UK which only became involved over the last two years.

Under the Standard Horizon brand name an increasing number of products are now appearing on the UK and European market. As Chris Lambert, business development manager, pointed out: "Previous models weren't right for the UK market, despite their success in the US."

The range now includes chartplotters, DSC VHF and, soon to be introduced, a new dual frequency fishfinder.

The fixed DSC was well received at ExCeL and the chartplotters were described as "moving well" by Lambert.

Over the coming year there are plans for a number of other new products to be introduced and Yaesu UK will be exhibiting at SIBS and in Hanover.

With an ever-increasing number of electrical and electronic products being brought onto the market the need for qualified and competent technicians to fit and maintain them has never been greater. It may come as something of a surprise to many boaters that until now there have been no formal recognised qualifications for marine electronics technicians, unlike in the US.

Equivalent to CMET However Tony Johns, secretary of the BMEA, pointed out that the UK now has an equivalent to the NMEA's CMET qualification in the British Marine Electronics Technicians (BMET) Scheme .

Launched at ExCeL and represented to the trade at the recent British Marine Electronics Association (BMEA) Annual Conference by the British Marine Federation (BMF) and the BMEA, the scheme is set to provide a standard for marine electronics technicians.

The goal is to give everyone in the marine electronics industry - consumers, dealers, distributors and manufacturers - a standard to ensure quality installation and service of marine electronics equipment.

The certification process will be continually upgraded and improved to reflect the latest advances in marine electronics technology. The scheme will be run by the Association of Marine Electronics and Radio Colleges (AMERC).

AMERC acts as the examining body for a range of operator and maintenance certificates on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), through an international network of colleges spanning the university, further education and private sector, and offers a wide range of electronics and communications related courses.

The BMET Certification Exam will be available on specific dates at a series of regional centres around the country and the exam and practical tasks will test the knowledge and ability outlined in the syllabus for each level.

Certification is available at two levels; Intermediate and Advanced. However, although the Intermediate will be available immediately the Advanced level is currently under development and is not expected to be available until September this year.

To achieve the Intermediate qualification the applicant must have: one year's experience working as a marine technician (post apprenticeship), endorsed by the employer; a Short Range Certificate and a pass in the BMET certification exam. The applicant will also have to complete BMET practical tasks.

For the Advanced level a technician must have: a current Intermediate certificate; a Long Range Certificate and five year's experience, endorsed by the employer. The technician will also have to complete additional project or assignment based modules.

For the Intermediate level the cost per candidate will be £60, however, prices for the Advanced level are to be confirmed.