But when it comes to things like the latest directive out of Brussels to go live and impact on the leisure marine industry – like the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive - things tend to move a touch slower…

Directives tend to go to The Right Department. Which means all those at the coal face push it to someone else, or to the back of their minds until they get reminded of it.

Like when BB calls to ask them what they’re doing about it.

As the WEEE was implemented on January 1 this year, we thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone about it in this issue. So check out Jemma Tipping’s Interior Fitting Out feature that starts on page 22.

You may find out you’re now responsible for rather more than you thought…

And if the WEEE wasn’t enough, there’s also the ROHS. A quick chat with Nik Parker at the Midlands Marine Alliance launch brought forth the thought that ROHS was essentially about keeping levels of solder down and out of landfills.

But back to speed and one of the fastest growing sectors of the market right now seems to be small boat AIS. Nasa Marine was the first into the market, launching its AIS Radar in 2004 at METS, with the public launch at the 2005 ExCeL London Boat Show.

‘We followed that up a few months later with the AIS engine,’ said Alan Mully. ‘It’s compatible with any chartplotter capable of displaying AIS.’

I asked Mully how he got into AIS so far ahead of the competition. ‘We’re always fairly sharp at looking into what’s going on in the commercial market and seeing if we can offer it to the leisure sailor at a reasonable price,’ he told me.

Nasa’s AIS Radar is, says Mully ‘a good bit of kit’. It retails at £259 and has received some very good feedback.

So much confidence
‘Once you cross a shipping lane using an AIS you realise how useful it really is – it gives you so much confidence because you can see things around you. And if you feel a bit tentative about crossing in front of a vessel, you can call him up and tell him you’re there. Most of these guys are quite helpful and will tell you if they can see you on their radar.’

We track the closest 30 vessels and show targets on the screen in relative instead of absolute and that makes it easier for the yachties, Mully added.

‘If they see a tail on a target pointing towards them, they have a problem and need to take action. So with a quick glance at the screen, of there’s nothing pointing at them, they’re OK.’

And Mully says business is doing rather nicely right now. ‘We just had our best ever January…’

Another company about to launch into AIS is Raymarine, with its first dedicated AIS receiver. ‘If you’d like the comfort of being able to “see” around hills, and eliminate blind spots that occur on radar, then read on,’ they say… More in the products section of this feature.

A chat with Nick Heyes, MD of Marine Electronic Services (MES), offers a slightly different viewpoint on the speed of the market. But he’s talking about prices tumbling.

‘The electronics sector is driven by innovation and new product development,’ he says. ‘New products or technologies boost consumer sales exponentially but, increasingly, we're seeing traditional product lines suffering from massive price erosion.’

Heyes went on to point out that DSC VHFs have been tumbling in price, with key premium brands now selling the same product at 50% of the original introductory price.

‘The same applies to hand-held VHF, plotters and fish finders,’ he said, ‘so manufacturers are having to find new products to counteract decreasing revenues.’

PC technology is increasingly being utilised onboard with electronic charting and communications both popular applications, Heyes concluded.

David Neal, international sales manager for Nobeltec, agrees. ‘PC navigation is growing rapidly and our sales have tripled over the last year,’ he told me. ‘Complete systems can now be designed with PC, including radar, depth sounders etc, - just look at the Digital Yacht IB70.’

Jeppesen buys C-Map
Talk of Nobeltec leads me on to the subject of purchases. US electronics giant Jeppesen is Nobeltec’s parent company and it recently purchased C-Map. And Digital Yacht’s IB70 is produced in conjunction with Jeppesen Marine and makes use of Jeppesen’s high-resolution marine mapping data. The new logo is already in place, reading C-Map by Jeppesen.

Digital Yacht’s IB70 is its first integrated electronic bridge product, tailored specifically for the ‘plug n play’ leisure market for boats from 30-70ft.

It offers radar, chart plotter, GPS, AIS and MARPA target tracking in one compact unit. The system is a black box compact processor, display, waterproof keypad control unit and joystick controller. It has 12” and 15” displays with touch screen options, plus a variety of radar antennas from 2-25kw in both radome and open array styles.

Antennas are included for GPS and AIS, and the system will also connect to a secondary GPS receiver and instrument system through a standard NMEA interface.

The move towards integrated bridge systems is one that C A Clase supports. ‘I see us moving more and more into fully integrated systems,’ said MD Andrew Bush, ‘having less and less displays on the boat and one display doing everything, maybe with a touch screen interlinked with an entertainment system.’

But I see quite a lot more being done to the central console, rather than having the individual units on board, he added.

‘The Northstar 8000 series we did at the Southampton Boat Show sold because of its integration – they had four screens, so they were a bit greedy, but everything could be done through one screen and, with a touch screen, you could very simply select it and it was easy to use.’

We arrive back at the AIS influence with Ailsa Turbett, sales manager for Standard Horizon, who says customers are far more aware of technology these days.

‘It is not simply a chart plotter they require, but a chart plotter with AIS, or video-input, for instance. Likewise, there's more interest in DSC polling.

Turbett told BB Standard Horizon had noticed a great improvement in sales during the last year: ‘At the 2007 London Boat Show, sales were up 35% - so business is good; very good!’

She also thought people are also more aware of the necessity of having a hand-held VHF. ‘Less and less people are relying on their cellphones and realise the need for a dedicated hand-held VHF, on the boat and in their grab bags.’