Yachting Magazine

Yachting Magazine Setting the course since 1907. Welcome to the Yachting Magazine Facebook community! It is our mission to enlighten and share in the heritage of yachting.

We look forward to exchanging thoughts and ideas with you. Keep in mind that by posting to Yachting's page, you give permission to Bonnier Corporation, publisher of Yachting, to publish any of your content in Yachting's print and/or digital assets. It is also our goal to keep this page appropriate for all. The Yachting and Bonnier Corporation teams will monitor this page accordin

g to Facebook’s terms and conditions. That said, we have the right to remove any posts containing abusive or offensive language, spam or non-sponsored advertising, and repeated off-topic comments. In the case of repeated issues from a user, we may choose to block that user per Facebook's terms and conditions. Please help us keep this Facebook community functioning as a place where we all feel comfortable connecting with our passion.

- Yachting Magazine


Founded in 1907, Yachting is one of the marine industry's oldest and most respected titles. In each issue, Yachting provides the passionate boater with content that educates and entertains, enhancing the boating experience. Expertly written articles reflect the spirit of the sea while preserving its traditions. Every month, more than 1.2 million readers enjoy award-winning, visually exciting coverage of premium yachts, technology, design, seamanship, destinations, electronics, equipment, exotic charters, current events and the history of the sport. For customer service questions, including subscriptions, please contact: www.yachtingmagazine.com/cs, 1-800-999-0869 (US), or [email protected].

The Italians seem to do everything with flair, from art and food to cars and especially their yachts. The Extra Yachts 1...
01/01/2025

The Italians seem to do everything with flair, from art and food to cars and especially their yachts. The Extra Yachts 106X Fast further defines that love of the aesthetic.

Based in Ancona, Italy, Extra’s specialty is producing yachts with a strong personality and distinctive lines, in models ranging from 78 to 131 feet length overall as well as a 98-foot power catamaran. The builder says the X106 Fast combines power and volume to create a uniquely memorable guest experience.

The performance aspect, that thrilling sensation of speed on the water, is thanks to triple 2,000 hp MAN V-12 diesels paired to water jets. The 106X Fast has a projected 40-knot top hop and a 30-knot cruising speed. To keep things svelte, this superyacht has a composite hull and superstructure reinforced with carbon fiber. The 106X Fast also features a shallow-water-friendly, 4-foot-6-inch draft when fully loaded.

Speaking of superstructure, it’s shifted slightly toward the bow, which increases the available stern space. The three stern levels—beach, lounge and dining area—measure 275 square feet. Bulwarks fold out, extending the yacht’s maximum beam to 30 feet when lowered, and there’s also stowage for a 13-foot tender in the garage.

The owners’ main-deck, en suite stateroom has a double bed, closet, double sinks and sole-to-ceiling windows with a height of more than 9 feet in the bow half of the lounge. A skylight enhances the room’s sense of volume even more.

Guest staterooms are belowdecks with two with twin beds and en suite heads, and both spaces can add a third berth. The VIP stateroom has almost the same volume as the owners’ and has a a double bed, en suite head and vanity with double sink, wardrobe and sofa. There are two crew cabins accommodating four.

The wheelhouse, four steps up from the main deck, is located above the owners’ stateroom, while the fly deck measures almost 165 square feet and is accessed via a staircase on the starboard walkway. The bow is equipped with a table and bar counter with stools, while at the stern there is a lounge area with sofas and sun loungers.

“The American market for high-speed boats represents a significant opportunity for the Extra brand, especially following the successful introduction of the first 86 Fast model and the two acclaimed 99 Fast models,” says Giuseppe Palumbo, CEO of Palumbo Superyachts. “To build on this experience, we have designed the innovative X106 Fast project, which perfectly aligns this market opportunity with the Extra DNA, characterized by spaciousness and onboard livability.

We are targeting experienced owners who wish to enjoy expansive outdoor spaces on the aft deck, enhanced by openable balconies that can be paired with an open kitchen as desired. Conviviality is our guiding principle, ensuring that comfort and performance remain at the forefront of the experience.” —Sam White

Belowdecks arrangements can vary, with the builder offering three-, four- and five-stateroom layouts. The MCY 86 has two...
01/01/2025

Belowdecks arrangements can vary, with the builder offering three-, four- and five-stateroom layouts. The MCY 86 has two power options: twin 1,800 hp MAN V-12s and twin 1,900 hp MAN V-12s. Owners can expect a 29-knot top hop and a 24-knot cruise.

The third-largest model in the builder's lineup, the MCY 86 has two power options: twin 1,800 hp MAN V-12s and twin 1,900 hp MAN V-12s.

Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida, are common stopovers for cruisers heading south along the Eastern Seaboard...
12/31/2024

Savannah, Georgia, and Jacksonville, Florida, are common stopovers for cruisers heading south along the Eastern Seaboard at this time of year. About halfway between them, near Mile Marker 675 on the Intracoastal Waterway, is a gem of a spot: St. Simons Island, Georgia.

Visiting cruisers can check out the island's lighthouse, built in 1872 and restored in 1975, or the 644-acre Cannon's Point Preserve.

We’re sad to report that Paolo Vitelli, 77, founder of Azimut Yachts and President of the Azimut-Benetti Group, has died...
12/31/2024

We’re sad to report that Paolo Vitelli, 77, founder of Azimut Yachts and President of the Azimut-Benetti Group, has died following an accident at his home In Ayas, Italy. This is a developing story.

The wallypower50 is a model intended to serve as a bridge between the builder’s wallytender range (which tops out at a w...
12/31/2024

The wallypower50 is a model intended to serve as a bridge between the builder’s wallytender range (which tops out at a wallytender48) and the wallypower58, which was previously the next-size model in the Wally powerboat lineup.

The idea with the wallypower 50 is that potential owners will be able to use it as everything from a chase boat to a tender, day cruiser or luxury weekender.

Design-wise, the wallypower50 has the more open styling of the wallytender line, but it is built with the sportiness of the wallypower58. Options allow each owner to customize the look even more, say with a wraparound fender that has more of a workhorse vibe. Wally’s Magic Portholes can also be integrated belowdecks, further changing the exterior aesthetic along with the onboard experience.

Out on deck, there are two sun pads aft instead of one (as is the case on the wallytenders). Drop-down bulwarks extend the dance space by more than 50 square feet for water sports and chilling out with a water-level view aft.

Forward of there is the cockpit for alfresco relaxation, followed by the cockpit salon with dining and seating for eight people, meaning there is room to welcome guests for cocktails or dinnertime soirees on the hook.

Far forward, there’s another sun pad on the foredeck with adjustable headrests, giving owners and guests a way to have some privacy. The anchoring system at the foredeck is hidden, keeping the space free of clutter for a more guest-oriented ambience.

At the helm, skippers can see operating systems and data on two multifunction displays, streamlining the look of the dash.

Belowdecks, there’s a double berth in the bow along with a head and shower, a smaller salon and a galley. Wally’s idea is to provide a space that will suit owners for overnights or weekend getaways.

Power is a pair of Volvo Penta IPS650s that Wally says provide a 30-knot cruise speed and a 36-knot top hop. That system comes with joystick control and optional DPS for close-quarters handling. The Volvo Penta Assisted Docking system is also an option for skippers who want computerized assistance adjusting for wind, waves and currents at the marina.

Raymarine has announced a collaboration with Watchit that will see anti-collision technology combined with top-of-the-li...
12/31/2024

Raymarine has announced a collaboration with Watchit that will see anti-collision technology combined with top-of-the-line chartplotters to help boaters improve situational awareness through display systems at the helm.

In a separate agreement, the companies announced that Raymarine LightHouse Charts are now designated as the official map supplier for Watchit, a change that is expected to enhance the Watchit system’s accuracy and reliability.

Watchit uses algorithms and sensors in a way that’s inspired by automotive safety technology. It analyzes a boat’s data to provide warnings before a collision occurs, helping to avoid collisions as well as groundings.

“At Raymarine, we’re committed to making boaters’ time on the water safer and more enjoyable,” Michelle Hildyard, vice president of operations at Raymarine, stated in a press release. “Our collaboration with Watchit aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver seamless and open integration with new products and technology, ultimately simplifying the boating experience for our Axiom users.”

The announcement comes at a time when systems integration continues to be a major trend in the recreational marine industry, and as technology continues to be used in new ways to help make boating easier and safer for the skipper and guests.

This 76-footer is a five-stateroom, near-40-knot fish-chaser that is asking $4.3 million.
12/30/2024

This 76-footer is a five-stateroom, near-40-knot fish-chaser that is asking $4.3 million.

The 2014 Viking 76 Enclosed Bridge Osh-It is a fishing machine with MTU diesels, nearly 40-knot speed and five staterooms that is asking $4.3 million.

Custom Line’s Navetta 38 had a tough act to follow. Its predecessor, the Navetta 37, sold 14 hulls between 2016 and 2022...
12/30/2024

Custom Line’s Navetta 38 had a tough act to follow. Its predecessor, the Navetta 37, sold 14 hulls between 2016 and 2022. The first Navetta 38, Telli, made its official international debut at September’s Cannes and Monaco yacht shows, with a gray hull, white superstructure and black shadowing that announced the yacht’s presence as worthy of notice.

The Navetta 38 is 127 feet, 2 inches length overall, compared to its predecessor’s 121 feet, 6 inches—but with the same 26-foot-3-inch beam. The Navetta 38 weighs in at 299 gross tons, or 10 more than the Navetta 37.

In-house naval architecture is much the same, but the Navetta 38’s profile comes from Filippo Salvetti’s studio. It elevates the styling on the 37 with crisper, cleaner lines. Outside spaces are broadly similar, but the 38 has fold-down platforms aft that nearly double the size of the area, which spans around 750 square feet. Combined with the cockpit and its glazed balustrade—and steps on each side that connect the tiers—the whole stern is an entertainment zone by day or night.

There’s also the upper deck aft off the sky lounge, which Telli’s owner configured for formal dining. It is connected via a starboard side deck to the forward terrace, with seating and loungers. There’s even more space on the sun deck above. It has partial protection from an arched hardtop. Aboard Telli, there’s a wet bar amidships, loungers forward and a hot tub aft, although that top deck space is a blank canvas for owners’ interpretations.

Light plays an important role aboard any yacht, and this Custom Line Navetta 38 is no different. The open-plan main salon and sky lounge include full-height picture windows and have bulwarks rebated to deck level to maximize the views.

Interior schemes come from Studio ACPV, aka Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel, working closely with the Custom Line Atelier team. The Navetta 38’s options provide a calm, soothing and contemporary vibe. Freestanding furniture mostly comes from B&B Italia and Maxalto. Walls are lined with Japanese paper-weave cloth from Phillip Jeffries, while soles, handrails and headboards are a rich blend of leathers. The enticing leather aroma is omnipresent.

The owners’ stateroom is forward on the main deck, which also includes one of the two day heads, along with the galley and a pantry. Entering the owners’ stateroom feels fantastic, with a long run of picture windows and a 16-foot-long lounge that’s as inviting as the views. Inboard are two walk-in closets. The sleeping area has a forward-facing super-king berth on centerline and a pair of en suites forward that share a glass shower.

Guest accommodations on the lower deck include four en suite staterooms, all accessed from a companionway that runs across the yacht instead of being on centerline. All have great windows and marble in the heads. The two VIPs have outboard-facing king berths.

Quarters for seven crew in three cabins are forward on the lower deck. An en suite captain’s cabin is on the bridge deck, where the helm has vertical windows and doors, a leaning post and a sofa. The console is an I-Bridge from Team Italia Marine with Simrad electronics.

In terms of performance, straight-shaft thrust comes from twin 1,400 hp V-12 MANs and ZF boxes, which deliver a semi-displacement top speed of 15 to 16 knots, depending on load and weather. Telli is reportedly quiet underway, and the quoted range at an eco-cruise speed of 10 knots is a whopping 2,800 nautical miles. Custom Line also says a hybrid version will soon be available for owners with greener tastes.

If history is any indicator of upcoming success, the Custom Line Navetta 38’s future looks bright.—Phil Draper

On September 7, 2018, the 170-foot steel-hull Ice Angel was cruising the waters of Prince Christian Sound off Greenland’...
12/30/2024

On September 7, 2018, the 170-foot steel-hull Ice Angel was cruising the waters of Prince Christian Sound off Greenland’s southern coast. Its speed was 14.5 knots when it struck an uncharted underwater rock. The yacht’s four guests and 15 crew were safe, but the yacht sustained significant damage, leaking oil into the pristine waters.

If the available hydrographic information—Greenland Chart 1103—had detailed this feature, the accident likely never would have happened. But believe it or not, Chart 1103 was made in 1927. It is considered to be of “reconnaissance nature,” meaning that its white areas—those without detailed soundings—cannot be trusted for safe passage.

Unfortunately, Chart 1103 isn’t unique. Humanity has piloted unmanned vehicles on Mars, but we’ve only mapped about a quarter of the world’s seafloor. The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, with help from international partners, aims to change this via community-generated bathymetric data. The partners range from government agencies (including official hydrographic offices) to nongovernmental and nonprofit organizations, and universities. They also include private companies such as FarSounder, the Rhode Island-based manufacturer of 3D forward-looking sonar.

Seabed 2030 was founded in 2017 as a collaboration between The Nippon Foundation, a Tokyo-based international nonprofit organization, and GEBCO (that’s General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans), a joint program of the International Hydrographic Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

Back then, just 6 percent of the world’s oceans had been mapped to what Seabed 2030 terms “adequate” resolution. Seven years on, this metric approaches 25 percent.

“The primary mission is to deliver the first global map of the entire seafloor,” says Jamie McMichael-Phillips, Seabed 2030’s project director. He says that in some cases, this new data is replacing soundings that were collected using lead lines and sextants. “Without accurate maps of the global seabed, a full understanding of the ocean’s physical, biogeochemical and geological parameters is impossible to achieve.”

Seabed 2030’s 3D gridded bathymetric maps will help to further scientific understanding of complex natural processes, including ocean circulation and sediment transportation. The maps and data will also enable better weather forecasts, and more accurate climate models and tsunami warnings.

“Tsunami height is strongly determined by the shape of the seafloor in the run-up to landfall,” McMichael-Phillips says.

Seabed 2030’s map also promises to help businesses in areas such as natural-resources management (say, fisheries) and transoceanic communications and pipelines.

“Seabed 2030 receives generous donations of data from a growing global community of seafarers, nation-states, industry, academic researchers, philanthropic explorers and volunteers,” McMichael-Phillips says. He adds that while most bathymetric data is derived from sonar logs, Seabed 2030 accepts data collected via aircraft, unmanned vessels and satellites.

Anyone can contribute data, but Seabed 2030 maintains a group of partners—including FarSounder—that share a higher level of trust. Matthew Zimmerman, FarSounder’s CEO, says the company has been contributing bathymetric data to the International Hydrographic Organization since 2018 and became a Seabed 2030 partner last fall.

“I’m not a scientist. I’m an engineer,” he says. “I really like being able to enable science with the tools that my team and I develop.”

While any echo sounder can measure distance, not all information is created equally, he adds: “The sensor isn’t the problem, but the metadata is. It’s really hard to make charting decisions based on poor metadata.”

FarSounder documents the exact locations to within a few centimeters of a forward-looking sonar transducer, a third-party echo-sounder transducer, and GPS antenna(s) of every vessel where FarSounder equipment is installed.

“The metadata quality of our contributions is far superior to most crowdsourced contributions,” Zimmerman says.

In addition to becoming a Seabed 2030 partner, FarSounder recently won a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. FarSounder is using these funds to create a cloud-sharing service for sharing anonymous bathymetric data (read: depth at a location in time) from participating FarSounder customers with Seabed 2030. If the data meets the project’s technical requirements and needs, Seabed 2030 can stitch it into the GEBCO world map.

Notably, Seabed 2030’s definition of “adequate” bathymetric resolution hinges on water depth. For depths down to 4,921 feet, Seabed 2030 aims for “100-meter resolution,” meaning at least one sounding in an area that measures 328-by-328 feet. For depths from 4,921 feet to 9,843 feet, this will be 200-meter resolution; for the nearly 73 percent of the seafloor that measures between 9,843 and 18,865 feet down, resolution requirements dip to 400-meter resolution. And for the deepest soundings—say, the 2.7 percent of the seafloor between 18,865 and 36,090 feet—the metric drops to 800-meter resolution.

It’s also important to understand that Seabed 2030 is creating a macro-level seafloor map, not cartography.

“One-hundred-meter resolution isn’t that helpful from a navigational point of view,” Zimmerman says. “It’s certainly helpful for understanding our world from a global science point of view, but it’s not navigation-quality information.”

FarSounder’s systems provide real-time sonar imagery forward of a vessel’s bow. They also build and store a high-resolution bathymetry map of everywhere the vessel has sailed. This local history map resides on the vessel’s FarSounder bridge computer, but it can be shared anonymously with the FarSounder community via the company’s optional fleet-sharing program whenever connectivity exists.

This is where things get interesting for participating FarSounder customers who opt in. “We needed to find a way to motivate our users to contribute, as well as being able to pass this on to the [Seabed 2030] community,” Zimmerman says. The solution was to create two classes of data for customers who opt into the company’s fleet-sharing program.

“Our customers get the full-resolution data as part of the service, but we’re contributing a slightly lower-resolution data [to Seabed 2030],” Zimmerman says. “The high-res maps from the FarSounder sonar, the highest resolution, that’s staying just with the FarSounder customers who are part of this fleet-sharing service.”

Given that FarSounder customers often buy this equipment to ply seldom-seen waters, participation confers membership into a kind of sonic explorers club. “We have pretty good coverage in areas that don’t have good chart data,” Zimmerman says. “We really want to encourage our customers to contribute so that they can also reap the benefit.”

FarSounder might someday monetize this data, but this isn’t the current model. “FarSounder is in the business of selling sonars,” Zimmerman says. “We’re in a unique position where we can participate, we can make contributions, and we don’t need to worry about supporting our company financially through the data transactions because we do that through our hardware sales.”

The net result is a win-win-win: Seabed 2030 receives high-quality data from a trusted partner, the general public and scientific community benefit from the free and downloadable GEBCO world map, and participating FarSounder customers get higher-resolution data.

Still, scale and time emerge as question marks.

“Even with everybody doing all of the mapping they possibly could, we’re not going to meet the Seabed 2030 goals of mapping the world’s oceans, certainly not by 2030, likely not even in the next 70 years,” Zimmerman says.

Seabed 2030’s team acknowledges this, but with a caveat: “A combination of a large fleet of conventionally crewed vessels and robot boats in larger numbers would be a game-changer,” McMichael-Phillips says.

In the meantime, Seabed 2030 is already providing the world with higher-resolution, large-scale seafloor bathymetric data than has ever existed. As for Chart 1103, Seabed 2030 will eventually help fill in the white areas. Cruisers everywhere are encouraged to consider joining FarSounder’s participating community.

FarSounder’s Expedition Sourced Ocean Data Collection Program provides external USB drives that collect raw sonar data. This project requires significant back-end processing work for FarSounder. It’s run on an invitation-only basis, based on sailing itineraries. This high-quality data contributes to FarSounder’s fleet-sharing program. —David Schmidt

Cofina, a 132-foot Benetti with a strong charter history, is on the market at $15.75 million.
12/29/2024

Cofina, a 132-foot Benetti with a strong charter history, is on the market at $15.75 million.

The 2016 Benetti 132 Classic Supreme "Cofina" has six staterooms, 3,500 nm range, is ready for charter and asking $15.75 million.

With 35-knot speed and a stout build, the latest flybridge model from Princess Yachts proves to be a formidable cruiser....
12/29/2024

With 35-knot speed and a stout build, the latest flybridge model from Princess Yachts proves to be a formidable cruiser.

The Princess Yachts' Y80's bespoke interior is luxurious, but its outdoor spaces are truly the standout spaces of this flybridge yacht.

In 2019, I visited KVH’s  headquarters in Middletown, Rhode Island, and was amazed by the network operations center. KVH...
12/29/2024

In 2019, I visited KVH’s headquarters in Middletown, Rhode Island, and was amazed by the network operations center. KVH manufactures cellular, Wi-Fi and satellite-communications equipment, and it manages and monitors a proprietary end-to-end network. Standing there, looking at the screens and maps, I could see every KVH-equipped vessel in the world, plus the operational status and performance metrics for each yacht’s KVH antennas.

Now, five years on, KVH is expanding its KVH One Hybrid Network by adding Eutelsat OneWeb’s constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites, giving yacht owners even more choices for how they want their systems to perform.

Satellite-communications systems have long leveraged geosynchronous (GEO) satellites that orbit around 26,200 miles above equatorial brine. These systems work fine, but they require a significant amount of power to bridge data across all those miles. The commute physically takes time, which is why satcom providers recently have been launching small low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites that orbit at elevations of 340 to 745 miles. They reduce power requirements and latency, and provide more satellites so that if a connection is lost, the equipment just finds the next passing LEO.

OneWeb isn’t the only LEO constellation aloft, but it’s the only one, as of this writing, with a hybrid solution involving GEO and LEO satellites. It also employs third-party antennas and guarantees speed, bandwidth and white-glove service.

Eutelsat OneWeb’s journey to low-Earth orbit began in 2012, when the company was formed with the goal of providing fast, low-cost connectivity to otherwise dark areas. In 2016, the London-based company partnered with Airbus to build satellites, and OneWeb’s first tranche of six LEOs attained orbit in February 2019.

The pandemic then stymied the company’s fundraising efforts. It declared bankruptcy in March 2020, but received support from the British government and Indian telecommunications giant Bharti Enterprises. In September 2023, the Paris-based GEO satcom provider Eutelsat merged with OneWeb. Bharti Enterprises, the British government and SoftBank remained significant stakeholders.

Eutelsat OneWeb’s network became operational in 2023, and it has 634 first-generation LEOs in polar orbit. Of these, 588 are active, and the remaining satellites are spares. Each OneWeb LEO operates in one of 12 synchronized orbital planes at an elevation of 745 miles above the equator.

“We’ve got coverage 35 degrees north, including the North and South Americas, and we recently had our coverage launched in Australia,” says Celeste Endrino-Cowley, Eutelsat OneWeb’s director for maritime and energy. “By the end of Q1 2024, we will also have live countries in Asia-Pacific. The remaining regions of the world will also be connected as soon as we complete the rollout of our ground stations and market access.”

Eutelsat OneWeb will offer a range of speeds. The basic option includes downlink and uplink speeds of 20-by-4 megabits per second, while the intermediate option yields speeds of 100-by-20 Mbps. High-end service delivers connectivity of 200-by-40 Mbps. By comparison, KVH’s GEO-based plans have downlink and uplink speeds ranging from 6-by-2 Mbps to 20-by-3 Mbps.

OneWeb also has maximum information rates (read: maximum data throughput) and committed information rates (read: guaranteed speeds). These prevent a tragedy of the data commons if, say, a cruise ship arrives at your anchorage.

As for latency, Endrino-Cowley says that data takes 70 milliseconds to make the one-way commute to or from a OneWeb LEO. By comparison, data typically spends 500 to 700 milliseconds traveling to or from a GEO.

Eutelsat also owns 35 GEOs, which it has integrated with its LEO fleet. Once Eutelsat OneWeb’s ground stations are complete, this integration will mean global, multiorbit, multifrequency coverage, and will allow Eutelsat OneWeb to move data along the most efficient routes. For example, bandwidth-intensive communications can be sent via GEOs, which offer higher throughput levels, while lower-bandwidth communications can travel via LEOs. This setup also opens the door to enabling higher- and lower-speed channels, such as for owners and crew.

Rather than building its own terminals, Eutelsat OneWeb partnered with terminal manufacturers Kymeta and Intellian, which build flat-panel antennas. Eutelsat OneWeb is also looking at antenna solutions through manufacturers that will be able to communicate with both GEO and LEO services. It also partners with companies such as KVH in the United States that resell antennas and airtime, and provide white-glove customer support.

“KVH One is our umbrella name for our multiple-orbit, multiple-channel network,” says Chris Watson, KVH’s vice president of marketing and communications. “The backbone of that has always been our [GEO] network, and then we brought in 5G, and we brought in Wi-Fi, and now we brought in Starlink, and now we’re bringing in OneWeb.”

KVH’s goal, he says, is for different communication channels to create a unified and stress-free user experience. Various costs will be involved. Starlink’s high-performance flat-panel antenna, for instance, fetches roughly half the expected retail price of Intellian’s yet-to-be-released OneWeb-ready flat panel.

“We’re going to be coming to market with OneWeb terminals and airtime pricing that will be competitive in the LEO space,” Watson says. “It’s going to be: What flavor do you like best? The functionality, the capability and the speeds are going to be very comparable.”

Watson also notes that Amazon and Telesat are building LEO networks: “It’s going to become a very robust ecosystem for LEO services in the next couple of years.”

Overall, the future looks bright for low-cost, high-speed LEO communications, especially when each network can serve as a spoke in the greater KVH One communications ecosystem. Based on what I saw during my visit to Rhode Island, KVH’s network can solve connectivity problems before boaters notice them. For yachtsmen seeking smooth data communications, few gloves are whiter than invisible ones.

LEO networks are fast, but each has pros and cons. Modest costs mean that yacht owners can spec OneWeb and Starlink panels. For KVH One customers, a network’s bundled Wi-Fi, cellular and GEO-based satcom become a unified option.

Intellian is building OneWeb-ready parabolic antennas. Some of these antennas will be able to communicate with GEO and LEO satellites, while others will require discrete hardware for hybrid-constellation connectivity.—David Schmidt

Skyhawk Oversea is a wireless vessel-monitoring system that uses 915 MHz radio frequencies and wake-on-radio receiver te...
12/29/2024

Skyhawk Oversea is a wireless vessel-monitoring system that uses 915 MHz radio frequencies and wake-on-radio receiver technology to reduce average current draw by 99.7 percent compared to other solutions, according to the company. It’s built on Skyhawk’s decentralized architecture, which eliminates the need to pair individual sensors and hubs. It also uses Verizon’s Internet of Things cellular platform. Any Oversea hub can detect RF communications from any Oversea sensor (think Apple AirTags). The system then relays those communications via a cellular modem to Skyhawk’s servers.

“The most difficult challenge was how to listen for, and reliably receive, sensor signals while using much less average power,” says Richard Shevelow, Skyhawk’s CEO. “We achieve our magic through very innovative ways of limiting RF on time.”

Given its wireless nature, the Oversea system is easily installed and can receive over-the-air updates, making it user-friendly and scalable. Each sensor and hub is designed to operate for years on a single set of AA batteries. Payload options include battery, bilge, entry, motion, shore power, sound and temperature, humidity and water sensors. Users will need the Oversea app and an airtime subscription (from $15 per month).—David Schmidt

This three-stateroom, two-head 2022 Azimut 55 Fly is currently listed with Alexander Marine USA for $1.875 million.     ...
12/28/2024

This three-stateroom, two-head 2022 Azimut 55 Fly is currently listed with Alexander Marine USA for $1.875 million.

The Azimut 55 Fly called “Aventador” is up for sale. The yacht is located in Newport Beach, California, with an asking price of $1.875 million.

Simrad Yachting's ultrawide multifunction displays are designed for better helm aesthetics and an enhanced user experien...
12/28/2024

Simrad Yachting's ultrawide multifunction displays are designed for better helm aesthetics and an enhanced user experience.

Simrad's ultrawide NSX series multifunction displays are designed for better helm aesthetics and an enhanced user experience.

Address

605 Chestnut Street #800
Chattanooga, TN
37450

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Yachting Magazine posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Yachting Magazine:

Videos

Share

Category