Originally used on planes, later adopted by cars, Head-Up Display is now arriving on boats. It’s an innovative solution able to reproduce the basic information coming from tools on the windscreen. The advantage is that the helmsman has everything available at a glance.
Who is investing a lot in this direction is Team Italia, international leader specialised in sailing integrated systems. The group has recently presented the i-Bridge® Four Islands system, designed to integrate three essential needs for sailing and on-board safety: modern systems, modern ergonomics and modern technologies. The result is a solution perfectly combined with the most advanced on-board systems and based on an advanced systems modularity.
A team of experts of the Team Italia’s Research and Development department, led by Daniele Ceccanti, co-founder of the company and manager of the department, has worked on the project for 16 months along the lines of e-navigation concept.
“We are constantly looking for technological innovations to develop and integrate in our i-Bridge® solution” says Daniele Ceccanti, “ I had a long experience in the world of trade navigation, where the e-navigation concept which is being discussed this year is certainly a very important factor. However, what’s essential is how to introduce it in the world of recreational sailing, where rules are completely different. That was the flash that led us to go beyond, by defining new parametres and configurations which could meet our captains and customers’ needs.”
Modules have been designed according to the ship and the final wheelhouse. Basic modules include: a Central Brige Consolle, two Internal Operating Wings, a Planning Station, two External Wings, a Remote Control Stations and an Integrated Harm Chair.
The heart of the system is the Central Brige Consolle. It collects all the functions related to the ship’s steering and navigation. Some multi-control systems have been installed, together with an innovative 50” multi-view transparent system display which allows to configure the systems in three modes: HUD (head-up), conninge or supervisor display. Moreover, I-Bridge® includes the new FarSounder SonaSoftTM software control, which is completely manageable from the Multicontrol OLED.
Internal wings are an additional help to the ship supervision and management thanks to the multi-touch monitoring developed by Onyx Marine Automation, a partner of Team Italia; the 32” display systems use the advanced 4K technology for high-quality resolutions.
Finally, the Anchor watching System (AWS) allows to manage all the information about on-board technological systems. Team Italia has also developed Ocean Marine Support, a remote diagnostic service managed by a team of professional engineers.