Our boat is an island on the water, pure relaxation for the whole family, boating is fun. What a perfect world, if only there wasn't the matter of mooring and thetight space conditions in the harbour. Even the thought of sailing into it and the damage that can occur when mooring because the wind is blowing in the wrong direction makesfor many skippers, the blood pressure rises sharply. In other words:Stress!
A skipper hasAids that make mooring manoeuvres easier. These are, for example, bow and stern thrusters, counter-rotating propellers for twin systems or pod drives. The latter are suspended
aft under the hull and can be controlled independently of each other. They combine propulsion and
Depending on how these pods are controlled, a boat can be driven in any direction, even sideways. The whole thing is monitored by a computer and controlled using aJoysticks executed.
And based on these pod drives with joystick control, Raymarine developed Docksense. And this makes every mooring manoeuvre an absolutely stress-free affair.
Strictly speaking, it is a system that supports mooring manoeuvres, and strictly speaking it is aAnti-collision system.
It worksNot fully automaticThe skipper still has to lend a hand, i.e. activate Docksense once and operate the existing joystick as usual. The following are usedTouchscreensmonitored by a computerVideo stereo cameras in conjunction with boat drive and control.
What does the system do? In a way, it creates aVirtual fenders around the boatThis is comparable to an invisible hose, where two diameters, or in reality two distances, can be selected. As soon as objects such as a building or dolphins rammed into the water, moored boats, jetties and, in future, buoys appear in front of the cameras, they are captured by them and displayed on a monitor.
These are videos per camera and a graphical representation with the surroundings including the boat as the centre point with a virtual fender.
The number of cameras depends on the size of the boat. There are five on the test boat: one aft on the fly, one on each side and two forward on the bow.
All objects arecaptured by the cameras from a distance of ten metresand the system starts to influence the speed from six metres. In general, Docksense allows the boat to travel at a maximum speed of 2 knots ahead and 1.5 knots in reverse, regardless of wind and current.
However, as soon as something enters the area of the virtual fender, Docksense takes over the gearstick, throttle and steering and stops the boat.
The boat then remains stationary, even if you continue to hold the joystick in the direction of travel, as well as when you release the joystick. If you leave the boat stationary for too long, an alarm will sound after a while, prompting you to take action. However, if you switch to the normal control panel, Docksense switches off immediately and the skipper can take over the boat using the rudder and control panel or joystick. If he then wants to return to Docksense, he must reactivate the system and then drive the boat with the joystick.
Thanks to the virtual fenders, Docksense cankeep a greater and a smaller distance from the objectsOne is so big that nothing happens to the boat, the other so small that you can easily step onto the jetty with one step.
This is particularly helpful if a passage is too narrow or the mooring is too small. It doesn't matter where the boat is, on which waterway it is travelling, which way the wind is blowing or where the current is coming from. Docksense works anywhere and at any time.
The only limitation: snowfall or heavy rain still confuse the computer's senses and render the system ineffective, andMooring ropes or chains are not recognised. But we are also working on this.
The centrepieces of the system are the stereo cameras from FLIR and the GPS antenna equipped with an AHRS module. AHRS stands for "Attitude and Heading Reference System" and can be equated here with "three-dimensional recognition of directions and their evaluation". For this capability, tiny gyroscopes are built into the cameras, which detect every change in position and transmit it to the computer.
Raymarine has housed the stereo cameras in a waterproof housing, which is closed with a flap when not in use.
closed with a flap when not in use. GPS stands for "Global Positioning System" and means something like "everywhere positioning". FLIR is, among other things, aManufacturer of cameras for solving technical tasks in industry and also known as a manufacturer of thermal imaging or infrared cameras.
All these components are recorded by an extra computer, analysed by the Docksense program and displayed on a touchscreen, a navigation monitor with a touch-sensitive screen, by Raymarine as 3D graphics and image detail per video stereo camera. When activated, the computer controls the joystick-controlled engines, drives and rudder.
Docksense is used for independently operating drives and rudders such as Zeus pod drives from MerCruiser
drives from MerCruiser or IPS pod drives from Volvo Penta, outboard motors or Z-drives.
In future, wave systems are also to be integrated in conjunction with bow and stern thrusters.
be integrated. And: Docksense will be suitable for every make of boat.
BOOTE is one of the first to test the system on a Prestige 460 with two IPS systems from Volvo Penta in the city harbour of Cannes: a long jetty with boats aft plus a transverse flanged jetty at the front and a pontoon some distance ahead.
After a brief orientation, I activate the system and start driving the boat with the joystick. I push the joystick forwards and the boat picks up speed,straight towards the pontoon. It's a strange feeling
feeling and I have to force myself to keep the joystick on forward.
But as announced, the bow cameras begin to detect the pontoon and take a graphic and video image of it on the screen. Once the six-metre limit is exceeded, the system begins to reduce speed until the moment the virtual fender touches the pontoon. Then the boat simply stops and doesn't move another centimetre. I let go of the joystick and the boat remains stationary.
Only when I move the joystick so that the Prestige can move away from the pontoon again does it continue.
And this is what I tryin all directionsalways with the same positive result. Even the ludicrous attempt to ram a corner of the jetty sideways with the boat fails. You can't get any closer than Docksense allows. Then, sitting comfortably at the helm and looking at the monitor alone, I reverse the Prestige to her berth, where she comes to a stop about a metre from the jetty aft and to starboard.
After activating the smaller distance mode, it can be brought within about 50 cm of the jetties and stops automatically. Release the joystick, the boat stands on the spot, step onto the jetty and attach the lines to the cleats. Get back on the boat, switch off the docking system, get out again and secure the rest of the boat. Done.
An ingenious system, I'm thrilled. If there were stars for the rating, it would get the whole starry sky from me.
Docksense is expected tofrom € 20,000 costs. But if the insurance companies play along, it could pay for itself thanks to lower premiums. After all, this willDamage during mooringwherever and whenever,greatly reducedif not prevented altogether.
Read the full article in the August 2019 issue of BOOTE.
