Marine Electronics
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Expedition Performance Systems, a developer of tactical and navigation yacht racing software, has entered into a development agreement with Actisense, a leading supplier of NMEA software and hardware. As a result of the agreement, NMEA technology from Actisense has been integrated into Expedition software package and will be used in Expedition’s new yacht race information system called the Expedition 7.
That system, considered crucial for the sailboat racing community, has been designed to meet growing demand for detailed maritime navigation information that new sensor, display and maritime networks can now provide. According to Nick White of Expedition, “The Actisense NGT-1 is very important to Expedition users. It allows us to provide a certified NMEA 2000 solution to take advantage of the large number of sensors and displays becoming available.”
White, a round-the-world Whitbread sailing race winner, also commented on the actual implementation of the interface “Expedition already had a custom solution, so implementation of the NGT-1 support was rapid. I have to say the team at Actisense is very professional and proactive in their support of the SDK.”
Offering another perspective on the interface deployment and Actisense’s entrance into the ocean racing market was Andy Campbell, Chief Engineer at Active Research, “We are delighted with this collaboration which was both rapid and rewarding and takes our product into the world of ocean racing, where functionality and reliability are paramount. The feedback Expedition was able to offer has helped strengthen the Actisense Comms SDK, just as much as gaining access to NMEA 2000 data has strengthened Expeditions software in this competitive market.”
The NGT-1 Software Development Kit (SDK) is used to integrate Actisense’s standard software product, the Actisense NMEA 2000 to PC Interface, into existing navigation systems such as the Expedition 7 system. That integration, which makes use of the Actisense Comms Dynamic Linked Library (DLL), ensures that transfers of NMEA 2000 messages to and from the NMEA 2000 bus are done reliably and according to protocol specifications.
Interlinked to the NMEA interface, the Expedition 7 software is expected to give racers not only the competitive edge, but all the information and instrumentation features now found in Expedition’s racing software. These include an advanced chart plotter, advanced weather display, route optimization tools, buoy racing functions, tide and current information as well as an interface to a wide range of high performance sailing instruments.
The Expedition software is not only well known in the yacht race world, but is also counted on by racers to win races. Nick White, who is well known as a physicist with extensive maritime technology development skills, originally created the software in 1993. The software, since its initial deployment, has been used in a number of elite yacht races including the Volvo Ocean, America’s Cup and Grand Prix events.
