At the heart of the system are twin marine CPUs to protect against single-point failure. Its soul is a visionary software interface that uses perceptual psychology principles to organize navigation data into intuitive modules and in the helmsman’s choice of graphic or numeric displays.

The system creates an information-rich environment using a pair of 15-inch CFR46 sunlight-viewable display screens with night vision at each helm. Four programmed modes—Maneuvering, Coastal Piloting, Coastal Passage and Offshore Passage—call up pre-selected combinations of charts, CCTV, radar and instrument data, without the helmsman having to toggle back and forth between menus. The H6 also allows helmsmen to create up to three additional personal information displays.

Scalable windows show data as either digital readouts or graphic representations. For example, the effects of crosscurrents can be shown as two lubber lines on a virtual compass—the compass heading in blue and the COG data in red, as red and blue bars on a histogram, or graphically as an arrow pointing against a hull at the actual angle of the current with knots of leeway indicated. The display preferences of each helmsman are stored in the system and can be called up with one click.

The H6 can also monitor CCTV and control entertainment electronics, but the owners of HPIV opted for a completely customized seven-zone entertainment system designed by Michael Robilio of Fort Lauderdale’s Concord Marine Electronics.

Crestron controllers access music, cable or satellite TV and radio, or any selection from the 300 videos and 500 CDs stored on servers. There is a standard Fleet 33 satcom aboard, but much of HPIV’s communication flows through a Wi-Fi hotspot amplifier and an internal wireless network robust enough to support four or five laptops simultaneously. "The hotspot amplifier extends marina Wi-Fi range for several miles. Using a Voice-over-IP system, the owners can surf the Web and make all the calls they want by logging on for ten bucks a day," says Robilio.

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