Vesper Marine Successfully Demonstrates its Technology during the America’s Cup

As part of New Zealand’s America’s Cup Program, Kiwi Company Vesper Marine successfully demonstrated its Virtual AIS Beacon technology to several California-based professionals and port authority organizations, including the San Francisco Police Department, Port of Oakland, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Port of San Francisco, and the US Coast Guard.

Vesper Marine not only demonstrated how the Virtual AIS Beacon is currently being used by the America’s Cup, but also discussed how their revolutionary technology can be used to enhance overall marine safety.

Vesper Marine’s AIS Beacon technology is used in applications throughout the world. It delivers electronic markers of both visible and invisible hazards, as with the America’s Cup, where it is being used to identify potential hazards on the race course and improve communication with on-the-water spectators and general marine traffic.

Vesper Marine is also working with the US Coast Guard as part of its 15-month collaboration with the America’s Cup to provide Area Special Messages. This technology provides authorized personnel the ability to overlay shapes, shading and annotation in real time to electronic navigation charts using the Virtual AIS Beacon.

“The ability to provide mariners real-time electronic marine safety information sent directly to their navigation displays represents a significant advance in our ability to quickly and effectively keep the public informed,” said Jorge Arroyo, Program & Management Analyst for the U.S. Coast Guard and vice-chair of the AIS Working Group for the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation & Lighthouse Authorities (IALA). “We envision a number of exciting new ways of employing this technology in the months and years to come"