Project: Advanced wave forecast for safe navigation of small vessels

NAVIGATE marine navigation and weather forecast service aims to provide high resolution forecast of spatial wave characteristics coupled with interactive ICT solution to support safer and optimal navigation of small vessels. The product prototype is intended to be developed for the Baltic Sea, after the EUROSTARS project the product can be adopted in other regional seas (North Sea, NE Atlantic, Iberian coast, etc.) where high resolution wave forecasts are provided by regional providers of weather data (the network). The network forecasts are assembled into single service that is commercialized and made available for customers globally._x000D__x000D_The EU market for value-added weather and climate services is seriously underdeveloped compared to North-American (U.S. and Canada) markets. Most services which offer timely and accurate marine weather and wave field information are mostly aimed at large professional shipping operators. The cost of these services is clearly beyond the reach of most small vessel owners’ community. At the same time there is still strong demand for bringing also new user-friendly navigation solutions for small vessels (with a draught less than 7 m) into European market for value-added weather and climate services._x000D__x000D_In 2008 the EU-27 fishing fleet consisted of 86.7 thousand vessels. Eurostat statistics shows that nearly 82% (which makes 71.1 thousand boats) of the EU fishing fleet is made up of small vessels less than 12 meters in length. In addition it is estimated that about 200,000 recreational vessels across EU, including motorboats and yachts that are used for longer inshore and offshore trips would constitute another potential target market segment for NAVIGATE service. Altogether it is estimated that a potential target market for NAVIGATE marine weather and wave information service in Europe comprises of approximately 270,000 small vessels._x000D__x000D_NAVIGATE service would give significant benefits for the improvement of small vessels navigation in complicated wave conditions. In the developed system the data from in situ measurements, satellite imagery (SAR, TerraSAR-X) and wave modelling will be integrated into a new innovative single product to provide wave height and wave direction information with a fine spatial (100m in coastal zone, 400m in open sea) and temporal resolution (1 hour) on board of small vessels. The integrated use of the three data sources would increase the accuracy of the wave product by making it more reliable source of wave information than any of the three data sources alone._x000D__x000D_The implementation of NAVIGATE service would help to reduce the number of accidents and dangerous situations which might occur on the sea. Mariners would have perfect chance to optimize their route by taking into account much more accurate and reliable data about sea conditions. NAVIGATE forecast services will initially be launched on Baltic Sea and are expected to gain 15,000 1-day; 6,000 single month; and 500 yearly subscriptions in 2015 for annual combined sales revenue of EUR 195,000 (EUR 30,000 from 1-day, EUR 90,000 from monthly and EUR 75,000 from annual service subscriptions). In 2017 the service will be launched on the Mediterranean Sea. Total sales revenues from all regions are forecasted to rise to EUR 800,046 by 2019 (EUR 419,796 from the Baltic Sea and EUR 380,250 from the Mediterranean Sea). NAVIGATE service will therefore act as a significant driver for revenue growth in the EU private weather services market sector._x000D_Thereby NAVIGATE service is expected to act as a significant driver for revenue growth in the EU marine navigation and weather forecast service._x000D__x000D_NAVIGATE forecasts and reports will be generated and delivered to customers via several communication channels. Weather and wave forecast information will be delivered to mariners by means of a web service or web portal which can be accessed on the sea using high speed mobile networks on a PC or smartphones. Additionally, weather information can be delivered directly to smartphones or 3G-capable tablets via native applications installed into the device. Ideally, weather and wave forecasts should be delivered to mariners via satellite services that will makes NAVIGATE service accessible across the seas and regions all over Europe. Digital weather and wave information delivered via NAVIGATE service can be also displayed on marine chartplotters in close collaboration with marine navigation equipment manufacturers._x000D__x000D_

Acronym	NAVIGATE (Reference Number: 6596)
Duration	01/09/2011 - 28/02/2014
Project Topic	The Navigate project focuses on leisure sailing market by developing advanced wave forecast product that is integrated into existing marine weather forecast service, and creating GRIB viewer application for Android and iOS using simple basemap
Project Results (after finalisation)	The CO achievement of the NAVIGATE project was the development of advanced wave forecast product for leisure sailing market that is integrated into existing marine weather forecast service and has GRIB viewer application for Android using simple basemap
Network	Eurostars
Call	Eurostars Cut-Off 6

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
4	Apprise Ltd	Coordinator	Estonia
4	Foreca Ltd	Partner	Finland
4	Luode Consulting Oy	Partner	Finland
4	Marine Systems Institute at Tallinn University of Technology	Partner	Estonia