B&G

B&G, formerly known as Brookes and Gatehouse, is the leading developer and manufacturer of advanced instrumentation systems for racing and crusising sailing yachts.

Introduction

Its equipment can be found on many of the world's leading sail race boats, including the majority of competitors for recent competitions such as the America's Cup 2007 and the Volvo (around the world) Ocean Race 2008-09.

History

The company was founded in 1955 by Major R.N. Gatehouse and Ronald Brookes who together formed a partnership to develop and manufacture a new radio direction finder (RDF) for use by private sailing boats. In 1956 the 'Homer' receiver was produced, said to be the first transistorised RDF to be made available to the world's leisure marine market.

Over the course of the 1950s B&G, now based in Lymington on the south coast of England,extended its activities into echo sounders and in 1960 produced its first speedometer. in 1966 "Gypsy Moth IV", the yacht in which Sir Francis Chichester made his solo circumnavigation of the world, was equipped with a full suite of B&G instruments.

In the 1970s and 80s the company continued to rapidly innovate, receiving in 1981 a Design Council Award for its Hercules electronic data system, which effectively introduced computers to leisure boating, and continues to do so to this day, remaining the market leader in advanced instrumentation systems for grand prix race boats and sailing superyachts, as well as for club racers and blue water crusing yachts/

As a company B&G has changed hands a number of times during its 53 year lifetime, and is now a subsidiary of Navico, the Norwegian based leader in the leisure marine electronics sector. B&G however remains headquartered just a few miles from its birthplace, in Romsey, Hampshire.

Products

B&G produces integrated instrumentation systems that collect and analyse a wide range of data relating both to a yacht's performance and the external conditions in which it is sailing. This information can then be displayed to the helsman, navigator and crew and / or analysed by integral data processing functions to produce additional information flows that will enable the yacht's crew to make informed decisions with regard to performance optimisation and navigation strategy and tactics - particularly in a competitive environment.

Data that is collected may include apparent wind speed, apparent wind direction, boat speed, compass heading, position (Lat / Lon) and depth. By combining and analysing these inputs a B&G system can calculate and display in real time information such as true wind speed, true wind direction, course over ground, velocity made good (VMG), time and distance to next waypoint, and much more. This data can additionally be fed into tactical navigation software such as B&G's propietary Deckman system and analysed against tidal and current databases, electronic charting and weather prediction feeds to enable the navigator to devise the fastest and most efficent route between two or more points. This information can also be fed into autopilot systems.

In 2008 the B&G product range is centred around the the H3000 system, with a wide range of configurations available for boats of all types and sizes. Grand prix racing boats typically include the ground-breaking WTP2 (Wave Technology Processor) which compensates for the movement of the boat itself through the water via a three axis rate-gyro sensor to give even greater accuracy in data read-outs, and at substantially higher speeds than conventional systems.

References

* http://bandg.com
* http://www.navico.com/Our-brands/
* http://www.bandgservice.com/2007/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=25