Raymarine's "virtual sea trial" is without a doubt one of the coolest things on the convention center floor in Miami this year.

The display has a helm station with a wheel and throttles that allows visitos to drive a boat on the video screen, which itself is pretty cool. But the crew at Raymarine took it much farther.The screen is realistic, including the wiper.

Connected to the console, and integrated with the simulator, are just about every piece of gear you can imagine. 

That includes an E140 widescreen display; a Ray218 DSC VHF, Raymarine cameras, sattelite weather, a Lifetag man overboard alarm—even an ST70 autopilot and a SmartController wireless remote. The hydraulics for the autopilot were under the console (see below).

There was no radar or fishfinder. Then again, there was no water or fish.

The simulator started as a workbench project and was refined for use at boat shows, according to james McGowan, Raymarine's marketing director.

The simulator is based on Ship Simulator Professional software, which is made by a company called VStep (they also make a video game) , and costs about $6,000. It allows users to drive various boats, from a 10-foot RIB to military vessels and supertankers. It also will vary the landscape, from New York Harbor tothe San Francisco Bay and ports all over Europe.

What good is all this? Well, you might learn something about Raymarine gear. Butmostly it is just a lot of fun. This is one reason to go to boat shows. There's usually something cool to see.

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