Austal’s new platform to real-time monitoring and analysis of fuel

Austal’s new platform to real-time monitoring and analysis of fuel
Photo: MARINELINK-Fleet

Austal has launched a valuable new addition to the proven MARINELINK product range, MARINELINK-Fleet.

Building upon Austal’s original, proprietary MARINELINK on-board vessel monitoring, alarm and control system – and recent MARINELINK-Smart application that adds ‘smart ship’ capabilities – MARINELINK-Fleet offers ferry operators a live, integrated view of a fleet’s operating environment, schedule, comfort and fuel performance.

Introducing MARINELINK-Fleet at the annual Interferry conference in London, Austal’s Technology Development Manager Max van Someren said the new product enables any ferry operator to more effectively monitor their fleet and achieve optimum vessel performance and customer experience.

Mr van Someren said:
“MARINELINK-Fleet is available to any ferry operator and is suitable for use on any type of ship, from any builder. MARINELINK-Fleet literally puts you at the centre of your ferry operations – with enhanced visibility of your ships’ location, schedule and current local weather in one easy-to-use web-based interface. MARINELINK-Fleet helps you identify operational issues in real-time and act before they impact your fleet's schedule and costs.”

Austal has fitted MARINELINK to over 160 high speed ferries since 1996 and is now fitting MARINELINK-Smart, an intelligent ‘smart ship’ platform that provides real-time monitoring and analysis of fuel, trim and other operating systems to on-board crew and on shore engineers on all new Austal builds. MARINELINK-Fleet further extends the insight available to operators by delivering real time and historical information on vessel route(s), live fleet locations, schedule performance and ETAs, speed profile and live weather conditions.

Austal is also offering another new product, MARINELINK-Sense, which tracks and reports passenger comfort (based on vessel motion and stability in various sea states) throughout every journey. Easily fitted to any vessel, MARINELINK-Sense complements MARINELINK-Smart and MARINELINK-Fleet to deliver a complete package of valuable insight for ferry operators.

Austal has been working closely with a number of ferry operators including Fred Olsen SA to develop the MARINELINK-Smart, Fleet and Sense products with the aim of enhancing their operations with valuable data that enables informed decision making, in real time.