Sixty years ago, most yachtsmen used a chart, a compass, a sextant, a nautical almanac, calipers, parallel rulers, a sharp pencil and a watch or chronometer to safely cross the water. They’d also need to bring some significant celestial navigation and/or dead-reckoning skills to the table.

How has navigating changed since Soundings was founded six decades ago? Three inventions, the transistor (1947), the satellite (1957) and the integrated circuit or microchip (1958) would combine to suddenly accelerate the development of marine electronics and innovation.

This timeline shows just some of the inventions, events and devices that changed how recreational boaters would find their way across the water in new ways.

1964

The Liquid-crystal display (LCD) is invented by George H. Heilmeier at RCA Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. It marks the beginning of a whole new generation of marine navigation devices in the ensuing decades. It will be years before the cathode ray tube (CRT) meets its demise, but the LCD will eventually lead to the multifunction displays found on today’s boats. 

Early 1970s

Compact radars hit the market. Radar was developed during the late 1930s for military purposes, but early radars were too large and bulky for small boats. In the 1950s, “transceiver up” construction simplified radar by moving the transceiver out of the cabin and up into the antenna. But in the early 1970s, smaller transistor-based radars from Furuno and other makers would put radar within the reach of wealthier recreational boaters. 

1973

The United States launches the GPS project. Furuno creates an early iteration of satellite positioning receivers for vessels at sea.

1974

Loran-C is opened up to civilian use. Loran was developed during World War II and used pulsed radio transmissions from land-based “master” and “slave” stations to determine a ship’s position. 

1976

Englishman Derek Fawcett introduces the Autohelm. Fawcett had previously created two-speed and three-speed winches for Lewmar. In 1974, he founded the family-run Nautech and in 1976 unveiled his first Autohelm, a trade name that became synonymous with autopilots. Fawcett’s first Autohelms were cockpit-mounted, stand-alone systems that were powered by a 12-volt house battery, and a hydraulic arm to tame a sailboat’s tiller. Eventually autohelms/autopilots will be combined with GPS to allow for hands-off steering via pre-programmed waypoints.

1982

Unemployed Italian naval architect Giuseppe Carnevali watches the James Bond movie Goldfinger. Inspired by the in-dash navigation system aboard 007’s Aston Martin, Carnevali turns science fiction into reality by creating the electronic chart plotter. 

1985

The first electronic chartplotter to sell in the U.S., the Datamarine ChartLink, uses vector charts developed by Navionics founders Giuseppe Carnevali and Fosco Bianchetti. It becomes the forebear of today’s multifunction displays.

1988

Magellan, which was founded in 1986, releases the battery-powered NAV1000 hand-held GPS receiver. In 1990, another new company releases the ProNav GPS 100, a panel-mounted GPS receiver. Because there is a rights issue with the brand name ProNav, its makers, Gary Burrell and Min H. Kao, combine their first names to create a fresh company name: Garmin. Soon, satellite-based GPS, which works on the open ocean, begins to replace the land-based Loran system that only works near the coast.

1989

Nautec’s Derek Fawcett creates the SeaTalk network, a digital-communications protocol that allows Autohelm units to “talk” with other onboard instrumentation via a single-cable connection. It is a predecessor to the NMEA 2000 protocol that allows for plug-and-play connectivity of all kinds of marine electronics.

Early 1990s

Technical planning for the Automated Identification System (AIS) begins. The idea is to develop a high-intensity, short-range identification and tracking network that allows a ship to broadcast information such as speed and heading, the ship’s name, port of origin, size, draft and other information over VHF so it can be viewed by any other ship or boat equipped with an AIS unit.

2000

Bill Clinton ends Selective Availability, which deliberately degraded the accuracy of GPS. Instead of errors up to 330 feet from actual positions, it radically improves the precision of GPS for civilian users. 

2004

Raymarine launches the C-Series marine multifunction displays (MFDs).

2006

Low-cost Class B AIS transceivers for smaller vessels begin to hit the market. AIS mandates are focused on commercial vessels, with leisure vessels selectively choosing to install the technology. 

2007

Apple debuts the iPhone, the first device to offer a full version of the Internet. In 2008, Apple gives the iPhone GPS capability. Electronic charts for smart phones and tablets soon follow. 

2009

Because GPS is so accurate and available everywhere on the planet, the U.S. government declares Loran-C obsolete. In 2010, the USCG decommissions the system. Despite the obvious advantages of the high-frequency GPS system, national security concerns eventually lead to the revival of Loran.

2015

Realizing that if GPS fails in the middle of the ocean, the U.S. Navy, with help from midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, reinstates celestial navigation instruction for the Navy’s midshipmen.

2017

The USCG reports several episodes of GPS interference in the Black Sea and the United States plans to build a new eLoran system as a complement to and backup for the GPS system. 

2019

NOAA announces it will gradually end production and maintenance of NOAA traditional paper and raster nautical chart products. The process is expected to be completed by January 2025.

Today

The transistor, the satellite and the microchip—which now performs the equivalent operation of millions or even billions of transistors—have transformed marine navigation. MFDs now show information from GPS, radar, depth sounders, AIS and numerous other inputs. Systems that were once only available to commercial and high-end yachts are now available to recreational boaters, and smart phone and tablet apps are now capable of performing many of the same functions of an MFD. Modern displays can fuse information from on-board cameras, infra-red and low-light scanners, laser-based ranging sensors and more, allowing mariners to navigate down to mere feet. Nevertheless, smart mariners will keep their paper charts nearby.

This article was originally published in the February 2024 issue.