Stowe Marine is a developer and manufacturer of advanced instrumentation systems for racing and cruising sailing yachts.

Introduction

Stowe instruments can be found on many of the world's leading sailing yachts, such as Velsheda. Stowe is now based in

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...

on the south coast of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The company was founded in the 1970s by Alan Cozens in a shed in his back garden in

Rowlands Castle Rowland's Castle is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 2.9 miles (4.7 km) north of Havant, on the Hampshire/West Sussex border. The focal point of the village is the village green which ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. The first product which proved very popular was the Trailing Log, a portable battery powered instrument that measures boat speed and distance run. Thousands of these early instruments are still in use today. Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s Stowe extended its activities into Integrated Instruments, Autopilots and Navigation Plotters. As a company Stowe has changed hands a number of times during its 25+ year lifetime, and is now a subsidiary of Tinley Electronics, the

based

marine electronics Marine electronics refers to electronics devices designed and classed for use in the marine environment on board ships and yachts where even a small amount of salt water can destroy some electronics devices. Therefore, the majority of these types of ...

service company. Stowe however remains headquartered just a few miles from its birthplace.

Products

Stowe 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 helmsman, navigator and crew and/or analysed by integral data processing functions to produce additional information that 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 Apparent wind is the wind experienced by a moving object. Definition of apparent wind The ''apparent wind'' is the wind experienced by an observer in motion and is the relative velocity of the wind in relation to the observer. The ''velocity ...

speed, apparent wind angle, boat speed, heading, position (Latitude/Longitude) and depth. By combining and analysing these inputs a Stowe 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 running on a laptop computer and analysed against tidal and current databases, electronic charting and weather prediction feeds to enable the navigator to devise the fastest and most efficient route between two or more points. This information can also be fed into autopilot systems. In 2009 the Stowe product range is centred on the Dataline GX system, with a wide range of configurations available for boats of all types and sizes.

Timelines

1984 Navigator Range of instruments released putting Stowe on the map 1987 Micro Range Launched 1990 Dataline Integrated Instruments launched 1991 Stowe acquired by Robertson in Norway 1992 Stowe Autopilots launched 1994 Robertson acquired by

Simrad Yachting Simrad Yachting is a manufacturer of marine electronics for the leisure and professional markets. A member of the Navico family of brands, Simrad Yachting develops, manufactures and distributes navigation systems, autopilots, marine VHF radios, c ...

1996 Simrad acquired by

Kongsberg Gruppen Kongsberg Gruppen is an international technology group headquartered in Norway, that supplies high-technology systems to customers in the merchant marine, defence, aerospace, offshore oil and gas industries, and renewable and utilities indust ...

2001 Stowe sold to AW Marine 2007 Stowe acquired by Tinley Electronics

References

* Payne, John C. (2007). Marine Electrical and Electronics Bible. Sheridan House. {{ISBN, 1-57409-242-1 * http://www.stowemarine.com * http://www.tinleyelectronics.com Yachts Companies based in Hampshire Lymington Manufacturing companies established in 1984