Steering that draws almost no energy, weighs a fraction of a hydraulic system, and keeps up to four helm stations in perfect sync — with genuine feel at the wheel, not a synthetic imitation of it.
SituationRobotics has commoditised what marine has always paid dearly for: sealed units combining motor, gearbox, dual encoders and closed-loop force drive, produced in volume for robot joints — while off-highway equipment swapped hydraulic cylinders for smart electric actuators built for shock, vibration and salt spray. Electric actuation draws power only while actually moving, reports its true load, and is back-drivable.
ComplicationHydraulic steering must hold pressure continuously whether anything moves or not — eight to twelve kilowatt-hours a day — plus the pump, hoses through both hulls, fluid and bleeding. Multiple helm stations sync poorly, and the feel at the wheel is synthetic or absent.
QuestionCan a boat steer and sail by wire, with genuine feel and no hydraulics?
AnswerSafiery’s sail-by-wire replaces hydraulics with compact helm units about 60 mm across — each simultaneously the wheel’s position encoder and its feel motor — driving electric rudder actuators through a single safety-certified controller. Up to four helm stations run servo-synchronised, with TAKE HELM handing authority cleanly between them. The feel is measured, not invented: rudder load is sensed at the blade and replayed as resistive torque at the active wheel — real weather helm, real load building in a gust. Each hull’s actuator, sensor, bus and battery feed is independent, and with all power lost the actuator back-drives so the emergency tiller still works. Steering runs on under 2 kWh a day; the hardware is roughly 85% cheaper than incumbent hydraulic steer-by-wire — and once the certified wheel-to-rudder foundation exists, autopilot, auto-sailing and auto-docking are pure software. The investment is made once, in the wire.