Rose Point Main

Enlarge Photo

Since the beginning, Coastal Explorer has covered everything from the recreational market to sub-SOLAS-class vessels (e.g., inland towing, coastal towing and offshore oil and gas vessels). “I was in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, talking to the captain of a commercial offshore-supply vessel about 16 months after the product went into the field,” Hummel said. “They’d been running the software the entire time — 24/7 — with different operators using it. I asked if the program ever crashed — the captain looked at me horrified and asked ‘could it crash?’ The only way you can achieve a track record like that is through clean architecture.”

Christian’s Microsoft background also instilled the value of thorough R&D prior to any releases. “We use an R&D model that’s long on experience,” Hummel said. “It’s got to work and you don’t want to release it until it’s proven.” As for hard miles, Hummel advised that Coastal Explorer has rounded Cape Horn and has been used extensively on high-latitude cruises, despite a moniker that suggests otherwise.

Also refreshing in the computer world, where Moore’s Law — which states that the number of transistors on a chip roughly doubles every two years — still reigns, is that Coastal Explorer doesn’t require a now-generation PC. This matters, since Rose Point’s market research reveals that most boaters make six to 12 trips per year, plus two extended cruises. Minimize the necessity of upgrading and relearning software and hardware processes while maximizing usability, Hummel said, and you increase user confidence. “We’re not relying on hard-wire acceleration for the graphics,” he said. “We use what can be found in most computers.”

To demonstrate, Hummel presented Coastal Explorer 2011 on a dated-yet-capable Panasonic Toughbook. Here, Hummel showed how the program supports a wide range of cartography, including products from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Maptech and Navionics, as well as add-on utilities, such as Active Captain and Atlantic Cruising Club marina guides. Also handy is the ability to create both public and private blogs, which are hosted on a Rose Point website; users can write and edit offline and then click “synch” when they’re ready to transfer data, saving time and money when Internet access is spotty. Hummel said that Coastal Explorer is the only PC-based navigation software to offer a “check-for-obstacles” routing function and the only one to offer an “infinite undo/redo” option.

While software put Rose Point on the map, the firm has also logged plenty of R&D hours on the hardware side of the equation. “We only do hardware to the extent that others do not,” Hummel said, referring to Rose Point’s limited-but-increasing hardware menu. An example is the NMEA 2000 Gateway, a NMEA-to-USB connection cable, which Rose Point purports is the easiest way to pump NMEA 2000 information into a PC. “It’s totally future-proof — it only takes data from the bus.” Hummel was careful to explain that the NMEA 2000 Gateway was designed to be forward-compatible because data processing is done on the PC, and not in the Gateway. Other hardware offerings include the new NMEA 2000 engine interface, which generates PC-compatible data from all engines, including older analog units, as well as original equipment manufacturer level GPSs and radars.

Christian and Hummel envision more hardware releases, as well as an evolution of software that emphasizes Coastal Explorer’s clean architecture and intuitive user interface. An obvious upcoming release is an iPad app that will provide wireless access to Coastal Explorer. “The iPad is a paradigm shift,” Hummel said. “People buy products to deliver information — if an iPad is a better way to deliver that information, that’s where people will go.”

Despite a stagnant economy, Rose Point has enjoyed robust growth. While the company is cagey about divulging key numbers (annual sales, number of clients or number of employees), Christian maintains that it has “enough people to get the job done,” and Hummel let slip that 2011 was the company’s most successful year to date.

Moving forward, Rose Point plans to continue creating products and features that appeal to boaters and enhance their on-the-water experience. Moreover, Christian will continue to integrate the best hardware and software philosophies from both Microsoft and Apple to grow his own Eden of cruising staples. “We’ll continue to focus on serious cruisers,” Hummel said. “Chart plotters can take people from Seattle to Bainbridge Island. We take them cruising long distances.”

View a complete photo gallery.