Saxdor Becomes the First Builder Outside the United States to Integrate Simrad AutoCaptain, Presented at the Genoa Boat Show 2026

Saxdor Yachts is introducing the Simrad AutoCaptain autonomous boating system across its range, presented to the industry at the Genoa International Boat Show in collaboration with Navico Group. The Finnish builder is the first outside the United States to integrate the technology, which handles docking, undocking and short-distance maneuvering under the captain's supervision.

Close-quarters handling is the part of boating where confidence is hardest to acquire and easiest to lose, and it is also where a shift in wind or current changes everything. AutoCaptain is aimed precisely at that moment. The system maneuvers the boat into and out of the dock and to nearby positions, making continuous adjustments to counteract wind, current and detected obstacles, with the captain overseeing it from the helm throughout.

Built in, rather than added on

AutoCaptain was engineered from the ground up as an integrated system. It works exclusively with Mercury Marine propulsion and joystick control, draws on an integrated 360 degree camera network and is operated through a dedicated Simrad display app, all built directly into the vessel's design.

That approach is what keeps the hardware out of sight and the aesthetics of the boat intact, and it is also what allows propulsion, cameras and interface to behave as one system rather than as components that have to be made to work together. For the builder it means the installation is part of the boat from the drawing stage.

Three functions make up the package. Auto Docking and Undocking maneuvers the boat into the berth or away from it and on to nearby positions. Move to Position lets the captain tap a destination on the display and have the boat move there within the marina. Hold at Dock keeps the boat in position alongside the dock while lines and fenders are handled, with the captain attentive at the helm.

Live cameras, not a stored map

The distinction that matters most in daily use is where the system gets its information. AutoCaptain navigates within the visible range of its cameras and reads what is around the boat as it happens, rather than relying on a previously mapped environment. Saxdor's chief technology officer, Ludvig Liljequist, makes that the center of his argument: an owner can arrive at a new marina or an unfamiliar berth and still have assistance that adapts to the conditions found there.

The operating framework is equally clear. The captain supervises throughout and can switch instantly between AutoCaptain and manual control using the joystick or the traditional throttle and shift. According to Simrad, the system detects above-water obstacles such as vessels, docks, pilings and other floating objects, which is the environment it is designed to read, and responsibility for the maneuver stays with the captain at all times.

A system joining an ecosystem that is already running

AutoCaptain arrives on top of a technology stack Saxdor has been building for several years. Boat IQ is an AI companion that runs directly on the boat's multifunction displays and connects in real time to Saxdor AI, the knowledge platform developed with Cadentia, so an owner can resolve a question about their specific boat from the helm without opening a separate app.

Those platforms are already in daily service rather than in pilot. Since its launch earlier in 2026, Saxdor AI has handled more than 10,000 customer enquiries, supported hundreds of owners and been adopted by over 40 dealers across 30 countries, and it is used internally through sales, production, delivery and the dealer network. Cadentia's chief executive, Tatu Heikkilä, describes it as giving every boat its own digital product record that keeps owner, dealer and brand connected through the life of the boat.

Seen alongside the MySaxdor App and the Digital Showroom, the picture is of a builder treating software as part of the product rather than as an accessory to it. Media were able to try AutoCaptain at an on-water presentation held ahead of the Genoa show, and Navico Group's president of electronic solutions, Yasser Nafei, frames the launch as a step toward making advanced capability accessible to everyday boaters. For a brand that delivered its first boat in 2020 and now builds around 700 a year across ten models, adding autonomous docking to the range is the logical extension of that same idea.