Solarglide: Clear Vision, Cool Heads, Peace of Mind

Imagine you have been on the bridge for several hours. You are in the final days of a weeklong charter at the end of September and you’re coming up on your destination. It’s around 18:00. The sun has dipped low in the sky, releasing you from its burning heat, but offering up a new challenge: navigating your way through a bustling port with intense glare off the water’s surface.

All in all, this is a very routine scenario, but it can also be dangerous. You are tired because of the heat. You are anxious because of the glare. In the back of your mind, you’re probably wishing there was a better way.

As it turns out, a U.K.-based company has come up with a better way: the SG Glider. Solarglide specializes in solar glare screens, and has been solving this problem on commercial boats for some time. Now, they want to solve the problem onboard yachts.

Not only does the SG Glider reduce solar glare by up to 93% and lower temperatures inside the bridge significantly, but they also eliminate most ultraviolet (UV) rays.

“The UV is a kind of invisible threat,” says Darren Winter, Solarglide’s marketing and public relations manager. “You don’t really see the health effects until it’s too late.”

The same could be said for the sun’s affects on navigation, and Solarglide’s ability to help crews avoid costly accidents. “For the sake of a few hundred dollars, to have a few sets of screens up there that could protect it and prevent that,” says Winter, “it’s a really good safety aid.”

SOLAS-approved

SOLAS safety standards have clearly improved the lives of everyday seafarers. And for fairly obvious reasons, SOLAS doesn’t allow for polarized and tinted glass in the bridge.

However, Solarglide’s screens are exactly that: screens that slide in and out of position. They can be applied in more than a dozen different ways, but the general principle behind all of them is to conform with SOLAS (and common sense) by sliding over the window when needed, and retracting away when they’re not.

“The biggest selling point is the SOLAS guidelines,” says Winter. “That’s really where our product comes in.”

In addition, they are approved by Lloyd’s Register.

Imagine placing a pair of strong sunglasses over the full breadth of windows inside the bridge and you will have a good sense of what the product does.....

Courtesy of Daniel Shea, Onboard Online

http://www.onboardonline.com/industry-article-index/safety-and-medical/solarglide-clear-vision-cool-heads-peace-of-mind/