About Vesper Marine

Vesper Marine is dedicated to safety on the water for sail, power, and workboats. Our award-winning products are designed by the Vesper Marine engineering team with an unwavering focus on quality, exceptional value, and outstanding customer support.

Established in 2007

Deirdre Schleigh and Jeff Robbins had just completed seven years of ocean cruising on board their yacht Vesper - an experience that every day underlined the importance of collision avoidance. With a shared background in high-tech product design, combined with a new focus on creating much-needed innovation in marine safety, they set their sights on solving the challenges faced by many boaters.

Joining together with Carl Omundsen, an incredibly creative and talented electronics designer and enthusiastic sailor, Vesper Marine was born.

about-vesper
Square_Westhaven-Office-1

Since then Vesper Marine has grown steadily, as the world’s boat owners recognized the quality, innovative features, and user-friendliness of our products. We remain a privately-held company, however in 2010 new shareholders joined us. One of these is the New Zealand government’s Venture Investment Fund (www.nzvif.co.nz). Support from our new shareholders has put us on an accelerated growth path that is allowing us to develop new markets and pursue exciting product development initiatives.

We are headquartered in the heart of New Zealand’s marine industry in Auckland. From here our product engineers and customer support technicians focus on the design excellence and after-sales support that we’ve become famous for.

Vesper Marine products and solutions are available almost everywhere through our worldwide network of distributors and resellers.

Tale of two divisions

Vesper Marine operates 2 business units. Leisure and Light Commercial marine electronics, and Guardian Asset Protection for marine infrastructure.

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Leisure and Light Commercial

Communication and safety devices for boats

Used by boaters around the world, Vesper Marine's range of WatchMate smartAIS and Cortex VHF devices make safety on the water easier than ever before.  This website features Leisure and Light Commercial products.

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Guardian Asset Protection

Preventing damage by marine vessels to subsea assets

Guardian automatically sends proactive warning messages directly to vessels’ electronic navigation systems.  Used around the world by power and communications cable owners, pipelines, marine authorities and ports.

Design philosophy

Vesper Marine is dedicated to creating marine safety products with technically superior features, but just as important is the need to make them easy to use. Marine safety is too important to be hidden deep in menus or displayed on cluttered screens that make it hard to determine what’s important and what’s just noise. Rather than repackaging existing designs, our innovative design team develops products from the ground up. This allows much greater flexibility and better product performance. Their designs are brought to life by our highly trained and skilled manufacturing teams.

The people at Vesper Marine have many years of experience developing unique AIS technology and are well-known for sharing their knowledge. When you buy a Vesper Marine product, you can be certain it’s 100% best-of-breed and that you’ll receive outstanding technical support both before and after you buy.

Supporting Industry

Vesper Marine is committed to the safety of life and property at sea, the reduction of marine accidents, and the protection of the marine environment. We value the importance of quality standards and processes in delivering the best marine technology and service. We support industry associations in achieving these goals.

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The International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (previously International Association of Lighthouse Authorities) aims to foster the safe and efficient movement of vessels through the improvement and harmonization of marine aids to navigation worldwide, and by other appropriate means.

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The mission of the National Marine Electronics Association is to be a worldwide, self-sustaining organization committed to enhancing the technology and safety of electronics used in marine applications and the profitability of its members. The association focuses on educating the public on the safe and proper use of marine electronics.

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The National Marine Manufacturers Association represents the recreational boating industry to policymakers, the media, and the public. NMMA supports the industry by providing timely research and industry data, promoting product safety, attracting younger first-time boat buyers, and producing consumer boat shows and trade events.

Consistent Innovator

  • Founded by Deirdre Schleigh, Jeff Robbins & Carl Omundsen

    We had just completed seven years of ocean cruising on board our yacht Vesper - an experience that every day underlined the importance of collision avoidance. And we shared a background in high-tech product design. Combining our understanding of marine safety with a passion for harnessing new technologies was the natural next step for our lives.

    Joining us to bring together and lead the engineering team was Carl Omundsen, an incredibly creative and talented electronics designer and enthusiastic sailor. Vesper Marine was born.

    01-01-2007

  • Two factors inspired Deirdre Schleigh and Jeff Robbins to establish Vesper Marine

    Since then Vesper Marine has grown steadily, as the world’s boat owners recognized the quality, innovative features, and user-friendliness of our products. We remain a privately-held company, however in 2010 new shareholders joined us. One of these is the New Zealand government’s Venture Investment Fund (www.nzvif.co.nz). Support from our new shareholders has put us on an accelerated growth path that is allowing us to develop new markets and pursue exciting product development initiatives.

    We are headquartered in the heart of New Zealand’s marine industry in Auckland. From here our product engineers and customer support technicians focus on the design excellence and after-sales support that we’ve become famous for.

    Vesper Marine products and solutions are available almost everywhere through our worldwide network of distributors and resellers.

    Vesper Marine operates 2 business units.  Leisure and Light Commercial marine electronics, and Guardian Asset Protection for marine infrastructure.

    01-01-2007

  • Freeman K. Pittman Innovation Award

    01-01-2009

  • Price Waterhouse Coopers Hi-Tech Innovation Award

    01-01-2009

  • Samuel Plimsoll Award for Marine Safety Innovation

    01-01-2012

  • IHS Safety at Sea Equipment Award

    01-01-2012

  • Survitec Engineering Excellence Award

    01-01-2012

  • Price Waterhouse Coopers Hi-Tech Innovation Award

    01-01-2012

  • NMMA Innovation Award for Marine Safety Equipment

    01-01-2012

  • Practical Sailor "Best Choice AIS Transponder"

    01-01-2013

  • The Teak Rail "The Best AIS Black-Box Transponder"

    01-01-2014

  • NMMA Innovation Award for Marine Safety Equipment

    01-01-2017

  • Practical Sailor "Gear of the Year"

    01-01-2017

  • Pittman Innovation Award

    01-01-2018

  • NMEA Best New Product

    01-01-2019

  • IBEX Innovation Award for Marine Safety Equipment

    01-01-2019

  • DAME "Special Mention" Marine Electronics and Marine Related Software

    01-01-2019

  • NMEA Product of Excellence Award - AIS Category

    01-01-2020

Two factors inspired us to establish Vesper Marine in 2007

Deirdre Schleigh and Jeff Robbins

about-vesper

We had just completed seven years of ocean cruising on board our yacht Vesper - an experience that every day underlined the importance of collision avoidance. And we shared a background in high-tech product design. Combining our understanding of marine safety with a passion for harnessing new technologies was the natural next step for our lives.

Joining us to bring together and lead the engineering team was Carl Omundsen, an incredibly creative and talented electronics designer and enthusiastic sailor. Vesper Marine was born.

Since then Vesper Marine has grown steadily, as the world’s boat owners recognized the quality, innovative features, and user-friendliness of our products. We remain a privately-held company, however in 2010 new shareholders joined us. One of these is the New Zealand government’s Venture Investment Fund (www.nzvif.co.nz). Support from our new shareholders has put us on an accelerated growth path that is allowing us to develop new markets and pursue exciting product development initiatives.

About_Us_Vesper_Marine

We are headquartered in the heart of New Zealand’s marine industry in Auckland. From here our product engineers and customer support technicians focus on the design excellence and after-sales support that we’ve become famous for.

Vesper Marine products and solutions are available almost everywhere through our worldwide network of distributors and resellers.

Vesper Marine operates 2 business units.  Leisure and Light Commercial marine electronics, and Guardian Asset Protection for marine infrastructure.

 Achievements and Awardsawards3

The products we make far exceed the internationally recognized specifications and certifications for AIS.
Our equipment is fully certified by the world’s independent authorization bureaus, including CE/EU, Germany, USA USCG & FCC, Canada IC, Australia, and New Zealand. This ensures the product you buy is compatible, reliable, and suitable for use everywhere you go.
The extraordinary sensitivity of Vesper Marine AIS equipment has been adopted as a benchmark for AIS receivers.
Our AIS solutions are incorporated in commercial fleet operations as well as a variety of unique marine-based infrastructure projects for regional and national government authorities.

Vesper Marine products have been consistent award winners:

All_Awards_JAN20
    • 2009 Freeman K. Pittman Innovation Award
    • 2009 Price Waterhouse Coopers Hi-Tech Innovation Award
    • 2012 Samuel Plimsoll Award for Marine Safety Innovation
    • 2012 IHS Safety at Sea Equipment Award
    • 2012 Survitec Engineering Excellence Award
    • 2012 Price Waterhouse Coopers Hi-Tech Innovation Award
    • 2012 NMMA Innovation Award for Marine Safety Equipment
    • 2013 Practical Sailor "Best Choice AIS Transponder"
    • 2014 The Teak Rail "The Best AIS Black-Box Transponder"
    • 2017 NMMA Innovation Award for Marine Safety Equipment
    • 2017 Practical Sailor "Gear of the Year"
    • 2018 Pittman Innovation Award
    • 2019 NMEA Best New Product
    • 2019 IBEX Innovation Award for Marine Safety Equipment
    • 2019 DAME "Special Mention" Marine Electronics and Marine Related Software - Nominated
    • 2020 NMEA Product of Excellence Award - AIS Category
  • We’ve also been a finalist for the prestigious 2010 and 2017 DAME Innovation Awards and 2012 Lloyds List Global Awards.