HelmLink v1 · In beta testing

HelmLink.
The home of your onboard captain.

Where Pathr Co-Captain leaves the phone and lives on the boat itself.

HelmLink is in beta testing now. A small piece of hardware built to do two jobs. It speaks to the boat’s NMEA network so Pathr routes can reach your existing autopilot, no retyping. And it hosts the Co-Captain locally, so the AI advisor that knows your vessel, your routes, and the conditions keeps working even when the boat is offline.

Pathr Navigation is live. Pathr Co-Captain is next. HelmLink v1 is in beta now, starting with the app-to-boat bridge, read-only, with autopilot handoff ahead.

Beta hardware · v1
HelmLink
Inputs
Pathr route · waypoints
Outputs
NMEA 2000 / 0183
Talks to
Existing autopilot
Footprint
Small. Hidden. Quiet.
The idea
One app. One route. One system that actually works together.
The problem

Modern apps. Legacy helms. AI on the wrong side.

Boaters today juggle two worlds. The app world is fast, modern, free of headaches. The helm world is chartplotters, autopilots, and instruments that were designed before the iPhone. Getting from one to the other still means typing waypoints by hand.

And the smart part lives in the wrong place. Modern marine AI runs on the phone, where signal disappears the moment you leave the harbor. The advisor that should know your boat best is the one that goes quiet first.

Manual re-entry

Boaters plan a route in a modern app, then re-type every waypoint into a chartplotter from 2008.

Closed ecosystems

Each marine electronics vendor wants the boater locked into their stack. Cross-vendor integration is rare and expensive.

Forced upgrades

To get "modern" plotting, owners are told to replace working hardware. That's a wall of cost, not a path forward.

Software/hardware gap

Modern routing software sits on a phone. The autopilot sits at the helm. Nothing connects them cleanly.

The AI lives ashore

Marine AI advisors run on the phone. The moment cell signal drops, the advisor goes quiet. Exactly when the boater needs it most.

How it’s built to work

Two jobs. One small box on the boat.

HelmLink lives quietly on the boat. A small piece of hardware that speaks to the existing NMEA network so Pathr routes can reach the autopilot. And the local home for Pathr Co-Captain, so the advisor that knows your boat keeps working when cell signal doesn’t.

01

The app plans it

Pathr generates the route. Depth-aware, hazard-aware, weather-aware. Same routing brain that already ships in the app.

02

HelmLink bridges it

A small piece of hardware that speaks to the boat's NMEA network and translates the Pathr route into something the boat's existing autopilot understands.

03

The boat follows it

Waypoints arrive at the autopilot without anyone manually re-entering them. The boater monitors. The boat steers.

04

The Co-Captain rides along

HelmLink hosts the Co-Captain locally. The AI advisor that knows your vessel, your routes, and live conditions keeps working when cell signal drops. Onboard, offline, with you.

Design principles

Built around the boat the owner already has.

Local-first AI

Pathr Co-Captain runs on HelmLink itself. The advisor that knows your vessel and your routes keeps working when cell signal doesn't. Onboard, offline, on every trip.

No new chartplotter

HelmLink rides alongside the gear you already own. No 30-year-old screen to rip out, no $4,000 plotter to buy.

No locked ecosystem

Pathr is the boater's app. HelmLink is the boater's bridge. Both work whether the rest of the helm is Garmin, Raymarine, B&G, or Furuno.

Safe by design

A clean handoff between routing software and the autopilot. The captain stays in command. HelmLink is a bridge, not a replacement.

Where HelmLink is now

An honest answer: in beta.

HelmLink v1 is in beta testing now, real hardware going out to our first testers. It's early and read-only to start, with autopilot handoff and the onboard Co-Captain still ahead. We're building it because we believe it's where this market goes.

Live
Phase 1 · Today
Pathr Navigation

A modern boating navigation app, live on the App Store and Google Play today. The product live conversation is about this.

Building
Phase 2 · Next
Pathr Co-Captain

An AI co-pilot built into Pathr. Briefs trips, watches the things you can't, learns your boat.

Beta
Phase 3 · In beta
HelmLink

The bridge to the helm, and the future home of the onboard Co-Captain. HelmLink v1 is in beta now, read-only to start; driving the autopilot and hosting the Co-Captain onboard are what the beta builds toward.

Why we're talking about it now

Three founders. Three angles on hardware.

LucasFounder
Flight test discipline

National Test Pilot School graduate. Led flight test and validation programs: the discipline of safely qualifying complex hardware systems under real operating conditions.

ChrisCo-founder · Software
Commercial-scale hardware

Built remote-control hardware and cloud systems at commercial scale. Knows what it takes to ship reliable embedded products.

WillCo-founder · Hardware
Concept to commercialization

Award-winning innovative product developer. Has taken hardware from rough concept all the way through commercialization.

We have the team to build it and validate it safely. HelmLink v1 is in beta now, and we're holding it to that bar before any wider release, while the company stays focused on Pathr Navigation and Pathr Co-Captain.

Curious about HelmLink?

We're in early beta. If you're a hardware partner, a marine OEM, or a boater who wants to help test it, let's talk.

Prefer email? Reach us at team@smartsail.ai.