Mantsbrite Marine was established in 1964 by Brian Ash, an electronic communications engineer with a keen interest in boats. Although initially Mantsbrite served the land communications market, a friendship formed in the local waterside pub with Bob Donaldson, an ex-Marconi radar development engine. This led to the start of Mantsbrite Marine Electronics in the early 1970’s supplying, installing and servicing an assortment of marine electronic navigation and communications equipment.
Over the years Mantsbrite grew to become UK & Irish distributors for some of the leading brands such as Koden Electronics who manufacture, radar, echo sounders, GPS, AIS etc.
Mantsbrite have worked with customers in Ireland for over 30 years and we find it vital to attend the Irish Skipper Expo in Limerick as it gives us the opportunity to meet our installing dealers who supply, install and service our equipment, many of whom have become friends.
The Expo also enables us to meet and gain important feedback from fishermen who are using our products in all weathers. Skipper Expo also introduces us to new customers and allows us to showcase our range of equipment. The exhibition gives customers a great opportunity to see a wide range of equipment from many suppliers all under one roof.
Another advantage of the exhibition is the opportunity to showcase new products directly to the fishermen, such as the new Koden PickPoint XS radio buoy which is designed to transmit its location every 10 minutes and display the position on a chart plotter. The radio buoy can be used to mark a string of pots, a longline / nets etc. Unlike previous generations of radio buoy, the new PickPoint XS is small, easily deployable and a pair of rechargeable batteries last up to 96 hours giving a range of up to 10NM. The buoy also has 3 high intensity white LED@s for night or low visibility conditions.
The PickPoint radio buoy sends an encrypted data string which contains the GPS location, battery level and buoy identification number, only the vessels receiver paired to the buoy can decipher the information. The PickPoint XS system comprises of the radio buoy / buoys and a radio buoy receiver with antenna. As the system is designed to operate in the 433MHz band only a small antenna is required on-board the vessel. The radio receiver is uses NMEA 0183 or Wi-Fi to connect to the chart plotter or Computer. PickPoint works with most common PC charting systems such as TimeZero/Maxsea, Sodena, etc.
David Ash said, “We look forward to visiting Ireland and meeting our friends and customers at Irish Skipper Expo 2025 on the Mantsbrite stand C6”.
