BlueNav Smart Mooring Wins Cannes 2026 Navigation Award

Navigation award for Smart Mooring

BlueNav has won the Best Equipment Improving Navigation category in the 2026 Innovation Route Awards at Cannes Yachting Festival for its Smart Mooring technology. The system is designed to assist skippers during close-quarters manoeuvring by combining high-precision positioning, electric propulsion and automated control.

Smart Mooring continuously assesses wind, current and swell and commands BlueNav electric motors to compensate for the forces acting on the vessel. BlueNav says the system can return a boat automatically to a previously saved GPS position and then maintain that position while lines are prepared or other mooring tasks are completed.

Position holding from the BlueNav app

The manufacturer claims positioning accuracy of plus or minus 20 centimetres when Smart Mooring is combined with its Precision+ GPS system. Position can also be adjusted through the BlueNav app, allowing a skipper to control the vessel from different points on board rather than remaining at a fixed helm station.

BlueNav presents the technology as particularly useful for vessels operated with small crews because automated position holding can reduce the need for a second person to maintain the boat’s position during line handling. The system is intended to reduce workload rather than replace the skipper’s responsibility for safe manoeuvring.

Automation moves into close-quarters manoeuvring

The Cannes award follows BlueNav’s earlier recognition in 2026 for its patented Virtual Anchor technology. Both systems illustrate the growing use of electric propulsion and high-accuracy positioning for functions beyond conventional propulsion.

For the yacht sector, automated station keeping is increasingly relevant as propulsion, navigation and control systems become more closely integrated. The Cannes award gives BlueNav’s approach additional industry recognition while the technology continues to develop commercially.