VSTEP announces the release of their new maritime simulator NAUTIS Home in the last quarter of 2022. With NAUTIS Home, VSTEP aims to enable both maritime professionals and enthusiasts to experience realistic ship simulation from home, onboard or anywhere else.

Merwe4 - Rotterdam Maritime Capital of Europe Credit: Guido Pijper

Until now, professional maritime simulation was mostly accessible with large simulators at training locations or through companies and schools. “At VSTEP, it is our primary goal to enable learning by simulation,” says Fabian van den Berg, Chief Executive Officer of VSTEP. On-premises maritime simulators are crucial in facilitating the right maritime education.

Innovative simulation solutions

In the past 20 years, VSTEP has dedicated itself to working towards a safer world. They do this by developing innovative simulation solutions making maritime training available in an efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable way. With their broad range of NAUTIS simulation-based training systems, VSTEP can deliver simulation solutions fitting with the training needs of maritime training centersschools, and fleet owners

“However, we noticed a strong demand from a much larger group interested in professional simulation software to which on-premises simulators are not accessible,” says Van den Berg. This group consists for example of maritime students longing for more simulation training hours, maritime hobbyists and even simulation enthusiasts, who currently do not have a suitable option to experience ship simulation.  

Reduce the number of training hours

Combined with other factors such as travel time to on-premises simulators, travel costs and COVID-19 restrictions, a demand arose in the market for a scalable and non-location bound simulation solution. “By bringing this new product to the market, we can increase the number of training hours significantly,” says Van den Berg. He notes that this is one of the most disruptive products the maritime education market has seen in the last 15 years. 

VSTEPs vision is to ensure that simulation-based learning becomes a vital part of maritime education and training by making ship simulation accessible to everyone in the maritime industry. To achieve this, VSTEP expands their current NAUTIS portfolio with the new stand-alone ship simulator solution NAUTIS Home, designed and built by industry professionals.