In 2019, there were nearly 12 million registered boats; that same year, more than $55 million in damage occurred. As the global boat rental market grows to be an estimated $440 Million Opportunity by 2025, there’s bound to be even more damage and theft. How can you protect your property and ensure the safety of your passengers, too? Remote boat monitoring via a GPS asset tracking system is the solution!
Quick Links:
- What Is A Boat Monitoring System?
- How Does Remote Boat Monitoring Work?
- 5 Reasons to Consider Boat Monitoring
- Experience the Advantages of Remote Boat Monitoring with Rastrac!
What Is A Boat Monitoring System?
At its simplest, a monitor is just a GPS tracker that relays your boat’s position to a computer, tablet, or smartphone via a dedicated app. You can also pre-set a specific boundary—so-called geofencing—in which case it will warn you if your boat ever strays too far, much like an anchor alarm. There are many benefits to utilizing an asset tracking system that protects both your property and your passengers!
How Does Remote Boat Monitoring Work?
All remote monitoring systems generally follow the same principle — a series of sensors or actuators are connected to a hub. The hub then communicates the sensor’s information through a WiFi, cellular, or satellite network to an app installed on a smartphone or tablet. For example, if your boat stays in a marina with WiFi, then a system that communicates over a WiFi network may be your best choice. If you travel aboard your boat to remote locations or internationally, a system that communicates over cellular or satellite networks would be more reliable.
5 Reasons to Consider Boat Monitoring
Here are five reasons why you should consider boat monitoring systems for your fleet:
Security & Theft Prevention
It is important to be able to prevent theft and locate your boat in the unfortunate event of a theft. Only 1 out of 10 stolen boats are ever recovered and only about 15% ever reported having had any kind of lock installed to secure their boats, so this is a crucial reason to utilize a remote boat monitoring system!
There are a variety of ways to implement a remote tracking system on your boat for security and theft prevention purposes. For example, if the boat’s door or window opens while you’re not there, you can be alerted via a switch on the door or even by installing motion detectors in the interior. In case the intruder bypasses the motion sensors, pressure switches, and security cameras and manages to board the boat, you still can prevent them from leaving the dock by requiring a code prior to being able to start the engine. Any time the engine is started a message is sent notifying you.
A remote boat monitoring system can also enable you to create a geofence for your watercraft, which is a geographical area where your boat is allowed to be. The geofence acts like an invisible electric fence; if the watercraft strays out of this area, you get an alarm message. So, for example, when the boat is moored you can set a perimeter around it or at the outer limits of the marina so if it gets stolen you will get to know in a second. Also with geofencing, you can set up an anchor alarm, so if your boat starts to drag the anchor, you’ll be immediately notified.
Another use for geofencing capabilities is to define dangerous areas for boaters to avoid. In case the boat is rented to tourists who might be unfamiliar with the area, you’ll know when they might be heading towards a prohibited or hazardous area and take action.
Always Be On Alert
There is a number of systems and instruments onboard that an owner or operator should know instantly if something bad happens. With a monitoring device, you can know anytime and get notifications for preventing battery damage by being alerted when its voltage drops a threshold you have specified. You can monitor all boat, engine, and service batteries.
With a remote boat monitoring system from Rastrac, you can also remotely monitor the following activities and receive notifications regarding:
- Arrivals and departures
- Speed
- Location, especially helpful when determining where your watercraft was at the time of an accident
- Turns
- Versatile update rates
Reduce Maintenance Costs
Monitoring your boat’s systems can help you be proactive and save money and time from maintenance. For example, by tracking your watercraft’s battery levels, you can prevent your battery from depleting entirely and prolong its life. If you charter your boat, a monitoring system can notify people on board for a battery drop so they can start the engine and save your battery from running out of power amidst the sea.
When monitoring your engines, there’s room for real-time problem solving; if you have trouble while at sea, you can contact the manufacturer who in turn can remotely read any error codes from your engine and help you resolve them.
With Rastrac’s advanced GV75 GPS tracking device for boat rentals and remote monitoring system, you can easily
- Track maintenance intervals to be proactive on service appointments
- Get automated reports on engine performance
- Schedule maintenance and inspection renewals by date and mileage
- Monitor battery levels, and receive alerts if it decreases to a determined level
- Optimize the resale value of your boat
Receive Insurance Discounts
The average cost of a boat insurance policy is generally $200 to $500 a year. A less obvious, but rather important, the benefit of remote boat monitoring is that you might qualify for a discount on this amount! Insurance companies are now offering better prices to the owners whose boats can be remotely monitored and even offer extra discounts for the boats that have alarms regarding high water and fire alarms.
Fleet Management
With remote boat tracking, fleet managers can always know where their boats are, route history, and other important information. Those who choose to go the monitoring road level up their game in many aspects since they enjoy what we have already mentioned, plus:
- Get real-time notifications for anything that is dangerous, damaging, or out of the ordinary so you can act instantly and save the day when needed.
- Know the wind speed throughout the boat’s journey; this makes it easy to know when the sails were damaged and if it was due to the weather or from the client’s careless use. Clients in such cases usually blame sudden and unpredictable whips of wind, causing problems to the management company. But what can they do if they get an undisputed wind report that shows bad use on their behalf?
- Streamline your check-in/out process! Get to know when the boats return to base so you can arrange all the works, crew, and services that need to be done without wasting time.
Experience the Advantages of Remote Boat Monitoring with Rastrac!
Keeping track of rental boats is no easy task - but Rastrac can help! Geofencing not only ensures the safety of your boats but also of the lives of your renters and anyone in prohibited swimming areas. Receive updates in real-time - all from your smartphone, computer, or tablet!
Contact us to learn more about our boat monitoring systems today!
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