What Is A Watercraft Monitoring System?

At its simplest, a monitor is just a GPS tracker that relays your watercraft’s position to a computer, tablet, or smartphone via a dedicated app. You can also pre-set a specific boundary—called geofencing—in which case it will warn you if your watercraft 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 Watercraft 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 watercraft 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 Watercraft Monitoring

Here are five reasons why you should consider watercraft monitoring systems for your fleet:

Security & Theft Prevention

It is important to be able to prevent theft and locate your watercraft in the unfortunate event of a theft. Only 1 out of 10 stolen watercraft are ever recovered and only about 15% ever reported having had any kind of lock installed to secure their watercraft, so this is a crucial reason to utilize a remote watercraft monitoring system!

There are a variety of ways to implement a remote tracking system on your watercraft for security and theft prevention purposes. For example, if the watercraft’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 watercraft, 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 watercraft monitoring system can also enable you to create a geofence for your watercraft, which is a geographical area where your watercraft 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 watercraft 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 watercraft starts to drag the anchor, you’ll be immediately notified.

Another use for geofencing capabilities is to define dangerous areas for operators to avoid. In case the watercraft 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 watercraft, engine, and service batteries.

With a remote watercraft 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 watercraft’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 watercraft, 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 water.

When monitoring your engines, there’s room for real-time problem solving; if you have trouble while on the water, 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 watercraft 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 watercraft

Receive Insurance Discounts

The average cost of a watercraft insurance policy is generally $200 to $500 a year. A less obvious, but rather important benefit of remote watercraft monitoring is that you might qualify for a discount on this amount! Insurance companies are now offering better prices to the owners whose watercraft can be remotely monitored and even offer extra discounts for the watercraft that have alarms regarding high water and fire alarms.

Fleet Management

With remote watercraft tracking, fleet managers can always know where their watercraft 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 speed throughout the watercraft’s journey; this makes it easy to know when the propellers were damaged and if it was due to 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 report that shows bad use on their behalf?
• Streamline your check-in/out process! Get to know when the watercraft 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 Watercraft Monitoring with Rastrac!

Keeping track of watercraft rentals is no easy task – but Rastrac can help! Geofencing not only ensures the safety of your watercraft 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!