Article by Capt. Steve Katz
With fall around the corner, there may be times when you are not using your boat as often as you did during the summer months. Knowing the status of your boat while you are away is important to many boaters.
While you may be interested in your boat’s status, many marine insurance companies are also interested, requesting vessel tracking systems on-board in order to get insurance or to receive a discounted rate. In South Florida, all insurance companies require GPS tracking systems on large, outboard powered center console boats. These systems actually work and have lead to the recovery of many boats.
Many boat owners want to know more than just the location of their boat. There are a variety of security and monitoring systems on the market that can provide this information and we will review a few here.
A few years ago, I made an evening service call to a charter boat to replace an inoperative freshwater pump between charter trips so the boat would have a working fresh water system for the next day’s trip.
I went aboard the boat, unlocked the door and began my work. A few minutes later the Captain arrived onboard, checking on my work to see if the water system was fixed. I wondered how he happened to arrive shortly after I did. He indicated his alarm system silently alerted him by a text message to his phone that the cabin door was opened and he then drove to the boat to check on me. This boat was equipped with a system called the “BoatNanny”, a wireless monitoring and boat alarm system.
With today’s technology, it seems it would be easy to design a boat alarm, boat monitoring system or an App. In fact, due to the unique needs of boats and the marine environment, there are only a few manufacturers on the market designing systems that work for boaters.
One of the top of the line products are from a company called Global Ocean Security Technologies, (GOST). GOST offers a full line of state-of-the-art wireless security, monitoring, satellite tracking, surveillance, acoustic deterrents and cloaking systems for any size vessel, from tenders to ships.
Other companies such as Flagship Marine Security, BoatNanny, BoatWarden, Siren Marine, Spot and others offer marine security, tracking and monitoring systems.
Some of these systems use satellite service for communications and some use cellular data for communications. What you choose may depend on the coverage in your boating areas. The systems that use cellular data are often GSM networks, with coverage extending a few miles offshore. Here in the United States, AT&T and T-Mobile should be able to provide service and internationally the GSM service is popular and available in most areas. Satellite service is great for those who travel often and want to be sure they have coverage far from shore.
Most of the security and monitoring systems are modular, meaning you buy a base unit with a few functions and add options for your specific needs, such as monitoring the shore power system, monitoring the onboard battery system, monitoring temperatures (cabin, refrigerator, bait freezer), interior motion detectors, bilge water level, smoke detector and many other options area available depending on the system.
One of the most interesting features is the tracking capabilities by incorporating a geo-fence. A geo-fence is a geographic fence, an imaginary invisible fence around the boat. This is usually programmed by the end user, defining a radius or some other geographic boundary, that when crossed, triggers an event. As an example, a geo-fence could be designed to cover your local marina, that way if the boat leaves the marina an event is triggered and you are notified.
Without the ability to set a geo-fence you could get a false alarm if the boat was properly moved to another slip or taken out of the water for dry storage within your local marina.
One of the smallest and least expensive tracking device is offered by SPOT (a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc) called the SPOT Trace, a palm sized battery powered tracking device that retails for $99 and uses satellite technology to track your boat and communicate the location and status of your boat. This small device helps protect your boat by notifying owners via email or text when movement is detected anytime, anywhere. SPOT Trace users can view their boat’s GPS coordinates online, 24 hours a day in near real-time through Google Maps. This device is also great for cars, motorcycles, boats, ATVs, personal watercraft, construction machinery, snowmobiles or any asset.
On the other end of the spectrum is the GOST system, with many offerings and add-on modules that include satellite monitoring, a customized secure web page with your boats status, streaming video monitoring, including FLIR camera integration and even a cloaking option. In the event of an intrusion alarm, the GOST Cloak fills the protected area with an impenetrable cloud of smoke that prevents the loss of property, confuses the thief, and forces the intruder out of the premises until the response team arrives.
While some of these systems sound exciting for luxury yachts, some of basic systems have very practical uses that can be very helpful to the average fishing boat owner. Some features as simple as a bait freezer temperature sensor that lets you know, by text or email, that the freezer temperature is out of range or that the shore power is not working. Saving a freezer full of bait from going bad at tournament time is priceless. These systems allow piece of mind while you are away from the boat.
Some of these systems allow the user to call the boat using the phone number associated with the alarm system and turn on or off wired devices connected to an optional relay. The Siren Marine device incorporates GSM phone SIM card, used to send and receive data to and from the boat. Most alarm systems can be remotely armed or disarmed. This allows you to disarm the system to allow a service person to work on the boat and then re-arm the system after they depart.
A normal high water alarm is only useful if someone nearby hears it and reacts. If the high water alarm is incorporated into the vessel alarm and monitoring system, you and others can be alerted that the water level in the bilge is too high and you or others can go to the boat and take care of the situation immediately, possibly saving your boat from a disaster.
With a wide range of features and prices, there seems to be a tracking, monitoring and alarm system to meet the needs of every boat owner.
Captain Steve Katz is the owner of Steve's Marine Service and holds NMEA MEI, AMEI, NMEA2000 certificates, ABYC Master Technician certification and factory training from many manufacturers.
