The digital revolution

Simon PearceONBOARD talks to Simon Pearce about how our industry is undergoing a transformative shift in terms of connectivity, cloud-based solutions and AI. This evolution is reshaping and enhancing the user experience and enabling a smarter data-driven operation

The year 2024 has seen technology advance at speed. The primary influencer, Starlink, has demonstrated new thinking and established incredible market domination and as a result, changed the business model for resellers in the yachting sector. Tech companies have had to rethink how they can sustain a margin, let alone grow, so a lot of strategic thinking has taken place. Thankfully, new builds and refits are plentiful and when speaking to peers they confirm that network upgrades, to keep pace with connectivity, have become a priority for those looking to maximise the onboard experience.

Technologies have advanced and new ones are emerging to take advantage of this new platform to bring new levels of benefits to owners, captains, crew, and shore teams and Starlink has of course played a huge part in enabling high-performance, high-quality connectivity to raise the end user experience, but it’s the gift that keeps on giving as it’s also opened the door to new levels of Cloud based services that allow for easy integration with each other to create better, faster, and more comprehensive solutions that share the same data set to a wider audience for greater results, but only for those that move with the times.

ON THE HORIZON
With other options looming on the horizon, questions such as ‘which solution should you select today?’ rise to the top of conversations.

For sure, Kuiper will stir up the market when it arrives, but so will the recently approved direct-to-mobile services from Starlink and you could even question if onboard networks will be required at all in a few years. The answer to that is a resounding yes. Superyachts are swimming in data and as the sector wakes up to the possibilities of sharing it, so the harvesting and storage of data will increase and will require excellent onboard networks and connectivity to the cloud, even if personal devices connect directly to operator networks.

Data harvesting and management is fast becoming the focus of leading tech companies in the superyacht world, but it’s way behind other maritime sectors. One of the leading data harvesting equipment manufacturers has nearly 16,000 units in the merchant sector and almost none in yachting.

Yachting is lagging behind the thinking of merchant fleets and, to be fair, the benefits vary between sectors, but none the less the benefits are there for superyachts, although they have been slow on the uptake up until now and this is sometimes referred to by outsiders as yachting not being as professional as commercial maritime.

However, things are starting to change and both onshore and onboard teams are starting to understand what can be achieved via the installation of one of these systems from simple data harvesting right up to full AMCS with alarms and control on portable devices, real-time data displays and historical data for analysis.

Viewpoints are changing and new entrants bringing new technologies into the sector are more open to partnerships and integration, yards and management companies are discovering new ways to work smarter, and legislation and bureaucracy is becoming easier to meet, with automated reports at the touch of a button.

BIG DATA
New solutions such as Lloyds approved digital logbooks for yachts make it easier, more accurate, and dare I say more reliable when recording information from the yacht. Through API integration, the eLogbooks can be automatically populated ready for checking and signof and the same data can be shared with management companies efortlessly. Even the vessel’s position can be verified automatically now, as advances in sea bed mapping can verify real-time scans against a shared database of previous entries.

The Cloud based storage also means that access cannot only be granted to manufacturers and service teams, but is available to engineers onboard should issues arise and the historic data can be used to analyse trends either prior to planning maintenance or following an incident, to understand the events leading up to that point. Yards are now showing great interest in the same data set and will ofer preferential slots and prices to yachts that supply the data rather than the ones that don’t, because this will enable them to be more prepared and to deliver refits and maintenance in the predicted timescales.

Creating a digital twin, an ‘avatar’ of the yacht brings a wide set of benefits to an even wider set of people. This isn’t a new idea and a quick look at Wikipedia tells you that NASA first used such techniques in the 1960s, particularly with Apollo 13, but the phrase ‘digital twin’ wasn’t coined until 1997, so this is not a new concept, it’s a tried and tested method to deliver superior results. Having a Cloud based avatar available in real time allows for better planning, faster decision making, better support, and in the event of an incident it allows for a clear picture of events to be built to support investigation.

CONNECTIVITY
A vast amount of data is also being generated in an increasing efort to map the oceans and collect eco based information for monitoring and evaluation. New technology to measure temperature, micro plastics and water quality is being installed onto the yachts of philanthropic owners who are leading the support of marine biology groups and research institutions with clear agendas to improve the quality of the oceans It’s clear then, that onboard networks and connectivity are critical to the success of these applications, and much is being done to improve onboard network management and remote support services to ensure that all systems can take full advantage of the new bandwidth that is now available. The new constellations and networks, when they arrive, will bring real market competition whereby the end users will be the winners both in terms of performance and cost. New products enter the market boasting AI capability but in reality, most of this is machine learning and has been around for some years.

AI can of course be used to extrapolate harvested data to predict maintenance requirements or failure. This leads to faster decisions, reduced down-time and reduced cost. A well-maintained yacht that can demonstrate these levels of management data is also likely to realise higher resale values compared to those without.

IN THE CLOUDS
It’s therefore undeniable that Cloud based, integrated solutions are critical to meeting these objectives and to support a future that can move the whole industry forwards and converge technologies to deliver the potential of joined up thinking and action, with the barriers removed.

Of course, this can only happen if the traditionally ‘siloed’ developments and oferings, and the companies behind them, become open to this potential.

So as always, there are early entries into this brave new world of knowledge sharing and those that hold on to their stand-alone solutions and fail to integrate. It’s time to revisit the Owners’ wish list and introduce new solutions. Wherever you are in the chain of supply, don’t lose sight of what is best for the client. Technology is developing at an unprecedented pace and often it is the smaller, agile companies that lead the way.

With a whole new world of products and solutions to choose from, as always, it’s important to choose the right partners to deliver against requirements. Products developed for home markets, for example, may not have the correct features for superyachts, so it’s crucial to work with partners that share your focus on the end user’s goals and have a full understanding of the latest developments in the market. Even with AI all around us, it still comes down to people in the end.

Simon Pearce is Commercial Director at YachtProjects International and a champion of consumer experience solutions to the wider marine industry.