Introduction

Siren Marine is a Newport, RI-based marine technology company that is bringing the Internet of Things (IoT) to the boating industry with its innovative “Connected Boat” technology (think Nest + OnStar for boats). As we move toward a more connected world, Siren Marine’s industry-leading boat monitoring, management, and tracking product is revolutionizing the ownership experience for both owners/operators and fleets by providing remote access to critical and timely information about watercraft.

The Challenge

Boats are complex and expensive assets that are unattended most of the time. Owners want to maximize their enjoyment on the water but don’t have insight into the state of their boat before they arrive at the marina or what’s happening while they’re away. Severe weather events, security breaches, and power outages can leave owners worried about the state of their boat and lead to unnecessary visits just to check on their boat’s status. In addition, small operational issues such as a bilge pump going offline, if left unchecked, can lead to high repair costs for owners or even result in total loss due to sinkage.

To quickly identify and then proactively address the many possible issues that could befall a boat, owners need a way to remotely monitor and track their boat in real-time. However, few boats come equipped with any of this functionality or the connectivity required.  

To obtain the cost-savings and peace-of-mind offered by boat tracking and monitoring solutions, owners need a way to easily retrofit their existing boat with inexpensive but reliable sensors and a communication hub. Given that there are many boat types and needs, such a solution also needs to be affordable, customizable, and modular. And finally, the solution needs to maintain connectivity regardless of its location, whether that’s close to shore or out at sea.

The Solution

To help boat owners proactively identify and address potential issues, Siren Marine worked with Leverege to develop a robust connected boat solution that gives owner/operators and fleet management companies the power to know — wherever they are — that their boats are safe, secure, and ready to enjoy.

Siren Marine’s MTC is a purpose-built hardware device that’s affordable and easily installed on any boat, from center consoles and bass boats to cruising sailboats and trawlers. The MTC can be connected to both wired sensors and wireless sensors that enable additional functionalities. These sensors include temperature probes, shore power sensors, motion sensors, video cameras, bilge sensors, high water sensors, and battery sensors, among others.

Siren Marine's Architecture

Data from the devices and sensors is passed via global 3G connectivity (or satellite if the boat is out of range of cell towers) to the Leverege Platform, where the data is stored in real-time and historical databases. Leverege worked with Siren Marine to create custom dashboards and native mobile apps to make that data useful and actionable, allowing boat owners to track, monitor, and manage their boat from afar.  

The custom dashboards are optimized for mobile, desktop, and tablet, and enable boat owners to view real-time and historical information on bilge, battery, engine hours, shore power, temperature, and any other sensors that are connected. However, simply accessing information often isn’t enough, so the dashboards also allow boat owners to set thresholds and alerts (via text messaging or in-app notifications) for critical events.  

To prevent water intrusion, which is one of the most common and potentially catastrophic problems experienced on boats, the solution monitors bilge pump run time and high water sensors so that boat owners can be alerted if there are issues and avoid major disaster.

To address trespassing and theft, motion sensors and magnetic switches can trigger alerts to the boat owner and/or automatically trigger strobe lights and alarms. Also, boat owners can set geofences so that they’re immediately notified if their boat has left a certain area (whether that’s from theft or from drifting away), then view the bread-crumb trail of the boat to track it down and recover it.

Finally, to ensure the boat is ready to be enjoyed at next use, the solution monitors the boat’s battery and connection to shore power to avoid dead batteries, spoiled food, or bilge pump failure when shore power is lost.

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