Boat monitoring systems have been around for a few years, but typically have been expensive, complicated to wire and required power from your boat’s batteries to operate. The folks from Skyhawk recently introduced their Oversea Boat Monitoring System that is somewhat affordable, portable, unwired and uses IoT (Internet of Things) technology to communicate critical data about your vessel 24/7 no matter where you roam.
Why Monitor Your Boat?
There are myriad reasons to keep an eye on your boat at the marina. One of these is to avoid unexpected problems like water in the bilge or a dead battery. With boat theft on the rise, the Skyhawk Oversea monitoring system gives you more tools to fight back to keep your boat, electronics, motors and other gear safe. You’ll know if your boat is moving unexpectedly, or if there’s an unexpected guest in your cabin.
If there are potential dangers to your boat, you need to know this immediately. Whether it’s overactive bilge pumps, excessive heat and humidity, or alarms that start sounding, Oversea will send you alerts so you can stay on top of things before they potentially get out of hand. There’s nothing worse than planning a big day on the water and then finding that your boat’s batteries are dead. Oversea makes sure you’re never surprised. You’ll get alerts when your battery voltages are low. You’ll know if your shore power is working or not. You’ll always know that you’re ready to go. From a maintenance standpoint, dropping battery voltage, high temperatures and excess water in the bilge can all be signs of trouble. Oversea alerts you early on, so small problems don’t become large ones.
Systems Explained
The Oversea Hub is the nerve center of the Oversea Boat Monitoring System. Powered by AA batteries, with no need to wire it to your boat battery for power, it is easy and simple to install. The Hub offers two modes: as a standalone on-demand location device or as a location + gateway combination, where it serves as a forwarding device for local Oversea sensor signals. The replaceable internal batteries will last 1-2 years as a location-on-demand and gateway. The Oversea Hub provides you with year-round monitoring so your boats and the property on them stay safe, secure and ready to go at any time.
Most competitive boat monitoring systems employ their hub as the operational nerve center of your vessel. Any communications with the monitoring company’s servers emanate from this hub that’s tagged or assigned to your boat. Whatever accessory sensors you select for the monitoring suite initially or down the road are either wired directly or wirelessly paired to the hub. In contrast, Skyhawk’s Oversea boat monitoring system doesn’t pair the sensors to the hub at all. Instead, each sensor connects to your vessel in Skyhawk’s servers, but not at the hub level. Translated, any Oversea hub will relay messages from an Oversea sensor in range, which according to the company can be up to 1,000 feet away by using 915 MHz radio frequencies and wake-on-radio technology to reduce the average current draw on each hub or sensor’s internal batteries by over 99%.
The Hub acts as a central point for collecting data from all sensors and transmitting it to the user. The Hub also functions as a location tracker, using cellular connectivity to determine the boat’s position even when GPS signals are unavailable. The Hub utilizes a cellular network (e.g., Verizon’s IoT platform) to relay alerts and sensor data to the user’s smartphone app. The Hub immediately relays alerts triggered by sensors (e.g., high water in the bilge, unauthorized entry) to the user’s app and can also send batched data (e.g., temperature and humidity trends). The Oversea smart phone app provides a user-friendly interface to view real-time data from the sensors, track the boat’s location and receive alerts. Users can customize alert thresholds and preferences within the app to suit their individual needs.
But like many good things in life, there’s a price for this service. The initial cost of the hub is $249 and most of the sensors are available for under $65. There are 3-pack sensor bundles available that bring the average unit cost under $50. A monitoring subscription for the hub will cost $15 per month and monitoring for whatever sensors you might add will be $5 per three-pack of sensors. The current wireless sensor options include battery, bilge, shore power, sound, temperature, humidity, entry/motion and water sensors. Is a boat monitoring system the right choice for you?
