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May June 2020 Marina World

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The magazine for the marina industry

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INTELLIGENT MARINA SYSTEMS the most common safety threats in the boat such as water intrusion, fire and damaged batteries. All sensors are directly connected to the marina, so whenever an incident occurs, the marina and the owner are immediately notified via voice call, SMS, email and mobile app. Each sensor is powered by an internal battery and is completely autonomous; it directly connects to the Internet without any central unit on the boat. The legal framework is well defined so that using the system does not affect the marina liability in any way. Using technology to boost safety by Kresimir Zic Most safety-related incidents regarding boats in marinas can be prevented (except for natural disasters of course). These incidents can result from simple and well-understood physical phenomena such as galvanic currents, corrosion, fatigue of materials and many others, which in a highly complex structure like a modern boat may lead to a catastrophic event if not handled properly. In some cases, those incidents may also come from a deliberate human act like vandalism and theft. Although the liability of the marina is usually very well defined, we all know how difficult it is to handle an angry customer who expects to find his boat in the same state in which it was left. In this article we will present a few different techniques which have proven successful in improving boat safety in a marina. Daily dock walk: most marinas perform a periodic check of the berths and boats in the marina. With all the technology available today, our approach was to develop a mobile application to capture all the information about the boats during these dock walks. Whenever anything relevant is observed, the dockhand logs it in the mobile app using images and a description of the event. After the information has been verified by the dockmaster, the customer is immediately notified via email, or even better via the mobile app for the boat owners, of course with attached images and a detailed description of the event. Smart boat: whereas the daily dock walk gives us valuable information from the outside of the boat, the most important safety threats come from inside the boat. It might be a corroded valve or damaged seal; the bilge might be full of stale water and mould for months before the owner comes. Or even worse; the batteries can overheat with every charging, which will eventually lead to a fire in the marina. All those incidents can be easily prevented using the smart Sense4Boat Internetof-Things sensors. The smart Sense4Boat sensors detect Advanced video surveillance with image processing and recognition is a technology with a lot of potential in the marina industry. Traditional video surveillance systems rely on the human eye and deliver very limited results. Nowadays with the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning, computers are able to interpret the information from the provided context. Having intelligent cameras able to detect safety threats while simultaneously streaming video content to the satisfied boat owners will become an essential component of the marina service. The marina industry is predominantly a very competitive market and it has become very difficult to retain existing customers and attract new ones. Although individual marinas will always have different business strategies, focusing on the safety of the boat is a proven winning strategy for many marinas. We have been successfully applying this concept in Marina Punat in Croatia and in many other marinas over the past few years with great results. Kresimir Zic helped develop the Marina Cloud software solution; a management system designed by marina managers. www.marinacloud.net www.marinaworld.com - May/June 2020 47

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