Vip Boat Monitoring, a new Vipnet service for tracking boats using GPS technology, was introduced on Thursday on the island of Murter. Vip Boat Monitoring allows for the location and tracking of a boat’s movement on a computer and mobile phone at any time, thereby reducing costs for vessel owners.
Using a mobile unit on the boat that communicates via the mobile network, the user can receive data about the boat’s movement on their computer screen or mobile phone. In addition to being able to locate the vessel at any moment with an accuracy of a few meters, in the event of damage to the boat, proving the damage is facilitated, as the service additionally allows for alerting the boat owner via email and SMS in case of water ingress, engine problems on the vessel, or battery voltage drop. Any stop of the vessel for more than five minutes is automatically recorded. Users can also review the boat’s movements in the past, detailed usage statistics, and ultimately reduce their worries about their boats. Receiving periodic reports on the movement of boats in an email inbox in Excel format or PDF can be predefined in advance. The device has been successfully tested in the Hramina marina for the last two months and is available for sale starting today.
Alen Ranilović, marketing director for business customers at Vipnet, announced further development of the service, so it can be expected that the device will register whether sailing is done under sail or motor, and will automatically report the departure of boats from defined zones (e.g., territorial waters, shallow seas, etc.). Starting from September, users of the service will be able to send SMS messages to the crew through the application itself. “Guests want to have a safe vacation, and the vessel owner wants to have control over their property. That is why the interest in this service is already quite significant,” said Ranilović. To use the service, no additional software installation is required; only internet access and email addresses are sufficient. Thus, it is a completely ‘cloud’ service. Additionally, every new user account must be registered at http://nadzor.vip.hr, and Vipnet provides support 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The Vip Boat Monitoring service, like Vip Car Monitoring, was developed in collaboration with GDi CONVIVO, a member of the GDi GISDATA group. The price of the device is 999 kuna with a monthly fee of 111.93 kuna (91 kuna plus VAT) for 24 months. Croatia, as a tourist country, attracts a large number of foreigners with their vessels annually, and a special option for them has been created, Vip Boat Monitoring – abroad, at the same price. (Kristina Kardum)
