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Harrowing Childhood Ride Inspires New Smart Boat Technology

 

Miami, FL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 03/14/2018 --Imagine being eight years old, out on the ocean alone—miles from shore--with an ill father unable to take the helm. An experience most kids would rather forget, even if they did manage to steer the boat safely to shore.

Not Boatrax co-founder David Villegas. His experience drove him to combine his considerable boat captain skills with his love of the sea to create Boatrax, an automatic marine logging system that pinpoints a boat's exact location in real time.

The FIU alumnus, together with his brother-in-law, Arturo Malave, created a system that would not only track a boat's location but would also take the drudgery out of record-keeping. This cloud-based system, the Boatrax Box, transmits a boat's log securely—in real time—to the cloud to track all the data many boaters still enter by hand.

This cutting-edge device reads and records automatically a boat's fuel consumption, revolutions per minute (RPM), running hours, and oil pressure, transmitting them to the cloud as events happen. The system also allows boaters to review the usage data of the boat from the point of installation throughout its history.

Should a potential malfunction arise, Boatrax will alert you immediately. Even more importantly, it records the boat's precise location, enabling rescuers to pinpoint where they need to look, should the boat or its captain encounter trouble.

According to Villegas, owners of older boats, too, can take advantage of this breakthrough technology. He says, "With an adapter, we've even been able to interface with older engines to expand this service to those boats, too." He adds, "Boat owners can even follow their boat in real time with our mobile app, so they can have instant access to their data at their fingertips."

The team of developers, engineers, and captains that designed the Boatrax Box have tested the device extensively—and are now ready to launch it on Kickstarter for early adopters who want to get in on the ground floor of this new technology.

Boat enthusiasts who aren't ready to jump on board as an early adopter can pledge as little as $5.00 to help the manufacturing process get off the ground and receive Boatrax swag for their efforts.

For a pledge of only $250.00, boaters can receive a new Boatrax box, three months of real-time data, and provide valuable feedback to the Boatrax team to improve the device. Other, more valuable perks—including a chance to meet the team on an all-expenses-paid yacht cruise in Miami, Florida—are available for higher-dollar pledges.

Co-founded by David Villegas and Arturo Malave, Boatrax (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1682771058/the-boatrax-box/) designs and builds precise, real-time automatic logs for captains, boat owners, and recreational boaters to maintain their logs without time-consuming manual entries. Designed to elevate precision in boat maintenance, Boatrax systems help owners keep their boats in tiptop shape. The company donates three percent of all its pledges to the Debris Free Ocean Foundation, whose goal is to rid oceans, reefs, and beaches of harmful marine debris.