Remote boat monitoring and security cameras

Rupert Holmes looks at options for monitoring of boats that will warn of intruders, change of location and impact from other vessels

- Rupert Holmes

Some aspects of marine electronics have changed out of recognition over the past few years. Remote boat monitoring is one. With Zest, my partner's 36ft Rob Humphreys-designed one-off, for instance, we get an alert if the boat moves more than 6m (20ft) from her mooring, and low resolution still photographs are taken every 15 minutes, 24-hours a day.

Wireless intruder sensors on the main and fore hatches trigger a loud alarm, plus email and text messages. At the same time the system takes further photos, which are available immediately on both web and mobile apps.

We can also set alerts for heel angle, bilge levels and impact sensors that will detect another vessel colliding with her when moored. Even the batteries can be monitored in real time, so we can check whether the solar is charging correctly. Equally, it can be set up with an automated alert if the marina shore power connection is interrupted.

Yet this isn't a super-expensive futuristic system. It's an off the shelf product from Canadian company BRNKL that took me only a couple of hours to install, although fitting to a more complex boat that requires wiring to be run behind headlinings would take longer.

BRNKL unit and camera 

The hardware cost was just over £1,000, plus a monthly subscription of £15. For all but the simplest and lowest value boats it's a small price to pay for the peace of mind it brings.

At the core of the system is a base unit with an accurate GPS, plus sensors for temperature and humidity, as well as an accelerometer/gyroscope for heel, pitch and motion/ impact. Batteries, bilge pump float switches and one external camera can be hard wired to this unit.