It’s officially that time of the year again. The snow has already started to fly in some areas of the country and the long days of summer are starting to dwindle away. Before taking a long winter’s nap, many need to prepare themselves for the winter ahead by closing up shop from the warm weather sports. For boat owners, this includes the daunting task of winterizing their watercraft.
Toys for the outdoors are oftentimes a household’s most expensive purchase. On average, a purchase of a boat in the US bought new is likely between $40,000 to $60,000. With an investment that large, it is important for owners to maintain consistent upkeep and care for their boats to last for many years to come.
As the years have passed, each summer boats have gotten increasingly nicer, gear has gotten lighter, and water-craft-related systems have gotten exponentially high-tech. Despite all of this innovation, boat covers and storage have remained unchanged. Let’s take a look at a company that is looking to evolve this vital part of boat maintenance for the modern-day.
As technology has developed, it has played an increasingly influential and important role in outdoor recreation. In just the past decade, a digital explosion of technological developments, ranging from clothes to equipment, has made adventure in the great outdoors more approachable.
There are five key ways in which technology has helped evolve the realm of outdoor recreation: Access and transportation, comfort, safety, communication, and information. Digital tools have helped shape all five of these aspects to make boating something that can be enjoyed by more people, for more time throughout the year. When it comes to the protection of a watercraft when it isn’t in use, however, there is still a need for technological innovation.
Ironically enough, warmer states in the U.S., are often the ones that submit the most claims to insurers for damage to their boats after the winter season is over. Winterizing a craft is not only a necessity when it comes to protecting the engine, electronics, and other components, if it is handled properly it helps boat owners to safeguard their large-scale investment.
There are many critical steps when it comes to winterizing a watercraft, from draining a boat’s oil, to stabilizing the fuel to removing the moisture. A new company, Komodo Covers, has come up with a much overdue innovation that helps to save boat owners all over the world a lot of money and time when it comes to properly protecting their boat and its many important parts for the winter season.
Josh Bremmerer, Founder and CEO of Komodo Covers, is an innate Navigant who has spent most of his life on board a boat. His company has designed an Intelligent boat cover with usability, durability, and versatility in mind to ensure that boat owners can care for their investments once they have been docked.
Komodo covers are designed to be impervious to the elements, protecting your boat from anything mother nature can throw at it—fittingly named after the scaly skin and expanding rib cage of the Komodo Dragon. Their proprietary design involves a boat cover as well as a digital device that helps provide the tools for daily upkeep and use all the way to effective, long-term outdoor storage.
With expanding beams that act like a rib cage, the cover makes it easy for owners to pull over their boat, and once secured, automatically shape shifts to the craft, pulling the tension on any remaining slack. Connected to the fabric cover is a digital control unit called the kommander, which is connected to an app on the owner’s phone. Running double duty, it keeps the cover taut and the interior dry with integrated heat and dehumidification capabilities, all while keeping track of and sending updates on what’s going on with the cover and boat. Between the futuristic boat cover and the proprietary technology that is connected to it, boats can dry out overnight and be safely stored for less than half the cost of heated boat storage for one winter.
Even the nicest high-end boat covers aren’t sturdy enough to last a whole winter in the driveway. To date, this has forced boat owners everywhere to give up their coveted parking spot in the garage or pay more than $300 a month for a heated spot at a storage facility. With technology applied to the covering and storing of boat owners’ high-price investments, starting your watercraft next season is as easy as turning the ignition key.
Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
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