The emerging benefits of the Internet of things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Learning machines are increasingly becoming realised. Industries across the world are adopting these new technologies to enable them to run their assets and overall business operations more effectively – and are seeing considerable return on their investment. However, within some industries – and the superyacht sector is one of them – there is a surprising hesitation to explore the considerable benefits that these can bring to Shipyards, Captains, ETOs, management companies and ultimately, superyacht owners. 

A New Approach: Winterhaven Technology 

Joseph Adir is the Founder & CEO of Winterhaven and is spearheading this innovative project. 

WinterHaven is a new platform for yacht owners, yacht managers and captains looking to base their yachts in a highly diverse and multifunctional enablement platform offering all necessary technical services and amenities to successfully maintain and operate their superyacht as well as offering their crews all the support services they require. 

WinterHaven is not a “marina” and not a “refit shipyard”.  It is the best of both.  It will focus on being a “home” with the best “neighbourhood” for running a superyacht and its personnel efficiently and economically. 

WinterHaven’s fabric is made of seamless partnership among; Superyacht Shipyards, Strategic partners (OEM’s and leading sub-contractors), Superyacht Management companies and brokers as well as the WinterHaven-Viking Maritime Academy.  

A year ago, WinterHaven have made a strategic decision to add the 5th dimension – WinterHaven Technology. 

Winterhaven Technology is creating a very unique technological environment based on three core pillars;  

• Enablement Centre
• Vendor driven
• Enabling the deployment, installation and integration of superyachts related advanced technologies
•  Integration Centre
• Multivendor platforms
• End to end integration of advanced solutions – Glue Logic development into the core Platform.
•  Acceleration Facility
• Cutting edge / Blue Sky
• Development into the future of the Superyachting industry based on AI/Deep Learning machine core Platform.

The focus of WinterHaven’s technology Integration Centre will be the implementation of IoT and AI/Learning Machines technologies that Adir is passionate about. Why? It’s because this kind of technology will be offering two key benefits; The ability to manage and control the whole superyacht from a single smart platform and the enablement of reliable and accurate fault prediction algorithms for the mechanical systems of the yacht. 

“Most breakage is mechanical (gears, generators, engines, stabilisers, pumps etc.) and the use of technology allows the team on board to assess whether a component or sub-system is behaving normally,” Adir explains. “Fault prediction algorithms show trajectories of behaviour and when certain parameters occur, they indicate the probability of a fault and that soon there will be a problem. The awareness of that problem enables you to avoid that fault and address it ahead of time. It’s preventative maintenance.” 

Adir goes on to explain that the superyacht industry is behind the curve in comparison with other industries, such as the aviation industry, which has always been at the forefront of technology adoption and is already utilising Learning Machines algorithms and AI to support predictive maintenance. In the superyacht industry, though owners are buying an asset that costs as much as a jetliner, it doesn’t have the depth and breadth of intelligence behind it to allow all stakeholders to access live data in order to predict a fault and address the issue in advance. 

Technology wise, WinterHaven Technology is developing the AI/Learning machine Core Platform and creating an “Open System” approach allowing a very large number of vendors to interface with their own monitoring, data logging and integrated solutions into the Core Platform, enriching the overall integrated solution. 

The Thinking Yacht 

Utilising WinterHaven Technology advanced AI/Learning Machine with its integrated devices and systems, will provide advanced BI and Automation Engines. WinterHaven will deliver a fully integrated solution that seamlessly fuses data and operational capabilities of both offshore and onshore elements, capable of complex autonomous response to a wide spectrum of operational, security, and safety scenarios.  

Moving ahead 

The challenge will be education. This whole initiative involves a complex integration of all the systems onboard a yacht with each component being fitted with a sensor. It’s not a cheap option but will yield huge benefits in the long-term, lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) considerably and making the experience of owning a superyacht altogether more enjoyable whilst addressing its disreputable reputation for unscheduled maintenance and downtime.  

“We need everyone who makes all the systems utilised onboard to unite,” stresses Adir. “There are around 5,500 superyachts on the water and, over the next 5 years, people will start to integrate more systems and therefore the challenge is how to retrofit existing yachts. This is what Winterhaven wants to pioneer – to become a centre of technology and excellence offering an enablement platform for all stakeholders associated with superyachts.” 

Adir is issuing an important call to action, which involves bringing together the companies that create the onboard systems to create an industry standard and to unite to ensure that their systems can be integrated. The other call to action goes out to all stakeholders; the Shipyards, Superyacht owners, captains, ETOs and management companies to take action to preserve the value of their expensive asset through the integration of the Core Platform based on AI/Learning machine, as a retrofit for their yachts.  

“We are not inventing anything new,” he continues. “It is just a complex integration of existing proven technologies. It is critical that, as an industry, we take action together to make life easier, less expensive and to make ownership of a superyacht a much more commercially viable and enjoyable experience!”  

The Thinking Yacht 

Utilising WinterHaven Technology advanced AI/Learning Machine, BI, and Automation Engines, WinterHaven delivers a fully integrated solution that seamlessly fuses data and operational capabilities of both offshore and onshore elements, capable of complex autonomous response to a wide spectrum of operational, security, and safety scenarios.  

WinterHaven’s goal is to become the world–leading superyacht marine centre in a class of its own offering top quality installation, retrofit, repair and maintenance services as well as a home for a large number of superyachts and all their respective stake holders. 

WinterHaven will be implementing its own technology platform for the management and operation of its Superyachts Marine Centre. 

Winterhaven will offer a fully transparent service, where every penny spent on a yacht will be accounted for on WinterHaven’s central billing system. This transparency, in addition to the implementation of AI/Learning Machine and IoT technologies throughout the site, addressing the core tasks of the site itself as well as onboard existing superyachts, will bring about a much-needed paradigm shift in the sector and will ultimately benefit the owners, management companies and crew of superyachts.   

 Read the Winterhaven Superyacht Technology News Winter Blueprint Here.

WinterHaven Technology