Plan M8 launches yacht maintenance app

Plan M8 has announced the launch of its mobile app. It is designed to simplify yacht maintenance for marine engineers, captains, owners and operators.

Digitisation of engineering has been a slow process in the yachting industry, and the app is designed to minimise malfunctions and errors.

Christopher Clarke, co-founder of Plan M8, said, “I work as a chief engineer on a multimillion euro superyacht where I use personal Excel sheets to plan the vessel's routine maintenance, record data and log operating procedures. Over the course of my career, I have used a range of different yacht maintenance programmes, but have found the set up time consuming, the programmes to be dated or over complicated, or not specific to my yacht. Talking to my fellow engineers I realised I am not the only one with this problem.”

Plan M8 provides a custom overview of all maintenance tasks on board designed to save time, improve communication and reduce operating costs. This way, yacht owners, operators, captains, and engineers are able to collaborate in a transparent manner, preventing problems and offering solutions before they become apparent.

Chris Bolz, co-founder of Plan M8, said, “We had the vision to create a product as efficient to use as Trello, so that eventually every 10- to 40-metre (32- to 131-foot) yacht would be equipped with it.”

Built by industry experts with more than a decade of experience, Plan M8 is designed to resolve common planning and tracking issues related to yacht maintenance.

The mobile app runs offline (offshore), is based on a modern API, can integrate with 3^rd parties, and is designed for vessels between 10 to 40 metres LOA. Additionally, due to its customisable nature, Plan M8 offers several templates for easy self-setup, simplifying the on boarding process for everyone involved.

Prior to its launch, Plan M8 secured a €100,000 (c. £86,272) pre-seed funding round from the Coara Incubator, which is actively involved in the development of the project. The funds are being used to build the minimum viable product, and to kick-start sales and marketing.

In addition to the funding, Plan M8 was also accepted for the Yachting Ventures Accelerator, a 10-week programme, which started on 22^nd February 2021. Yachting Ventures is the first accelerator focused on yachting-related start-ups, and will help accelerate the project’s growth as it heads towards a seed-funding round.

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