Yachtwave
Yachtwave is a Sarasota-based marine SaaS platform serving boat owners, yacht managers, and boat manufacturers with AI-powered maintenance, NMEA 2000 telematics, and OEM-branded mobile apps on a subscription and hardware model.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2010
- HeadquartersSarasota, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Yachtwave does
Yachtwave (legally Durban Equity Holdings II, LLC dba YACHTWAVE) is a private marine technology company headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, that builds a mobile-first SaaS platform for the recreational and commercial boating industry. Founded by Captain John O'Keefe (with founding year stated variously as 2010 in company history and 2021 in firmographic data), the company operates three product lines serving distinct buyer personas: a free Personal Edition app for individual boat owners managing up to three vessels, a Fleet Edition subscription ($19-49 per boat per month) for yacht managers and captains overseeing multi-vessel operations, and a Delivery Platform with OEM-branded white-label mobile apps for boat manufacturers. Underlying technology includes native iOS and Android applications, an NMEA 2000 telematics hardware device (YachtLink) protected by three registered patents, an AI-powered diagnostic engine branded AI Mechanic (patent-pending), and integration with GPT-5 and Google Gemini large language models grounded in OEM technical manuals.
The company makes money through tiered recurring subscriptions (ranging from free up to $49 per boat per month with annual billing offering up to 17% savings), YachtLink hardware sales with a bundled three-year manufacturer subscription, OEM/white-label licensing for boat manufacturers to publish branded apps, and professional services for commercial customer onboarding. Distribution combines a product-led growth motion via App Store and Google Play downloads, an enterprise field sales motion (discovery conversations and hands-on 'Sea Trial' demos) for yacht managers and OEMs, and OEM-embedded white-label apps that re-distribute the platform under manufacturer brands. Recent strategic activity has centered on three product launches between December 2025 and March 2026 (OEM-branded mobile apps, Digital Production Build Orders, and AI Mechanic 4.0 with GPT-5 integration), alongside SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO 27001, and CSA STAR Level 1 certifications intended to lower enterprise procurement friction.
Yachtwave reports more than 10,000 active users but does not disclose revenue, funding, or headcount beyond the 1-10 range. The leadership team is founder-led and includes Captain John O'Keefe as CEO, Debbie O'Keefe as CFO, Emile Clifford as COO, with OEM channel partner William 'Bill' Michel recruited from Wellcraft Marine. No institutional venture capital or private equity backing is documented, and the company is privately held under a Florida LLC, making growth self-funded and tying expansion cadence to operating cash flow rather than external capital deployment.
Yachtwave firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Yachtwave
- Legal name
- Durban Equity Holdings II, LLC dba YACHTWAVE
- Website
- https://yachtwave.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2010
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Yachtwave is a Sarasota-based marine SaaS platform serving boat owners, yacht managers, and boat manufacturers with AI-powered maintenance, NMEA 2000 telematics, and OEM-branded mobile apps on a subscription and hardware model.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Yachtwave industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Marine Management Software
- NAICS
- Ship Building and Repairing (336611)
- SIC
- Ship & Boat Building & Repairing (3730)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Yacht & Recreational Boat Service & Refit (TLAKAKAD)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Luxury Yacht Systems Integration & Commissioning (Shipyard) (IMAJAMAI)
Keywords
Where Yachtwave is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Sarasota
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Yachtwave business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Software Subscriptions: Tiered subscription model for boat management software. Personal edition free for up to 3 boats; paid tiers from $9-49/month per boat for commercial use, fleet management, and enterprise features. Annual billing offers up to 17% savings.
- YachtLink Hardware: Sale of YachtLink telematics hardware devices installed in vessels. Includes 3-year manufacturer subscription; customers use free without monthly fees. Hardware adapter required for Readings Pro feature.
- OEM/White-label Licensing: Boat manufacturers license the Delivery Platform to create branded apps for their customers. Includes dedicated onboarding support and branded app publishing in app stores.
- Professional Services: Implementation and onboarding support services for commercial customers transitioning to the platform, including dedicated setup assistance and training.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free tier for individual boat owners managing up to 3 personal vessels |
| Subscription | Monthly | Enhanced personal boat management with premium AI diagnostics |
| Subscription | Monthly | Entry-level commercial tier for individuals or small companies managing boats professionally |
| Subscription | Monthly | Professional yacht management with advanced operational features |
| Subscription | Monthly | Full-featured enterprise tier with telematics and branded apps for management companies |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels7 records
Marketing channels10 records
Yachtwave product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Yachtwave provides fleet and boat management software for the marine industry, unifying maintenance tracking, bookings, checklists, documents, inventory, AI diagnostics, and telematics into a single mobile-native SaaS platform. The company serves individual boat owners through a free Personal Edition app, professional yacht managers through a paid Fleet Edition, and boat manufacturers through the Delivery Platform with OEM-branded white-label mobile apps.
Product overview
YACHTWAVE is a maritime technology platform consisting of multiple integrated products serving different segments of the marine industry. The core offerings include: (1) YACHTWAVE Personal Edition - a free AI-powered boat maintenance app for individual owners; (2) YACHTWAVE Fleet Edition - a commercial fleet management platform for yacht managers with branded owner portals; (3) YACHTWAVE Delivery Platform - a digital handover system for boat manufacturers including OEM-branded apps; (4) YACHTWAVE Telematics - a hardware-enabled vessel monitoring system powered by YachtLink devices capturing NMEA 2000 data. All editions share core features including AI Mechanic diagnostics, maintenance logging, checklists, inventory management, and document storage, with AI capabilities powered by GPT-5 integration with OEM technical manuals.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- YACHTWAVE Delivery Platform: Digital platform for boat manufacturers revolutionizing the build and handover experience
- YACHTWAVE Fleet Edition
- YACHTWAVE Personal Edition
- YachtLink
- AI Mechanic
Products and services
- YACHTWAVE Personal Edition Free AI-powered boat maintenance app for individual boat owners managing personal vessels. Consolidates maintenance tracking, inventory management, documentation, checklists, tasks, and AI diagnostics into a single mobile platform supporting up to 3 boats for free.
- YACHTWAVE Fleet Edition AI-powered fleet management platform for professional yacht managers overseeing multiple vessels. Includes centralized tracking, team collaboration, crew management, branded owner transparency portal, official logs, expense tracking, and provisions management.
- YACHTWAVE Delivery Platform Digital platform for boat manufacturers revolutionizing the build and handover experience. Includes visual build status dashboard, electronic document delivery, OEM-branded apps in Apple App Store and Google Play, orientation videos, AI Mechanic support, task management, and decision manager.
- YachtLink Telematics Hardware Device Hardware telematics device that reads live NMEA 2000 data directly from vessel systems, capturing engine hours, fuel consumption, location tracking, system health, and performance metrics in real-time. Includes 3-year manufacturer subscription with no monthly fees for customers.
- YACHTWAVE Telematics Platform Integrated vessel telematics platform capturing live NMEA 2000 data for performance, location, and system health analytics. Enables predictive maintenance and data-driven decision-making across fleets with the PROPTIMIZER propeller efficiency optimization feature.
- AI Mechanic Patent-pending AI-powered diagnostic tool that diagnoses engine and equipment issues using boat-specific information and OEM technical manuals. Provides step-by-step guidance and actionable solutions without requiring a mechanic. AI Mechanic 4.0 integrates GPT-5 with OEM technical manuals.
Quantifiable outcome
- Reduces post-delivery customer support calls by at least 30%
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Yachtwave
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Yachtwave technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability6 records
Feature8 records
Yachtwave partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Yachtwave competitors and assessment
Company assessmentRegional players
- Boatsetter: Boatsetter is a peer-to-peer boat rental marketplace focused on US recreational boating. While its core business is charter bookings rather than maintenance, it represents an adjacent marine software platform serving the same boat owner demographic and could expand into fleet management features.
- Yachtico: Yachtico is a European yacht charter and management platform serving owners, charter operators, and fleet managers in EMEA markets. It overlaps with YACHTWAVE Fleet Edition in the multi-vessel management use case but operates in a different geographic region.
Broad incumbents
- FLIR Systems (Teledyne FLIR): Teledyne FLIR provides marine electronics and thermal imaging used in vessel monitoring and navigation. While focused on hardware rather than software fleet management, FLIR's installed base in marine electronics overlaps with YACHTWAVE's telematics customer set and represents a potential incumbent expanding into software.
- Garmin Marine: Garmin is a dominant marine electronics provider with chartplotters, NMEA 2000 networking, and vessel monitoring. Garmin's ActiveCaptain app offers some owner-facing vessel management features, making it an incumbent with overlapping functionality in the same OEM and end-customer channels YACHTWAVE targets.
- Raymarine (FLIR): Raymarine is a major marine electronics brand owned by Teledyne, with chartplotters, sonar, and NMEA 2000 networking products. Its Axiom and Element displays are deeply embedded in OEM new builds, making Raymarine a comparable incumbent channel partner for marine software distribution.
- MaintainX: MaintainX is a mobile-first maintenance and operations platform used across multiple industries. It is explicitly named in YACHTWAVE's competitive set as a general-purpose alternative lacking marine-specific depth, making it a horizontal incumbent with overlapping capabilities but without NMEA 2000 or marine-trained AI.
Direct peers
- Navimetrics: Navimetrics provides fleet management software specifically for yacht management companies, including maintenance scheduling and reporting. It directly competes with YACHTWAVE Fleet Edition in the same yacht manager buyer segment with overlapping functional capabilities.
- Manage My Vessel: Manage My Vessel is a direct marine fleet management platform and is named in YACHTWAVE's differentiation pitch as a legacy alternative. It serves the same yacht manager and fleet operator segments with maintenance logging and document management, representing the established incumbent YACHTWAVE is displacing.
- Siren Marine: Siren Marine provides connected boat telematics hardware and a monitoring app for vessel tracking, security, and remote diagnostics. It directly overlaps with YACHTWAVE's YachtLink telematics and NMEA 2000 integration approach, making it the most direct hardware-side competitor.
Emerging players
- Boatyard (Boat Coach): Boatyard (formerly Boat Coach) offers digital boat management tools for boat owners and operators with a focus on maintenance tracking and inventory. It is a smaller emerging player with partial feature overlap to YACHTWAVE Personal Edition, targeting the same individual owner segment.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Yachtwave social profiles
Digital presenceYachtwave compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Yachtwave financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Yachtwave leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Yachtwave funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Yachtwave M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Yachtwave
What does Yachtwave do?
Yachtwave provides fleet and boat management software for the marine industry, unifying maintenance tracking, bookings, checklists, documents, inventory, AI diagnostics, and telematics into a single mobile-native SaaS platform. The company serves individual boat owners through a free Personal Edition app, professional yacht managers through a paid Fleet Edition, and boat manufacturers through the Delivery Platform with OEM-branded white-label mobile apps.
Is Yachtwave a public or private company?
Yachtwave is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Yachtwave founded?
Yachtwave was founded in 2010. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Yachtwave based?
Yachtwave is headquartered in Sarasota, United States, in the North America region.
How does Yachtwave make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Software Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are yachtLink Hardware, OEM/White-label Licensing and professional Services.
Who are Yachtwave's main competitors?
Regional players on record are Boatsetter and Yachtico. Broad incumbents are FLIR Systems (Teledyne FLIR), Garmin Marine, Raymarine (FLIR) and MaintainX. Direct peers are Navimetrics, Manage My Vessel and Siren Marine. Boatyard (Boat Coach) is listed as an emerging player.
Does Yachtwave have an API?
No public API is recorded for Yachtwave.
What industry is Yachtwave in?
Yachtwave's product category is Marine Management Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is TLAKAKAD, Yacht & Recreational Boat Service & Refit, with a secondary code of IMAJAMAI, Luxury Yacht Systems Integration & Commissioning (Shipyard). Its NAICS code is 336611 and its SIC code is 3730.