Smartboatia’s mission is extensive and aims to cover almost everything  that improves sailing. Since January 2025, the system can be ordered via  the start-up’s website. It consists of an app and a hub, a small black box that is installed on board. Feedback from users has been consistently positive, but there is still room for improvement in terms of visibility, according to Sina Pieritz: “We want to become better known on the German market, and we are already looking towards Denmark and, in the long term, the USA.” Around one million sailing boats are registered in the European Union. “In the States there are 3.8 million."

Sina and Benny Pieritz lived in New York from 2015 to 2019. In October  2019, they set off from there with their two small children on a planned sailing trip around the world. On board with them was a simple software prototype of what would later become the Smartboatia system. “What we wished for in terms of digital support while sailing I gradually reprogrammed and put together myself,” explains the 43-year-old business IT specialist. Sailors can now identify trends from data previously obtained individually via sensors, such as wind strength and current. The digital logbook, which automatically records all relevant data without gaps, was also a new development. “Our customers now particularly love this feature,” smiles Benny Pieritz. “It saves work. It also helped a sailor we know to prove an insurance claim.” 

Thanks to seamless tracking, Benny Pieritz also knows exactly how long  it took him to travel from Florida to northern Germany on the SY Nomad  when the pandemic forced his world trip to come to an end in June 2020: “26 days, four hours, one minute.” While his wife and children were  already in Germany, the family man sailed the boat across the Atlantic with an experienced sailor. “He was sceptical at first. But after a few days, he didn’t want to do without the ‘smart boat thing’ anymore. That’s when I realised it had potential.” 

While still on board, Benny Pieritz wrote to his friend Burkhardt Funk, a university professor of data science and, like himself, a passionate sailor. “At the time, I asked him if he knew any students who might want to work on the project. Burkhardt was so enthusiastic that he joined as a co-founder.” In April 2021, Smartboatia was registered as a limited company, with Sina Pieritz taking over as managing director. The start-up receives funding from, among others, the state’s Seed Bonus funding programme and the Gateway49 Accelerator. “We somewhat  underestimated how long it would take to develop the hardware. That’s why it took a while to launch the product,” explains Benny Pieritz.

“On top of that, Burkhardt, Sina and I all have other full-time jobs.”  However, Smartboatia is now picking up speed and the team, which  currently consists of two permanent employees and two working students, is set to grow further. “Here in Schleswig-Holstein, we are definitely in the right place,” Benny and Sina Pieritz agree. “Travemünde remains our home port, both professionally and privately.”