LRC Consulting Solutions of Kelowna has developed and launched an innovative and simple way for offshore and inland boaters to file a sail plan simply by using their mobile phones.
In the form of a free mobile app, “Sailing Plan” replaces faxing a copy of a sail plan, or leaving a “sticky” on the fridge door, to let family and friends know when they’ll be back home from a boating trip.
“What we’ve done is come up with an app for recreational, and small commercial, boat operators that’s cloud-based and fully-secure to help search and rescue teams locate a vessel in the event of an overdue trip,” said Limnology CEO, Nelson Jatel in a media release.
“Time matters when a boat is overdue, and when they use the Sailing Plan app, captains don’t need to actively ask for help or even have a network connection, because the system escalates automatically,” he said.
Developed in partnership with Public Safety Canada, along with Transportation Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard, and with funding from through the Government of Canada’s Search and Research New Initiative Fund (SARNIF), “Sailing Plan” makes the completion and sharing of float plans easier and faster for boat captains, and in turn makes a large quantity of data more accessible and actionable by Canadian search and rescue professionals.
“After a summer of testing the new app, we are excited about making it available to as many Canadian boaters as possible, so that it becomes a permanent part of their on-the-water safety toolkit,” said Jatel.
Founded in 2001, LRC Consulting Solutions (www.limnologyresearch.com) is a knowledge-based company developing decision support tools for public and private sector clients based in Kelowna, British Columbia. LRC has a client base that spreads across the globe and across different sectors ranging from senior to local government, from universities to research institutions and from corporate boards to non-profit organizations.
The Kelowna company received $595,000 in government funding to support the development of the safe sailing app.
To learn more about “Sailing Plan”, visit: www.sailingplan.ca or follow them on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
nora.omalley@westerlynews.ca
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