CALL TO ALL
It's Time to Navigate the Future of Maritime Innovation, Together.
Today marks the beginning of a new voyage. It is not a journey measured in nautical miles, but in shared purpose. We are launching a mission, a movement, and a "Call to All" mariners, researchers, data scientists, and innovators who believe that the future of maritime technology must be built for, and by, the people on the bridge.
An Innovation Gap and a Digital Barrier
For too long, the maritime industry has faced a quiet crisis. While digitalization sweeps through our industry, the most critical tools for voyage planning have been left in its wake. The process remains manual, complex, and incredibly time-consuming, even with modern Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs).
This creates two fundamental problems:
- An Innovation Gap: Corporate-driven innovation often focuses on automation that benefits the company, neglecting the tools that would directly help mariners with their demanding manual tasks.
- A "Digital Barrier": The rich, valuable data within official ENCs is locked behind the S-63 encryption standard. This paywall stifles the very open-source innovation that could help mariners, researchers, and data scientists move the industry forward.
From an Officer's Frustration to a Founder's Mission
My name is Viktor Kolbasov, and I am the founder of Vector Nautical. As a former voyage planning officer, I have spent countless hours experiencing these challenges firsthand. I saw how the incredibly rich data in our charts was not being used to its full potential, and how our feedback on the tools we used every day was getting lost.
This frustration became my motivation. I turned to academia to build a solution, pouring this experience into my Master's thesis in Autonomous Maritime Operations at Novia University of Applied Sciences. The result is the Route Assistant prototype—a platform designed to automate voyage planning and unlock nautical data for navigators and researchers alike.
A Strategic Call for a Collective Voice
This campaign is more than just a fundraiser; it's a strategic "Call to All". Our anthem embodies this mission. The call to "haul together" and "let our knowledge fly" is about creating a powerful, collective voice to ensure mariners have a say in the future of our industry. We are building a movement to shift innovation's focus to be more mariner-centric and to break down the data barriers holding us back.
To bring the full vision of Route Assistant to life, I am stepping away from my €7,600/month career as a Navigation Officer to commit myself fully to this mission. We are seeking to raise €100,000 on Indiegogo to fund 1.5 years of dedicated, full-time development.
We are using Fixed Funding, which means it’s an all-or-nothing campaign. If we don't reach our goal, all contributions are automatically refunded. This guarantees that if the project is funded, we will have the resources necessary to deliver on our promises.
The funds will cover essential hardware, development, and operational costs to build and deliver the core Route Assistant suite, including the QGIS Maritime Plugin.
Join the Voyage
This is our moment to act. We have a working prototype built on a foundation of academic research , a clear development roadmap, and a mission to serve the maritime community. Now, we need your support.
Visit our Indiegogo Campaign Page to learn more about the project, the stretch goals for an AI Co-Pilot and S-63 integration, and become a backer.
If you cannot contribute financially, sharing our mission is just as valuable. Please post the campaign on social media and share it with your professional networks. Every share helps us reach those who need these tools most.
Together, we can bridge the gap between the bridge and the developer, unlock the true power of our data, and navigate the future of maritime innovation.
Raise your heads and let the voice rise high !
Viktor Kolbasov
Founder, Vector Nautical