A 35-foot Fountain equipped with the Nav-Tracker 2.0 wireless boat location and GPS tracking system from GOST helped the Broward County, Florida Sheriff’s Department recover the $200,000 boat within 60 minutes on Saturday (January 3). Boat owner Alberto Verdesi had installed the Nav-Tracker system in October. About 6 am ET on Saturday morning, Nav-Tracker sent a text message to Verdesi’s cell phone that his boat was on the move without his permission and where it was headed. He called the Broward Sheriff’s Department, which dispatched a helicopter to locate the boat. When the helicopter flew over the location, the thieves ran off, but the $200,000 boat was recovered in good shape.

CONTACTS FOR THE ABOVE STORY

Broward County (Florida) Sheriff’s Department : 1+954-831-8900

Boat owner contact: Rich Cipullo (the owner, Alberto Verdesi, does not speak good English) 1+754-273-2290

GOST: Jay Keenan

(office) 954-565-9898 x 301

When a Nav-Tracker 2.0 transmitter is mounted discreetly on a boat, a wireless ‘fence’ with a 500-foot range is created. If a boat is moved outside of this fence, Nav-Tracker 2.0 uses Inmarsat based GPS satellite technology to monitor a boat’s location and notify up to four people by email and/or text message every 15 minutes with the latitude/longitude, speed and heading.

As many as 27,000 boats are stolen annually, according to the International Association of Marine Investigators. “Alarms and other deterrents are not enough. However, with Nav-Tracker on board, if your boat is stolen, there’s a very good chance you’ll get it back,” said Jay Keenan, GOST Vice President of Marketing.

The message transmitted from Nav-Tracker 2.0 on board the Fountain 35 when it was stolen would have been similar to this:

Message From Nav-Tracker 2.0

User: GOST
Asset: M/Y Island Time
Fleet: ETI
Date/Time: 2006-07-25 15:06:28 (EDT)
Event: Geo-fence breached;
Location: 26.05767,-80.1303.3 (0.75 mi NE of Hollywood, FL 33019)
Speed/heading: 9.2 Knots, 144 deg
Google Earth Map: [KML]

Some insurance companies now require GPS tracking devices to be installed on certain types of boats, including high performance boats and boats with triple high-horsepower outboards.

For more information about Nav-Tracker 2.0 and other GOST boat security, monitoring and tracking products, visit www.gostglobal.com or call 1+(954) 565-9898.

GOST – 3403 NW 9th Avenue – Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309

Product News release prepared by Home Port Marine Marketing.
www.homeportmarine.com