Monitor, Track, and Control: Boat Security with Siren Marine
There are many things you need to worry about every time you leave when you live on a boat. Is the anchor set well? Did we remember to shut and lock the door? Are the bilge pumps working properly? As full time liveaboards, we have been searching for a way to monitor our boat when we are not on it. Last year we found a company called Siren Marine that offers a device that allows you to monitor, track and control systems on your boat all from an app (with a valid subscription). We have been testing our Siren Marine unit for over a year and wanted to tell you how we use it and our favorite things about it! There is even a discount at the end of this article if you decided that this might be a good option for you, so keep reading 😉
One of the main reasons we wanted to install a boat monitoring system was because we have a dog. When you live in a house you don’t have to worry about it being too hot or your house floating away… Us boat-lifers, on the other hand, have to take a few more precautions to make sure our furry friends are okay when we need to run an errand.
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Temperature
With the Siren Marine system installed on our boat, a temperature probe wired sensor installed in our main cabin and the app downloaded on our phone we can check the temperature and even set alerts so we are notified on our phones when the temperature exceeds a certain threshold. Our hatches are always open and the fans are turned up on high but knowing the exact temperature helps us make sure it does not get too hot for our dog on the boat.
You can also install temperature probes in the engine room or fridge if you wanted to monitor and track the temperature history in these important areas of the boat.
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Tracking
With the Siren Marine MTC device, you can also set a geofence. The geofence is sort of like an anchor alarm paired with GPS tracking. If the boat moves out of the set radius, we get alerted. If the boat is dragging or worse case, someone is trying to steal, it we will know right away. The system also has GPS positioning so we will know where it is heading. I cannot even tell you how much peace of mind we get from being able to check on our boat’s position from an app.
Late-night storms no longer involve us getting soaked to check and make sure we are not dragging. Now, we can peak out the port light and confirm we are not dragging with the app.
The geofence has come in handy more times than I can count. The most notable time was during a storm in the fall of 2019. We were anchored in the Great South Bay 0n Long Island. A boat anchored in front of us dragged and caught our anchor bringing us along with it. We were stuck on the highway in traffic and were alerted that the boat was moving outside of our set zone. We immediately called Billy’s dad who was able to control the situation until we arrived. If we were not alerted that the boat was moving we would have ended up crashing hard on someone’s dock and causing extensive damage. Siren Marine saved our butts that afternoon!
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Bilge Monitoring
Wireless bilge pump sensors connected to our pumps and linked to the MTC device allow us to monitor the bilge pump activity. We can track when they go on, how often, and how long they run for. If the bilge activity exceeds our set paramaters we get notified on our phones and/or email. It is also possible to wire bilge pumps right to the MTC device. Direct wiring eliminates the need to buy additional wireless sensors. Our next upgrade will be to install a DC accessory relay. With the relay we can not only monitor but also control the bilge pumps manually. Billy has been testing out using the relay with different accessories on our dinghy. Watch the video below to see how it works.
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Alarm
Our dog Jetty is a great alarm but often times we bring her with us. With the installation of a Magnetic reed switch on our main cabin door, we get alerted anytime it is opened. We also installed an alarm that sounds to scare off intruders and hopefully alert others nearby. See how it works here ↓
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Battery
Our batteries run everything! We live primarily on anchor and do not even have a shore power option on our boat. We make energy via our solar panels and that energy is stored in the batteries. Our fridge, freezer, lights, chargers, fans, and everything else you can think of all requires the use of the battery. If the levels are low or if something is using more energy than it should we need to know so we can conserve our use or fix the problem.
With the Siren Marine MTC unit installed we can monitor the battery levels and get alerted when they are low so we can adjust our usage!
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There are countless ways to utilize the Siren Marine system. There is potential to control your A.C./heating system, lights, alarms, and much more. If you want to see how we installed our unit check out this video ↓
Siren Marine Discount
I hope this helped explain how we use our Siren Marine system and the possibilities that are avaiable on your own boat.
Siren Marine has been kind enough to extend a 10% discount to our audience. Use code “tula10” at check out to save some $ and we even get a little kickback for referring you 😉
For more articles about boat life, boat tech, and much more click here.
Thanks for reading!
Sierra
