United Kingdom

Savvy Navvy

Sitting across from me is Jelte Liebrand, a fellow Dutchy, fellow yachter, and fellow international. Whilst his life has taken him across the globe, from the lakes of Friesland to the mountains of Sweden, onwards to San Francisco before settling on a boat outside of London, sailing has been a steady buoy in Jelte’s life.&nbsp;<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/383454/image/large-c37993812e9d2eebb54df95b9970d8dc.png" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/383454">A matter of life or death“When I was about eight years old, my granddad taught me to sail,” Jelte reminisces, “I’ve been sailing in various places around the world whilst travelling for my career in tech.” Yet it wasn’t until 2014, when taking a sabbatical from his job at Google and partaking in the Clipper Around the World Race, that sailing took a front-row seat in his life and the idea for his own navigational tool was established.“I did one leg, because I couldn’t afford the whole thing, time nor money wise, but it’s an amazing experience; I highly recommend it,” Jelte shares. “You’ll be on a boat in the middle of the Pacific with 20 other people and it’s all about teamwork. You rely on these people literally with your life,” Jelte emphasises, “it’s a fascinating experience.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/383451/image/large-5675b5a62ee5b37fcb2c0268a5d62c88.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/383451">Whilst navigating their way down from San Francisco to the Panama Canal, Jelte was on night watch, setting course for the sailing yacht yet kept running into outdated technology: “A huge surprise was how outdated the technology onboard this multi-million pound yacht had become”, Jelte shares. “I’m starting at computers, multiple, but none of them are computing anything. I’m computing everything in my head.”Whilst navigating in the dark, Jelte had this feeling that “there should be an easier way to do this.” When navigating a vessel, it’s not just about the most efficient route, but also the safest, one with minimal risk of dangerous cruising conditions. ”I started looking for a way to combine all this knowledge about charts, potential hazards, ocean currents, tides, and weather patterns in one place. That’s where the idea for Savvy Navvy was founded.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/383452/image/large-a6476ce2434f305bdf480b1a833ab204.png" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/383452">From Sailing to Start-Up“Returning to work after the race, the idea of <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8661" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Savvy Navvy (Company)">Savvy Navvy</a> was running around in my mind, but it didn’t feel like a worthy business endeavour at the time”, Jelte notes. The market seemed too small, Jelte highlights how “there aren’t many people with a 70-foot racing yacht in the middle of the Pacific.” Yet Jelte couldn’t quite let the idea go and starting playing around with it in his spare time, “the technical challenge was really interesting to me; it became somewhat of a hobby.”It wasn’t until he started sharing it with fellow yachters that it became clear that “this could benefit a lot of people, not just those on big racing yachts, but really any vessel out on the ocean”, Jelte reflects. From there it took another three years before quitting at Google and pursuing <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8661" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Savvy Navvy (Company)">Savvy Navvy</a> fulltime. “At some point, it becomes clear that if you want to do this properly, you have to go all in.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/383455/image/large-01312e3ebbc60f347e655c04b2785247.png" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/383455">Google Maps for BoatsA start-up comes with all kinds of challenges, “the cliché is it’s a roller coaster, and it definitely is”, Jelte notes. “There are days when you’re on top of the world and you get amazing feedback, but there are also days where you’re staring up at this giant mountain you’re about to climb.” What may have been the biggest challenge yet for Jelte and his team has been getting the right data. “Some of the charts were last surveyed at the time of Captain Cook - that’s not necessarily good data, right? Getting the right data is a huge challenge, not to mention the red tape and two-inch thick contracts accompanying the data.”Together with his business partner, Jelte has managed to gain plenty of data, making the app so successful. He’s coined it the ‘Google Maps for Boats’, nothing how, “if you look at Google Maps, it’s not just maps, there’s so much more data available, such as speed cameras, traffic, even air pollution and restaurant opening times. On the boating side nothing quite like that exists.” The idea of Savvy Navvy is to have a navigational tool that functions similarly to Google Maps, but for boats. “It keeps track of wind, currents, and weather conditions and calculates the best possible route to the destination.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/383457/image/large-0476c314bfcae424a58173a3f3808f3b.png" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/383457">More than that, <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8661" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Savvy Navvy (Company)">Savvy Navvy</a> informs users to enable informed decision-making, such as where there is sea grass, so you can decide whether or not to drop anchor, whether there’s cloud coverage or if there’s rain incoming. Aside from showing you this data, the underlying algorithm focuses on getting you from point A to B, having already considered all the weather and water data available.&nbsp;“It shouldn’t be me needing to figure out the rule of twelves and whether or not the tide is turning by the time I get to land. All I want to know is where I am going and what time I’m going to get there,” Jelte shares. Jelte’s app doesn’t just focus on the best route, but can also advise whether the journey will be smoother a few hours from now, “the algorithm uses the data in order to provide me with the most up-to-date data and the safest, fastest route to my destination.&nbsp;The trickiest thing for Jelte and <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8661" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Savvy Navvy (Company)">Savvy Navvy</a>, is ensuring the recreational boater understands why the app has presented a certain route. “It’s a challenge from a product perspective as well as from a usability perspective, to really highlight why the navigation suggests the routes that it does.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/216752/image/large-b1362b33906142b5ddcb4e7ad0833673.png" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/216752">Savvy Navvy onboard superyachtsAs of right now, much of the data available is for regions that are frequented by the recreational boater, “that goes from sailboats to motor boats, to centre consoles and even kayakers, jet skiers as well as superyachts.” Whether it’s captains double checking their routes, accommodating for weather conditions, or simply “the ability to share routes and give them to the rest of the crew, even the clients.”Additionally, it’s great for crew “to have an in-pocket navigation, especially around the coastline, it’s where we see a lot of crew benefitting from using <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8661" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Savvy Navvy (Company)">Savvy Navvy</a>.” Whether finding a place to snorkel, swim, or enjoy the watertoys, it facilitates crew experience, and therefore also the guest experience.<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/383453/image/large-3e911a34c38007a2c7b0ed6a8ff4c6e2.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/383453">One of the newest features recently introduced is the ability to draw on the digital chart. “Initially it was designed for passage planning or instructors to showcase what they do, but people use it for race courses, marking a spot for lunch or making annotations along the route.” The app also allows for sharing these annotations, ideal for when travelling with friends or a larger flotilla.The cornerstone of Jelte’s <a data-gid="gid://syiq/Company/8661" href="#managed-by-system" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Savvy Navvy (Company)">Savvy Navvy</a> is to get more people out enjoying the water. “There are too many people who get intimidated by getting things wrong. Working to actively break down those barriers, removing that intimidating factor - we want to be the tool that does that.”<img src="https://photo-assets.superyachttimes.com/photo/383458/image/large-c37a3f28ccbeab7f5d3f4b94f3bc876b.jpg" data-gid="gid://syiq/Photo/383458">This article was first published in the <a href="https://yachtchartermarket.com/" target="_blank">Yacht Charter Market</a> newsletter.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.superyachttimes.com/newsletter-subscription" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">Subscribe</a>&nbsp;to never miss an issue. You can read more <a href="https://yachtchartermarket.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.

Jelte Liebrand Google Maps of the Sea

A deep dive into Jelte Liebrand and his company Savvy Navvy, also known as the Google Maps of the Sea