There are those who exchange homes during holiday periods, those who couch surf, and those who rely on Airbnb. Starting in March, we will also be able to exchange moorings. Usually, especially in the summer months, mooring in the harbor can become an undertaking, not to mention the prices, which can be prohibitive in high season. At the same time, many berths are left vacant and remain unused. In fact, Easy Harbor, a community that will enable boaters to exchange berths with each other(www.easyharbor.it), is about to be born.
HOW IT WORKS.
Simply download the Easy Harbor App from the Play store or App store, through any mobile device, to be able to make one or more berths available and access offers posted by other boaters. Once the App has been downloaded, users can register: they will then have the ability to enter their own offers (“Offering Boat Place”) and search for offers entered by other users (“Looking for Boat Place”). Before leaving for the cruise, the user will search for a place among the offers entered by community members. Having found a place in the destination ports, or neighboring ports for the dates of your interest, you will contact the owner to reserve your berth free of charge. In case the user is unable to find the berth, or the offers are not suitable for the dates searched, he/she can activate emailing to be informed of any new offers entered in the App. A nice idea, no doubt about it: the Easy Harbor App (conceived by Marco Camorali and Renato Rizzi) has been selected among the 12 finalists of the Wind Business Factor Awards 2015: a new acceleration program that Wind dedicates to the most innovative business ideas and startups in the digital world.
A CONCRETE EXAMPLE
Let’s take a concrete example. The developers explain, “Ihave the berth in port X and I know that I will be going on vacation from July 15 to July 30. Through the App, I will enter my offer indicating that my berth will be available to anyone from July 15 to July 30; at the same time I will be able to search for a berth in the place of my destination or I can even plan my cruise by searching for the berths made available along the route I will follow, thus obtaining a safe berth without spending anything.
BENEFITS FOR ALL
Easy Harbor caters to anyone who occupies a berth for a vessel or boat of any size and wishes to exchange it with others in a simple, safe and convenient way. The App will be active from March 2016 throughout Italy, later also in countries bordering the Mediterranean and around the world. The benefits are obvious: the system allows people to swap berths and join a community that will grow more and more, allowing them to sail safely while saving on mooring fees. It will benefit commercial services in ports: a yachtsman who saves money is incentivized to use the money perhaps for a good dinner in the marina. Yacht clubs will be able to offer free seats for regatta participants and attract more registrants. Tourism offices in areas surrounding the ports that will be able to offer, through agreements with marinas, free berths for even limited periods of time and encourage tourist attendance at times of the year when it is not high. Charter companies that will be able to be more competitive and attract more clients.
ALREADY READY A DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Easy Harbor, following this initial start-up phase, will also offer the ability to better experience mooring through a series of App features such as the “harbor diary”, which will allow users to leave tips on services found in the harbor; but also news on organized events of marinas; feedback from users; advertising insertions dedicated to the boating world (winter storage, shipbuilding, etc.) and a lot of information on ports and tourist possibilities in the surrounding areas. Here is the link to Easy Harbor’s Facebook page
