Location, security zone & presence

Where the boat is, whether it moved, and whether anyone should be aboard — usually with hardware you already own.

Where the position comes from

DockNeighbor never requires extra location hardware. A boat's position can come from:

  • Your cellular router's built-in GPS — GL.iNet X-series, Peplink, and Cradlepoint gateways carry GNSS; if one is already the boat's uplink, it's also the position source. See How It Works.
  • An NMEA 0183 feed over TCP or UDP — from a chartplotter or any onboard GPS already on the network.
  • This phone's GPS — the simplest start. A phone source is bound to the phone that created it, so your laptop can never quietly substitute its own position for the boat's.
  • A manual pin — tap the map or type coordinates. Fine for "here's my slip"; not armable for the anchor watch, since a pin can't drag.

Live feeds are smart about cadence: positions are saved when the boat actually moves (~10 m) and reported to the cloud on meaningful movement (~25 m, at most every 30 s) — so a dragging boat reports every half minute while a boat at rest stays quiet.

Privacy: nothing runs with the app closed — the app reports positions only while it's open, and the cloud watches what was reported. Position history is kept at your plan's retention like any other telemetry, and there are no analytics or tracking SDKs anywhere in DockNeighbor. Details: privacy policy.

The theft security zone

Draw a circle — 25 m to 2 km — around where the boat belongs: the slip, the mooring, the storage row. If the boat's live position leaves it, everyone on the boat hears about it. Available on Weekender and Cruiser.

How the theft security zone worksThe zone — 25 m to 2 km around where it belongs⛵center: a map pin or the live GPS position⛵Zone breachthe boat left without you —push to everyone on the boat👋 Presence modes: mark the boat Aboard or Unattended — movement that's normal with you therebecomes worth an alarm when nobody should be aboard.
The pin marks where the boat belongs; the live GPS feed proves it left. A manual pin is a valid center — it's the feed that detects the theft.

Two details worth knowing: the center can be a manual pin (the pin marks where it belongs; the live feed proves it left — arming still requires a GPS source to exist), and an armed zone keeps evaluating even if the plan lapses — a billing hiccup can't silently blind a theft watch.

Presence modes

Tell DockNeighbor whether the boat is Aboard or Unattended, and alerting adapts: the zone arms itself when you leave, and movement that's routine with you there becomes worth an alarm when nobody should be aboard. Presence is manual today — set it from the Presence page (Weekender+).

Cameras Coming soon

A wired Reolink PoE camera turns motion into a DockNeighbor security alert alongside everything on this page — up to 4 of them onVoyager, the only plan that carries cameras. DockNeighbor handles the events; live view and playback stay in the camera's own app. Not live yet: it ships onVoyager and is included there the day it does. Hardware caveats:How It Works.

Location sharing Coming soon

In development now: share your position with the people you pick — family following a passage, a partner meeting you at the ramp — on every plan, including Dockside. Friends who accept get position updates and a live where-is-it-now view. A public option (anyone can look up where you are) is planned for paid plans. Follow it on theroadmap.

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