Building the intelligence layer beneath recreational boating.
SmartSail is the company behind Pathr Navigation, HelmLink, Pathr Fleet, and Pathr Co-Captain. Together they will become the world’s most experienced captain for recreational boating. We’re a Delaware C-corp, headquartered in California.
Boating got a chart. Everything else got a workflow.
Recreational boating is one of the largest underserved consumer technology markets in the country. 11.7 million registered American vessels (USCG). 85 million participants (NMMA). Over $55 billion in annual retail spend, growing across the chartplotter generation and the app-native one behind it.
Yet most owners still don’t have access to the confidence, judgment, and local knowledge that make for great days on the water. That experience is what makes a seasoned captain valuable. The category has never had a way to give it to every owner. Modern AI and modern marine data finally make it possible.
SmartSail is building that layer. We start with the navigation app that’s live today, bring it on the boat itself with a small piece of onboard hardware now in beta testing, and are developing an AI working partner next, built to learn from every Pathr trip.
Four products. One stack.
Pathr Navigation is the consumer surface. HelmLink is the bridge to the boat. Pathr Fleet puts a whole fleet on one chart. Pathr Co-Captain, in development, will be the intelligence layer. Together, they will become the AI co-captain for recreational boating.
Pathr Navigation
A modern boating navigation app for owners who actually use their boats, free on iPhone and Android, with marine weather on the chart. Charts work offline. Premium adds auto-routing tuned to the vessel, radar, AIS traffic and anchor charts that show what's on the bottom.
HelmLink
A small hardware bridge from the Pathr app to your boat's NMEA 2000 network. It reads the instruments already on board and, in on-water testing, steers on Raymarine Evolution autopilots, following your Pathr route waypoint by waypoint. You stay in command.
Pathr Fleet
Every boat in a rental, charter, club or school fleet on one chart, with HelmLink on board. In a pilot program with a small number of operators.
Pathr Co-Captain
An AI co-pilot that will read your boat and the conditions, help plan the trip, brief you before you go and watch what you can't underway. It's being built to learn from every Pathr trip, every boat and every set of conditions. Not available yet.
SmartSail, by the numbers.
The legal entity, the founders, and where we are right now.
Three products. One stack on the boat.
The consumer surface. Live on iOS and Android.
The intelligence layer, in development. It will learn from every Pathr trip.
Onboard hardware, in beta testing. Steering on Raymarine Evolution autopilots is in on-water testing.
Together, they will become the AI co-captain for recreational boating, built to learn from every Pathr trip, every boat and every set of conditions.
A small team. The right one for this.
Three founders. Aviation-grade discipline, commercial-scale engineering, and award-winning product chops.
Flight test engineer on safety-critical autonomous systems. National Test Pilot School graduate. Sailing since childhood; tests Pathr on his own Catalina 38.
Founding engineer at an automation startup acquired by a $1B+ technology company. Full-stack geospatial engineer and IoT systems architect.
Award-winning innovative product developer, concept to commercialization. Rapid and frugal prototyping expert.
Press, partners, and investors.
We’re always open to a real conversation. The fastest path in is a 30-minute meeting on Lucas’s calendar. Or just send an email.