National Marine Manufacturers Association | NMMA

Executive Summary

Recreational vessels are becoming increasingly connected. Engines, propulsion systems, batteries, navigation equipment, electrical systems, onboard components, mobile applications, and aftermarket devices generate expanding volumes of information about vessel condition, performance, utilization, location, environmental conditions, and operator behavior.

Much of this information remains fragmented across manufacturers, product categories, devices, dealers, service organizations, and proprietary technology platforms. As a result, the recreational marine industry has not yet captured the full value that can be created by combining appropriately permissioned data across vessels, systems, and participants.

This represents a significant opportunity for the entire industry—and particularly for NMMA members.

An independent Marine Intelligence Platform could provide trusted infrastructure through which participating organizations transform permissioned marine data into actionable intelligence, benchmarks, risk indicators, and decision-support products. The platform would complement the proprietary systems of boat, engine, equipment, and technology manufacturers rather than replace them.

For NMMA members, this capability could improve product development, warranty performance, predictive maintenance, safety, customer experience, dealer enablement, asset valuation, and participation in emerging insurance and financial-services markets.

Falere, LLC is an early-stage blue economy startup exploring the feasibility of establishing this independent Marine Intelligence Platform. Falere is currently validating the problem, proposed solution, industry readiness, stakeholder interest, and willingness to participate before advancing to platform development or committing substantial capital.

The Recreational Marine Telematics Opportunity

Modern recreational vessels are evolving into connected systems of systems.

A single vessel may contain technologies supplied by numerous manufacturers, including:

• Hull and vessel systems
• Internal-combustion or electric propulsion
• Batteries and charging systems
• Navigation and communications equipment
• Digital switching and electrical controls
• Pumps, sensors, and environmental monitors
• Safety and security systems
• Entertainment and connectivity systems
• Mobile applications and remote-monitoring devices

These systems can produce data concerning:

• Engine and propulsion performance
• Fuel or energy consumption
• Battery health, temperature, charging, and discharge
• Electrical-system condition
• Equipment performance and fault codes
• Navigation, location, and operating-area patterns
• Vessel usage, operating hours, and seasonal activity
• Maintenance requirements and service events
• Environmental and weather conditions
• Operator behavior and vessel handling
• Safety alerts and incident reconstruction
• Asset condition, service history, and residual value

Manufacturers already use portions of this information to support their own products and customers. The greater industry opportunity arises when appropriately permissioned data can be standardized and analyzed across manufacturers, equipment categories, vessel types, operating environments, and stages of the ownership lifecycle.

The opportunity is not simply to collect more data. It is to create intelligence that individual participants cannot readily create alone.

Industry-Wide Value Creation

A coordinated marine intelligence capability could support:

• Predictive and condition-based maintenance
• Improved vessel reliability and availability
• Earlier identification of safety risks
• Better warranty, quality, and failure analysis
• Faster diagnosis and service resolution
• Improved product design and engineering
• Industry and product-performance benchmarking
• More personalized customer support
• Usage- and condition-informed insurance
• More accurate asset valuation and financing
• Improved residual-value management
• Fleet and shared-access performance analysis
• More effective environmental and sustainability initiatives
• Evidence-based decisions across the vessel lifecycle

These capabilities could improve the ownership experience while addressing persistent industry challenges involving affordability, reliability, service capacity, safety, customer retention, and long-term boating participation.

Why the Industry Should Act Deliberately

The automotive telematics ecosystem demonstrates both the value of connected-product data and the consequences of allowing the ecosystem to evolve without a shared industry vision.

Automotive telematics developed over decades through separate vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, insurers, fleet platforms, mobile telematics companies, data exchanges, and technology providers. This generated significant innovation, but it also resulted in fragmentation, competing standards, overlapping proprietary systems, inconsistent consumer experiences, and complex questions concerning data rights and access.

The recreational marine industry has an opportunity to learn from that experience.

It does not need to repeat the automotive industry’s decades-long evolutionary process.

Industry leaders can address foundational questions earlier:

• Which data should remain proprietary?
• Which data could create greater value when shared with permission?
• Who controls vessel, equipment, and operator data?
• How should customer consent and data rights be managed?
• Which standards are required for interoperability?
• How can manufacturers protect competitive differentiation?
• How should contributors participate in the value created?
• What role should dealers, service providers, insurers, and financial institutions play?
• How can smaller manufacturers participate without disproportionate cost?
• Who should govern cross-industry uses of marine data?

An independent Marine Intelligence Platform could provide a structure for addressing these questions before fragmentation becomes entrenched and external organizations define the marine data economy on the industry’s behalf.

Vision for the Marine Intelligence Platform

Vision Statement

To establish the trusted, independent intelligence infrastructure for the recreational marine industry—transforming appropriately permissioned vessel, equipment, environmental, and operator data into actionable insights that improve safety, product performance, ownership economics, customer experience, and sustainable industry growth.

The Marine Intelligence Platform is envisioned as:

• Independent: Structured to serve a multi-stakeholder industry ecosystem rather than the interests of a single manufacturer, technology provider, insurer, or distribution channel.
• Permissioned: Built upon transparent authorization, consent, and clearly defined data rights.
• Governed: Supported by industry-informed policies covering access, permitted uses, privacy, security, and commercial participation.
• Interoperable: Capable of working across participating vessel manufacturers, propulsion systems, equipment, devices, and data sources.
• Secure: Designed to protect sensitive business, product, vessel, and customer information.
• Commercially useful: Focused on measurable improvements in revenue, cost, risk, product performance, and customer experience.
• Complementary: Intended to strengthen proprietary manufacturer platforms and customer relationships rather than displace them.
• Scalable: Designed to support manufacturers and ecosystem participants of different sizes and levels of digital maturity.

The MIP would not assume that all marine data should be pooled or made universally available. Its purpose would be to establish the permissions, governance, standards, and infrastructure required to use appropriate data for clearly defined and authorized purposes.

Strategic Value for NMMA Members

NMMA members could be among the principal beneficiaries of a properly designed Marine Intelligence Platform.

1. Better product development

Aggregated and anonymized intelligence across vessels, operating conditions, equipment configurations, and customer use could help manufacturers better understand how products perform in the real world.

Manufacturers could use these insights to:

• Identify recurring performance patterns
• Understand actual customer use
• Improve product specifications
• Prioritize engineering investments
• Test design assumptions
• Evaluate equipment configurations
• Accelerate product-development cycles
• Develop features aligned with real operating behavior

This intelligence would supplement, rather than replace, manufacturer-specific engineering and customer data.

2. Improved quality and warranty performance

Connected-vessel intelligence could help manufacturers detect emerging problems earlier and distinguish isolated incidents from broader patterns.

Potential benefits include:

• Earlier identification of component failures
• More accurate root-cause analysis
• Improved warranty forecasting
• Reduced diagnostic time
• More targeted service campaigns
• Better supplier-quality management
• Fewer repeat repairs
• Lower warranty and goodwill costs
• Improved visibility into failures involving multiple interconnected systems

Because vessels combine equipment from many suppliers, cross-system intelligence could be particularly valuable when no single manufacturer has a complete view of the operating environment.

3. Predictive and condition-based maintenance

With customer authorization, vessel and equipment information could be translated into actionable maintenance recommendations.

This could enable manufacturers and their dealer networks to:

• Identify emerging equipment conditions
• Notify owners before failures occur
• Schedule service at more convenient times
• Recommend appropriate parts and service procedures
• Improve seasonal readiness
• Reduce emergency repairs
• Increase vessel availability
• Extend equipment life

More reliable vessels can produce better customer experiences and higher boating participation.

4. Stronger dealer and service-network enablement

Manufacturers could provide dealers and authorized service centers with better diagnostic and service information before a vessel arrives.

This could improve:

• Technician preparation
• Parts availability
• Service scheduling
• First-time repair rates
• Repair-cycle time
• Customer communication
• Dealer productivity
• Service-network consistency

As the industry confronts technician shortages and seasonal service bottlenecks, intelligence that improves productivity could create substantial value.

5. Better customer experience and brand loyalty

Unexpected failures, unclear maintenance requirements, and fragmented digital experiences can undermine customer satisfaction.

Connected intelligence could support more proactive and personalized customer engagement, including:

• Maintenance and safety notifications
• Vessel-health summaries
• Seasonal operating recommendations
• Product education
• Usage-based support
• Personalized equipment recommendations
• Remote troubleshooting
• Ownership-lifecycle services

Manufacturers could use these capabilities to maintain relationships with customers beyond the initial purchase and strengthen lifetime brand value.

6. Improved safety and loss prevention

Analyzing vessel, equipment, environmental, and operator information could help identify conditions associated with losses or safety events.

Potential applications include:

• Battery and electrical-system risk detection
• Engine and propulsion alerts
• Bilge, fire, and environmental monitoring
• Geofencing and theft prevention
• Severe-weather preparation
• Operator-risk indicators
• Incident reconstruction
• Product-safety analysis

Reducing losses would benefit manufacturers, dealers, customers, insurers, lenders, and the broader industry.

7. New insurance and financial-services opportunities

Trusted vessel and equipment intelligence could support new products and services involving:

• Usage- and condition-informed insurance
• Loss-prevention programs
• Extended service contracts
• Equipment protection
• More accurate vessel valuation
• Improved lending and leasing decisions
• Residual-value forecasting
• Certified pre-owned programs
• Verified maintenance and vessel histories

These capabilities could improve affordability and reduce uncertainty across the ownership lifecycle.

8. Protection of manufacturer interests

If the recreational marine industry does not participate in shaping the emerging data economy, other organizations may establish the rules, interfaces, and customer relationships.

Active NMMA engagement could help ensure that:

• Proprietary manufacturer information remains protected
• Manufacturers retain appropriate control over product data
• Customer permissions are transparent
• Data contributors participate in the resulting economics
• Platform standards do not unfairly advantage one technology provider
• Smaller manufacturers can participate
• Intellectual property is not inadvertently exposed
• Data-enabled services complement manufacturer strategies
• Industry governance reflects manufacturer priorities

Early participation would allow NMMA members to shape the ecosystem rather than react to one developed by outside technology, insurance, or financial-services organizations.

The Importance of Independence

An industry-wide intelligence platform will require trust among organizations that compete in the marketplace.

A platform controlled by a single manufacturer, technology provider, insurer, or other commercial participant may struggle to secure broad participation. Potential contributors may be reluctant to provide data to an organization that could use it to strengthen its own competitive position.

An independent structure could help establish:

• Neutral participation rules
• Transparent data-use permissions
• Separation of proprietary and shared information
• Representation for different industry constituencies
• Clear commercial terms
• Auditability and accountability
• Equitable access to approved intelligence products
• Confidence that no single participant controls the ecosystem

Independence alone will not create trust. Trust will depend on governance, technology, contractual rights, security, and demonstrated conduct. However, an independent operating model may provide the most credible foundation for broad industry participation.

Potential Role for NMMA

NMMA would not need to endorse a finished platform or predetermined business model at this stage. The immediate opportunity is to determine whether the concept warrants structured industry exploration.

Potential NMMA roles could include:

• Representing the interests of boat, engine, equipment, and component manufacturers
• Identifying priority manufacturer problems and use cases
• Helping distinguish proprietary data from permissioned industry data
• Participating in data-rights and governance discussions
• Advising on interoperability and standards alignment
• Introducing representative manufacturers for discovery
• Evaluating member willingness to participate
• Supporting narrowly defined proofs of concept
• Establishing conditions for potential future endorsement
• Participating in an industry advisory group or governing body

NMMA’s involvement would provide a critical manufacturer perspective that cannot be substituted by technology companies, dealers, insurers, or financial institutions.

Falere, LLC

Falere, LLC is a blue economy startup focused on unlocking the value of recreational marine data.

Falere is exploring the opportunity to establish an independent Marine Intelligence Platform that connects the recreational marine ecosystem and converts appropriately permissioned data into trusted, commercially useful intelligence.

Falere is not approaching the industry with a completed platform or a predetermined conclusion. Its current role is to facilitate a structured evaluation of whether the opportunity is sufficiently important, feasible, and supported to justify further development.

Falere is seeking to determine whether:

• The identified industry problems are significant
• Manufacturers and other stakeholders recognize the opportunity
• The proposed platform addresses meaningful unmet needs
• Data holders are willing to participate under appropriate conditions
• Customers will use and pay for resulting intelligence products
• Manufacturers can participate without compromising proprietary advantage
• Independent governance can earn sufficient industry trust
• Technology and interoperability requirements are achievable
• A commercially sustainable platform can be established

Falere’s working hypothesis is that an independent intelligence layer could create greater industry value than isolated proprietary solutions alone. That hypothesis must be tested with the organizations that manufacture products, generate and control data, serve customers, distribute marine products, assume risk, provide capital, and benefit from the resulting intelligence.

Current Stage of Development

Falere is in the early startup stages of:

• Ideation: Defining the industry problem, strategic opportunity, platform vision, and potential operating model.
• Problem–solution validation: Determining whether the MIP concept addresses important unmet needs for manufacturers and other marine-industry participants.
• Product–market-fit exploration: Identifying the initial use cases, customer segments, intelligence products, commercial models, and proofs of concept most likely to demonstrate value.

Falere is currently validating four foundational questions:

1. Is the recreational marine industry ready to explore a shared intelligence capability?
2. Is there sufficient interest among manufacturers, data contributors, customers, and strategic partners?
3. Are stakeholders willing to participate in designing and testing the platform?
4. Can an independent operating and governance model earn the trust required for industry participation?

The answers will determine whether Falere advances, modifies, narrows, partners, or discontinues elements of the concept.

This validation-first approach is intended to prevent premature investment in technology or organizational infrastructure before industry demand, participation, and economic viability have been demonstrated.

Building the Founding Team and Ecosystem

Assuming sufficient interest from NMMA and other recreational marine stakeholders, Falere intends to engage a carefully selected group of leaders and organizations to help evaluate and shape the initiative.

Advisors

Marine manufacturing, platform strategy, technology, data governance, insurance, financial services, and customer-experience experts who can challenge the thesis, refine the model, identify risks, and guide early decisions.

Board of Directors

Experienced leaders who can provide fiduciary oversight, independent judgment, governance discipline, industry relationships, and strategic guidance as Falere progresses from validation toward company formation and commercialization.

Strategic Partners

Organizations willing to contribute industry credibility, data, market access, pilot environments, distribution, investment, or complementary capabilities.

Strategic Suppliers

Technology and professional-services organizations capable of supporting telemetry ingestion, data standardization, analytics, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, privacy, regulatory compliance, and platform operations.

Participation in these capacities would not require stakeholders to accept a predetermined platform design. Their initial purpose would be to help determine whether the opportunity is viable and, if so, how it should be structured.

Proposed Engagement with NMMA

Falere proposes an exploratory discussion with the NMMA executive team to understand:

• NMMA’s perspective on the evolution of recreational marine telematics
• The most important data-related opportunities and concerns for its members
• Manufacturer priorities regarding proprietary information and customer data
• The level of interest in independent, cross-industry intelligence
• Use cases capable of producing measurable near-term manufacturer value
• Conditions required for members to participate in a proof of concept
• The appropriate potential role for NMMA
• Whether selected NMMA leaders or members should participate as advisors

If sufficient alignment exists, a practical next step would be a structured discovery process involving NMMA leadership and a representative group of boat, engine, equipment, and component manufacturers.

The discovery process would:

1. Identify high-priority manufacturer and industry problems
2. Test the proposed MIP value proposition
3. Define proprietary, permissioned, and shareable data categories
4. Establish participation, governance, security, and economic requirements
5. Prioritize a small number of initial use cases
6. Determine whether a narrowly scoped proof of concept is warranted
7. Establish explicit Go, Hold, Pivot, or No-Go criteria for further development

Conclusion

The recreational marine industry is generating increasing volumes of data, but it has not yet established a coordinated strategy for converting that data into industry-wide intelligence and economic value.

The decisions made during this early period will influence:

• Who controls the marine data layer
• How manufacturers protect proprietary advantage
• How value is distributed among industry participants
• Who owns the digital customer relationship
• How effectively the industry improves safety and reliability
• Whether connected-vessel services strengthen boating participation
• Whether the industry shapes its own future or responds to models established by outside organizations

An independent Marine Intelligence Platform offers a potential path toward coordinated value creation while preserving proprietary innovation, manufacturer choice, and competitive differentiation.

For NMMA, the immediate decision is not whether to endorse a completed platform. It is whether the opportunity—and its implications for NMMA members—is significant enough to warrant active exploration.

Falere, LLC welcomes exploratory conversations with the NMMA executive team to understand its perspective, test the underlying hypotheses, and determine whether NMMA should participate in shaping the future recreational marine intelligence ecosystem.