Every sailing trip starts with a dream. A dream that's been sailing in our minds for many years and has grown dear to our hearts. The long-time friendship of Peter and Michal is united by our hobby - yachting, along with a passion for traveling, water, and boats. How did we realize we were born for yachting, and why did we want to share it with the world through MarinaTips?
💧 How It All Started
We've always been drawn to water. We became good friends instantly when we met for the first time at a lifeguard course. Gradually, we realized we were attracted to the sea beyond the buoys, where no lifeguard's sight can reach.
We came to yachting by complete coincidence thirteen years ago. We were young, and ideas were spontaneously pouring out every moment. A friend of ours, a sea captain, approved our joint plan - to pass the captain's exam.
Nobody had any idea what we were getting into. But we knew there was no way back, and once someone experiences yachting, they probably can't tear themselves away.
⛵ First Voyage - No Return Possible
Since our captain's exam and first voyage in 2008, we've been literally living for this hobby. We completed that first voyage as part of the captain's exam, a requirement for obtaining the maritime vessel master license.
Numbers from our first voyage:
- 📍 Starting point: Sukošan, Croatia
- 🌊 Distance: Nearly 300 nautical miles (over 500 km)
- 📚 Goal: Chase experience and knowledge
- ❤️ Result: Lifelong love for yachting
From that moment, we've been sailing every year. We love discovering new hidden places - that's actually what we love most about yachting: freedom and wind in our hair.
When a Hobby Becomes a Lifestyle
Boats, sea, and sun can engulf you so much that you can't imagine not spending time at sea every year. Even when we sometimes can't get to sea because of our little future sailors, we can't stop watching sailboats cruising the sea from shore.
🗺️ Our Favorite Destinations
Croatia - Our Favorite
From the beginning, we've been drawn to Croatia. Northern, Central, or Southern Dalmatia has its charm, and there's always something to discover. The network of small islands, coves, and places always manages to convince us that we've chosen the right destination.
Italy - Coastal Diversity
We often cross the sea to Italian territory, which attracts us with its coastal diversity. From there, it's just a hop to the neighboring islands of Corsica and Sardinia.
⚠️ For advanced sailors: These islands rank among top destinations but also slightly extreme areas for yachting. They're beautiful but can be more demanding for the crew. Despite this, we highly recommend them, ideally for a more experienced crew.
Always Discovering New Places
We have many favorite destinations, but we never shy away from discovering new places that always surprise us with something.
🎯 Trip Planning - Our Process
Before each voyage, we ask ourselves the basic question: What will we visit this time?
- 🇭🇷 Croatia?
- 🇮🇹 Italy?
- 🇬🇷 Greece?
- 🇪🇸 Spain?
The possibilities are almost endless!
Our Planning Steps:
- Destination choice - crew agreement
- Boat selection - based on number of people and needs
- Route planning - takes several weeks!
- Information gathering - crucial phase
💡 From our own experience: Route planning can take several weeks, and things constantly change. But we eventually get an idea of what the voyage should look like.
Planning Challenges
There's always a moment when you need to reach for information:
- 🔍 Where to find information about berth types?
- ⚓ Is it a marina, pier, anchorage, or buoys?
- 🏪 What services are available?
- 📍 What's interesting nearby?
For beginner sailors, this is less of a problem - you need to choose calmer waters and locations. But even we were searching for service availability, crew needs, and interesting places.
💡 Birth of MarinaTips - Idea Becomes Reality
It's the sorting of information and the overall lack of overview that led us to create an app that would make voyages easier for sailors worldwide.
Development - From Website to App
The first step was a website where we concentrated all information. There wasn't a comprehensive overview of berth types for boats:
- ❌ We couldn't determine the type of spot (marina, pier, anchorage, buoys)
- ❌ Service information was missing
- ❌ No user photos
- ❌ Complicated searching
On the boat, we realized this wasn't the most practical solution. Searching for information on a website via mobile took too long, and network coverage wasn't good everywhere.
MarinaTips App Is Born
So we started developing an app where everything is well-arranged, including maps and offline version (coming soon). During voyages, plans often change, and you must improvise and search for suitable alternatives.
What we focused on:
- 📊 Information the captain absolutely needs
- 👆 Ease of use
- 😊 User-friendly environment
- 🔍 Intuitive searching
- ⚡ Speed - results in seconds
🎯 MarinaTips Vision
We tried to make searching and sorting relevant information as easy as possible for sailors and app users.
What the app provides:
- 🗺️ Freedom of choice - decide whether to visit a spot or continue
- 📍 Instant information - about location and service availability
- ⚓ Nearest spots - by berth type
- 📱 Contacts - with descriptions and photo gallery
- 🔔 Notifications - alert about approaching places
- 🌤️ Weather - current forecast for several days
Most importantly: Users find all this with just a few clicks without lengthy searching!
🌍 MarinaTips Today
The MarinaTips app currently carries information about ten countries, and the database is constantly expanding into new areas.
Covered countries:
- 🇭🇷 Croatia
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇲🇹 Malta
- 🇵🇹 Portugal
- 🇸🇮 Slovenia
- ... and more
What we're preparing:
- 🇬🇷 Greece - coming soon
- 🇳🇴 Northern countries - new horizons
- 🚀 Attractive features - you won't find anywhere else
❤️ Thank You
We're proud to make sailing easier for all sailors who actively use our app.
We continue to improve the app and work on features that will make sailing even easier for you. Your feedback, comments, and photos help the entire sailing community!
We hope you're as excited about the app's content as we were creating it. We'll be happy if MarinaTips makes your entire voyage easier, and you can enjoy the sea, sun, and wind in your hair.
See you on the water! ⛵
Peter and Michal
MarinaTips Team
michal
