It was a chance encounter with his chief engineer, involved in creating remote controls used in coal mines, which led him on to apply the land-based solution to water, making his idea a reality and solving his own personal boat docking crisis in the process.Ĥ years on the market and Dockmate is one of its largest players but it hasn’t been an easy journey as Dirk explains: “No bank was interested in the investment at Dockmate’s start so, development of the product has been something I’ve had to self-finance. No one would let me near theirs with it, back then!” he jokes.Īlways an entrepreneur at heart, Dirk ran his own print finishing business for 25 years before selling it in 2006 to turn his hand at globally exporting graphic machines and manufacturing their electronic components from its base in Belgium. “The whole marina came out to watch me test it on my own boat. One year later, he had developed his first Dockmate prototype.
Let’s start from scratch,” explains Dirk in his perfect English. “There was only one brand on the market that could possibly do the job, which was way too expensive for the old tech at its core. When he started to look for a remote control to help dock it, he didn’t realise it would be his own vision, business acumen and actual product which would later fulfil that need. Today, Dirk sits at the helm of Dockmate, a future proof, wireless remote-control boat steering system with a distribution network across 31 countries.ĭirk, who has been a keen sailor since his teenage years and always adopted a hands-on approach to his own repairs, bought a new motorboat in 2011 in his late forties. If necessity is the mother of invention, and play its Father, then Belgian entrepreneur Dirk Illegems had the perfect upbringing and lineage for creating a global phenomenon that simplifies boat docking. We take a brief moment to look at the man behind those controls how he engineered a global docking phenomenon in the face of adversity and how he has successfully steered Dockmate, with finger-tip precision, into such an enviable position…………….ĭockmate: The remote control boat docking tech that Dirk built I don’t endorse one product or the other, I just endorse the fact that you need to buy it.A necessary indulgence, Dockmate is establishing itself within the marine community as one of the world’s most future-proof remote control boat docking systems. I’ve put together a short video and a demo as to how it works in action with a slight comedic twist and commentary throughout. I can tell you that I have clients that use Yacht Controller and clients that use DockMate the draw to Yacht Controller is that they’re featured on more boats and are a more proven product whereas DockMate addresses the issue of Dockmate occasionally falling out of sync by switching to an alternative channel which allows it to function through interferences.
Some view this as an unnecessary cost but if I ask you what it costs to touch up paint during heavy winds and user error, it’s certainly well worth it on top of the fact of making your vessel more appealing to future buyers. It’s going to cost between $10,000 - $15,000, again depending on your boat’s configurations and if you want that joystick feature or not. This in a sense makes a docking station obsolete as you’re not fixed, your boat washer won’t get the hose caught on one of those throttles and you don’t have to worry about your bastard nephew hitting buttons he’s not supposed to while you’re operating elsewhere.Īs for Yacht Controller pricing or Dockmate pricing, they’re virtually the same. Some boats, especially flybridges will have an upper & lower helm at the very least with many having a docking station or two on the port or starboard side which allowed a captain or operator to get better visibility closer to the dock, nearby the gunwale. Each provider offers a proportional controller, with a joystick that allows you to ‘point and shoot’ so to speak or gives you access to thrusters and throttles in a consolidated remote control.
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