Ahoy fellow sailors,

From 30 April to 3 May, the Marine Data Cloud crew set sail for Marina Moll Vell, Mallorca, to join the Palma International Boat Show (PIBS) — the traditional curtain-raiser of the Mediterranean sailing season. With over 300 companies converging on the harbour and this year's expanded Superyacht New Build Hub taking pride of place, PIBS 2025 confirmed itself as a must-berth event for anyone navigating the future of yachting.

Dropping Anchor in Palma

Like any well-planned voyage, our attendance began with a clear course: connect with the industry's most forward-thinking captains, brokers, and shipyards, and chart how TheBoatApp can become the compass for their data. Four days on the docks confirmed what we've long believed — the marine industry is ready to trim its sails toward digitalisation, and it's actively searching for the right first mate to get there.

Valuable Meetings on Deck

Docked amid brokers, naval architects, and shipyard representatives at the Superyacht Village, our team held a series of promising discussions with potential partners:

• Yacht brokerage houses exploring how a centralised digital logbook could streamline handovers between owners, captains, and crew — reducing the paperwork squalls that traditionally follow a change of ownership.
• Naval architects and new-build shipyards, present in force at this year's newly launched Superyacht New Build Hub, who saw real value in embedding structured, exportable vessel data from the moment a keel is laid.
• Marina and fleet management operators, keen on integrations that keep maintenance records, certifications, and compliance documents shipshape and readily accessible across an entire fleet.

Each conversation reinforced our conviction: mariners don't want another app cluttering their bridge — they want one single, secure chart room where every document, record, and specification lives, ready to be hoisted up the moment it's needed.

Useful Intelligence Gathered

Beyond the handshakes, PIBS 2025 offered a valuable weather report on where the industry is heading:

• Superyacht new-build activity is surging, with the dedicated New Build Hub underlining how shipyards are investing in showcasing vessels still on the drawing board — a clear signal that digital documentation needs to begin far earlier in a boat's life cycle, not just at delivery.
• Owners and captains increasingly expect transparency and traceability, mirroring trends we've seen across other Mediterranean shows, where buyers ask pointed questions about maintenance history, certification status, and provenance before committing to a purchase.