Enabling boaters everywhere to discover and share memorable journeys while minimizing risk and maximizing fun on the water. We built Ditch to make marine navigation easier and smarter. This technology provides tools to foster safety and enable experiences. That’s why we started Ditch. We hope you like it as much as we love building it, and we can’t wait to show you what’s coming next!

The idea for Ditch came about when co-founders Peter Williams (right) and Owen Davies (left) were navigating an unfamiliar section of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The ever changing bathymetry renders traditional chart plotters dangerously unreliable. There were some close calls, one uncomfortable scrape with a mid-channel sand bar and many curse words. After the storm had passed and they set about finding a better way to determine what information could be learned from the collective expertise of local boaters. “Could recent navigation history be used to tell us the smartest route, how the locals do it, rather than relying on outdated and sometimes wrong electronic maps?”

Peter and Owen have more than 50 years’ combined experience creating and managing state-of-the-art IT systems to mitigate risk in financial markets. With Ditch, they’ve leveraged their expertise in technology and data science to make marine navigation less risky and more enjoyable. They mined large complex historical data sets to identify information that could be used to minimize risk and take some of the stress out of boating.

And so a new way of boating navigation was born. Powered by AI and fueled by AIS data – a platform incorporating Local Knowledge and showing you the Smart Path through the water.