Startups by ocean enthusiasts develop self-stabilizing e-foil, marina booking system
Watersports company Level was formed after co-founder watched clients failing to balance hydrofoils, while Pick a Pier seeks to maximize marina use, ease reservations
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Water sports enthusiasts have used their experiences to create two separate start-ups — the world’s first self-stabilizing hydrofoil (a surfboard suspended above the water on a leg) and an application that connects recreational boaters and marine managers to make marina use more efficient and profitable and berth reservation easier.
The e-foil idea, called Level, was born on a Caribbean island. Co-founder and CEO Arthur Yanai skippered a luxury catamaran and said he watched inexperienced customers having a miserable time trying to balance and judge the height of the above-water strut during a hydrofoil activity.
“Imagine a unicycle, which is unstable side to side and back to front,” explained Yanai, who served as a navy seal in the prestigious Shayetet 13 during his military service and comes from a business and product design background. His co-founder, Assaf Friedman, is also an enthusiastic sailor and has drone experience.
The board the two developed keeps itself stable and maintains a constant height above the water thanks to technology that includes a gyro system and a height sensor. These send commands to underwater fins, which move up to 100 times per second. According to Yanai, they offer better stability than humans can.
All the rider has to do is lean forward to accelerate, back to slow down, and either left or right to navigate.
The Level board, which comes in two versions for rider weight, has a screwless design for easy transportation and quick assembly of the battery and foil. It also has a removable handlebar. A separate “Flyak” (kayak) model will be launched later this year for lifeguards, fishing enthusiasts, and people moving from ship to shore.
Made for calm water, the e-foil is aimed at “the 95 percent who don’t know how to surf,” Yanai said.
Pre-orders have just opened for the $10,500 board, which will be available next summer. The company hopes the price will decrease to around $4,000 in future years.
As an alternative, the company offers e-foils for rent for marine excursions, following the popular Segway model.
The lithium batteries allow for rides of up to two hours — as the board sits above the water, battery-guzzling water resistance is at a minimum — and also ensure that the board is quiet.
Yanai is already wondering whether the board could serve as a military vessel able to approach enemy shores silently, without being picked up by heat or radar. But that, he said, would be up to a separate company to investigate.
Finding a marina parking place
The idea for the second startup, Pick a Pier, founded by brothers Asaf and Idan Cohen, also came from personal experience. Asaf has been sailing since a young age, attending a naval boarding school. He commanded a ship during his military service, instructed at Israel’s naval academy, and has sailed in Israel and the US.
Idan worked for a company that manages and develops the Tel Aviv-Jaffa coastline, which exposed him to the functioning of the Tel Aviv Marina. “He saw how the marina would say there was no room when, walking around, he could see an empty berth,” Asaf explained. “The marina [managers] would say they didn’t know who was leaving or when people planned to return. Reservations are still done manually [in much of the industry].”
Cohen explained that around half of the world’s marinas are private and revenue-driven, with around 90 percent of berths rented out for a year.
Pick a Pier works by incentivizing those with berths to report when they will leave and return. This information is integrated into digital marina management software and made easily accessible to boaters seeking a place to moor. The application also includes information about insurance, maintenance, and leisure opportunities.
A partnership with two large European marina owners means 40 marinas on the continent already use Pick a Pier. Asked about competition, Cohen said marina software and marina booking channels existed, but nothing that combined the two.
Pick a Pier’s website promises marinas an annual 32% increase in reservations and an 85% reduction in paperwork.
It taps into the importance of sustainability, noting its partnership with Blue Flag, and saying that maximizing marina use will limit the building of new marinas. Marina construction can harm reefs and ocean wildlife and help erode coastlines by blocking the natural restocking of sand.
Level and Pick a Pier products were displayed at the second annual Blue Tech Summit held in Haifa, northern Israel, and organized by the Israeli National Center of Blue Economy.
