Fences stop cars. Not boats.Your perimeter ends at the water.
Marinas, boatyards, and small ports protect the land side with a gate and a fence — and leave the water side wide open. Intruders arrive by boat, tie up at an empty slip, and leave the same way, bypassing every camera aimed at the parking lot. Boats, outboards, and electronics disappear from slips and dry-stack racks, fuel docks get siphoned overnight, and cargo walks off the pier with no one on site to see it happen. VDS deploys solar-autonomous surveillance that watches the water approach as closely as the gate, reads every plate in the yard, and puts a live SOC operator on every alert — no dock attendant required.
Exposed sites.
High-value targets with no one watching.
Minimal staffing, sprawling ground, and valuable assets in the open — the conditions that turn a site into a soft target the moment everyone goes home.
Boat, motor & electronics theft
Outboards, electronics, and entire vessels disappear from slips and dry-stack racks overnight — high-value, portable assets with almost nothing standing between them and a waiting trailer or a second boat.
Fuel dock theft
Unattended fuel docks after hours are an easy target — siphoning and pump tampering that goes unnoticed until the next morning's reconciliation comes up short.
After-hours access by water
The signature marina risk: intruders arrive and leave by boat, tying up at an empty slip or gangway and bypassing the gate, the fence, and every land-side camera entirely — with no trace on the way out.
Cargo theft, vandalism & liability
Small ports and boatyards lose equipment and cargo off the laydown yard, take on vandalism and dock damage, and are left without footage to resolve storm-damage or slip-accident liability claims.
Drop the trailer.
The SOC takes it from here.
Solar-autonomous surveillance with AI analytics and live SOC operators. No power, no internet, no guards required.
Every plate.
Every trailer in the yard.
License plate recognition at the boatyard or marina gate logs every vehicle and trailer in and out, ties access to a time and a plate, and flags hotlisted vehicles — turning your one land-side chokepoint into an evidence-grade record.
- Automatic plate capture at the gate, day and night
- Entry/exit log tied to time and plate
- Hotlist alerts for flagged vehicles and trailers
- Evidence packages for law enforcement and claims
// STEP 01The gate isn't the only way in.
We watch the water too.
The MSU stages on the hard-standing or parking apron and covers the water approach with thermal-capable PTZ, closing the one entry path fixed land-side cameras and fences were never built to see.
- Thermal + PTZ coverage of slips, gangways, and the water approach
- AI detection of vessels and people approaching by water
- Works in zero-light across open water and docks
- Closes the gap fencing and gate cameras can't cover
// STEP 02No dock attendant.
A live operator instead.
Every alert routes to a live SOC operator who verifies it, issues a real-time audio warning through the on-unit speaker, and escalates to law enforcement — deterrence that works at 2am on a dock, not just during office hours.
- Live operator verification on every alert
- Real-time voice-down warnings through the speaker
- Escalation to law enforcement with footage
- Monthly incident and access reporting
// STEP 03No power on the dock.
No problem.
Docks rarely have easy power or hardwired data, and salt air is brutal on standard gear. Solar power and 4G/5G cellular mean coverage goes wherever the slips are — with no trenching, no marine electrical work, and no corrosion-prone wiring run down the pier.
- Solar-autonomous — no dock power or hardwired data required
- 4G/5G cellular backhaul, no line run to the water
- Hardened against salt air and marine conditions
- Relocatable as slips, racks, and risk shift
// STEP 04Every asset on site.
One platform.
The MSU adapts to your waterfront layout. Here are the scenarios marina and port operators deploy for most often.
Slips & docks
Rows of occupied and empty slips where a water-borne intruder can tie up, board a vessel, and leave without ever touching land.
Fuel dock
Unattended fueling positions where after-hours siphoning and pump tampering go unnoticed until the next reconciliation.
Dry-stack storage
Racked boat storage where theft of hulls, motors, and electronics can happen in a single unmonitored overnight window.
Boat ramps & launch areas
Public and private launch points that double as an easy after-hours entry and exit route for trailers and stolen vessels.
Gangways & access points
The transition points between land and water where LPR and access monitoring tie every entry to a time and identity.
Boatyard & cargo laydown
Equipment, parts, and cargo staged in the open at boatyards and small ports, exposed to theft with no one on site overnight.
Real operators.
Real numbers.
Every metric below comes from a real VDS marina and port customer. Names protected per agreement.
We kept losing outboards and nobody ever came in through the gate. Once the trailer was covering the water side, that stopped being a mystery — and it stopped happening.
// MSU-A · FLAGSHIPLPR + THERMAL · MARINE & PORTThe Mobile Surveillance Unit.
Built to watch the water.
Gate LPR, thermal waterside coverage, and 24/7 SOC monitoring — all from a single solar-autonomous trailer that closes the one entry path fixed cameras and fencing were never built to see.
From assessment
to covered.
Most marina and port operators go from initial conversation to a live trailer on the property inside 7 business days.
Site assessment
We review your waterfront layout, slips, fuel dock, gate, and incident history. Fast quote turnaround.
Sensor configuration
Camera presets, LPR capture at the yard gate, thermal detection zones across the water approach, and alert rules configured for your site.
Delivery & commissioning
Trailer staged on the hard-standing or apron, mast raised, cameras and LPR calibrated. SOC monitoring begins immediately. No dock power required.
Monitoring & reporting
Monthly incident reports, access and vessel logs, and system health delivered automatically. Trailer relocated as slips and risk shift.
Cover your waterfront this week.
Tell us your slip count, fuel dock, gate layout, and biggest loss driver — we'll quote the deployment — fast.