Boatbuilder Gaia Brojanigo has just launched the free Rodi app for boat camping to help make small boat sailing more accessible
The marine world has one question on the tip of its tongue: Why aren’t young people getting into boating?
Gaia Brojanigo, boatbuilder, content creator, now app founder knows the usual answers.
Perception of a high access barrier; big up front investments; background expenses like marina costs, regular maintenance, and off-season storage; elitism and the expectation of a necessary starting skill level.
‘Sailing and boating are victims of their own PR,’ says Brojanigo. ‘People hear “marine” and they think “yacht, luxury”, when there’s actually this whole other side to it.
The reality of getting on the water can be so much more accessible.’
Rodi: the free app built for boat camping
Brojanigo grew up boat camping with her family.
She recalls summers of small boat adventures sleeping under the stars, anchoring a few metres offshore or to a tree.
She explains that boat camping with small craft is closer to biking than to camper travel; no additional transport from fuel, parking, and highway tolls.
It’s cost-conscious, green, and relatively low stakes, allowing for sailing (or paddling) by sight and requiring no particular nautical certifications.
You can camp for days at a time, interspersing stays in a structure as needed (Brojanigo says she likes to do three nights on the water, one with showers) and scaling to suit different preferences, weather conditions, and budgets.
While this kind of cheap, sporty, spontaneous outdoor adventure is far from a miracle cure, Brojanigo thinks it might be one answer to the declining interest in sailing, not to mention future work scarcity for small boat builders.
Even as every corner of the marine industry cries out about the lack of generational turn over, research shows from the UK’s national standard’s body shows that that young people crave outdoor adventure, shared, in-person experiences, and more time offline.
That’s exactly what Brojanigo thinks they’ll find on the water.
‘The idea with Rodi is to show people that this is an option,’ she says.
The making of Rodi
The name Rodi is a pun on the Italian approdi, meaning landings, berths, or moorings. Brojanigo deliberately chose it to be easy to pronounce in a variety of languages.
She worked with new Milan-based developer team Quantum to create an editable map based on the Open Sea map, which contains nautical information including buoys, lighthouses, and shipping channels.
The rest of the information will be community-sourced.
It’s a sort of Park4Night, the van-life mainstay, for boats.
Users can drop pins within the app to indicate mooring information (slipways, type of mooring, seabed and terrain characteristics, whether it’s possible to beach directly on shore) and services (water access, power sources, facilities, campsites, and other relevant information about the coastline).
The app also connects out to Google Maps so that users can fill out the rest of their itinerary with nearby stores, attractions, and accommodation, whether it’s a campsite, a cozy B&B, or a five-star waterfront hotel.
Rodi’s road ahead
From members of the boat camping community, Brojanigo has already received enthusiastic responses.
For now, the Rodi app is available in Italian and English. She is working on translations, and has plans for users to be able to share their itineraries for others to replicate, or drawn inspiration.
Future versions of Rodi may even list boat spots or storage space, sort of like a nautical JustPark, to connect the people with those resources to someone who can make use of them.
Eventually, Brojanigo hopes Rodi can become a platform for people to directly exchange knowledge, tips, boat modifications, and destinations, a one-stop shop for the small craft and boat camping community.
Can boat camping get more people on the water?
Rodi is about more than getting people on the water. It’s about the future of boatbuilding.
By getting more people interested in boat camping, Brojanigo hopes the app can help create the need for more boats, and therefore more work for boatbuilders.
Speaking with long-time members of the industry at last year’s Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, the message was clear
‘There’s less and less demand, fewer and fewer boats, and owners are getting older,’ she says. ‘Even in the “boatbuilder’s paradise”, you can feel the crisis.’
But Brojanigo doesn’t see heritage and wooden boatbuilding as facing a necessary death.
She hopes boatbuilding can move beyond holding on to heritage craft, embracing and integrating new technology alongside traditional practices.
‘I don’t believe in holding on to history at all costs, because I think you get yourself into a limited park. You end up being an open air museum. I don’t want that.
I want people to understand that small craft and boatbuilding is a living, breathing thing.’
In her own builds, Brojanigo works with wood, but also with more modern materials.
She was excited about the launch of a dinghy incorporating 3D printed pieces she had seen on social media.
‘3D printing is one of the most modern things you can think of, and it’s being used in a small boat. How cool is that?’
She’s excited to see the industry embrace new technologies.
Across her own work as a boatbuilder, her content, and now the launch of Rodi, Brojanigo says,
‘The point is getting people on the water, onto boats, and into adventure. We can’t be too picky about how they get there.’
Though Brojanigo’s life now centres around the sea, she hails from land-locked Milan. She tried art school, then working as a deckhand in the Caribbean, before finding her way to a degree in Marine Engineering & Boatbuilding at Falmouth Marine College. Having found her niche in boatbuilding, Brojanigo started making content online, combining comedy, social media savvy, and technical expertise to help revitalise the dwindling Italian heritage boatbuilding scene.
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