Starlink Maritime is being put to the test by the Motor Yacht Loon 2
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Starlink Maritime deployed on the most Instagrammed superyacht

Credit: Motor Yacht Loon

Starlink Maritime has been deployed on the world’s most Instagrammed superyacht,  Motor Yacht Loon. Loon has an Instagram following of almost 62,000 followers at the time of this article. I spoke with Loon’s captain, Paul Clarke and he shared his experience with Starlink Maritime with Teslarati.

In March, Loon started accepting charter fees in bitcoin which coincided with the yacht’s first visit to Europe. After reading a recent article on Teslarati, Paul reached out to give us his thoughts on Starlink Maritime.

During our phone call, Paul told me a little bit about the cost of Loon, upgrading to Starlink, and how much better the internet speeds are compared with Viasat.

“We have one superyacht, a $30 million, 180-foot superyacht. We upgraded to Starlink the day it became available for the maritime setup,” he told me.

Credit: Motor Yacht Loon

The speeds, he said, are consistently in the 150-200 Mbps and he only pays $5,000 per month which is a lot less expensive than his previous internet service provider.

“Previously we had Viasat which we considered good with speeds of around 40-80Mbs for $10,000 per month and about $50,000 in equipment.”

Ever since switching to Starlink, Paul has saved a lot of money and getting more speed than he was getting before.

“Starlink is still in its infancy and it’s only going to get better.”

Loon was one of the first vessels to deploy Starlink Maritime that he knew of, Paul told me. The yacht had the service for at least six weeks and crossing the Atlantic Ocean put Starlink to the test.

“With the boat crossing the Atlantic it was a good test to see if it was going to work and it doesn’t. But I contacted Starlink support and they said that probably by November, they plan on turning it on in Q4.”

Loon spent the summer in the Mediterranean and plans to spend the winter in the Caribbean. Paul plans to test Starlink over the Atlantic when Loon goes back to the Mediterranean.

Credit: Motor Yacht Loon

“We’re on the way to Florida now and plan to spend the next four to six weeks in Florida just making sure the annual maintenance of the boat. And then we’ll head down to the Caribbean. It will be a good test for that area as well before shooting back over to the Mediterranean in probably May of next year.”

I asked Paul if he had any feedback he would like to share and he told me that he thinks Starlink Maritime is great.

“I think it’s great. Honestly, we are very happy with it in the early days and I think it’s a total game changer. The fact that we can stream multiple streams in high definition whereas before we’d struggle with one maybe two streams going. Every TV on the boat can be turned on to stream Netflix and live sports without issues. It’s definitely highly recommended.”

In July, SpaceX announced Starlink Maritime which is for oceangoing vessels while at sea. Ships, boats, merchant vessels, yachts, and even oil rigs can benefit from the latest Starlink product. Royal Caribbean recently announced that it was deploying Starlink, however, we don’t have to wait for Royal Caribbean to give us a review of Starlink Maritime.

The famous Staniel Cay plane wreck near the Compass Cay Island, Exumas, Bahamas Credit: Motor Yacht Loon

Your feedback is important. If you have any comments, or concerns, or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter at @JohnnaCrider1

Starlink Maritime deployed on the most Instagrammed superyacht
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