NAVOPLAN Launches AI Decision-Support Platform for Bluewater Cruising
St. Petersburg, United States – March 28, 2026 – NAVOPLAN, a new AI decision-support platform for bluewater cruisers, has officially launched. The platform, anchored by FIRST MATE, an AI decision co-pilot, is designed to assist offshore sailors in making high-stakes decisions in complex and challenging marine environments.
A Vision Forty Years in the Making
Dwain Craddock, founder of NAVOPLAN, a pioneer in video streaming and online meetings, developed the platform over 18,000 solo miles at sea. Craddock’s journey began in the 1980s, studying Management Science: Computer Based Decision Support Systems at Virginia Tech. His experience at Starlight Networks, a Silicon Valley company that invented streaming video, instilled in him the belief that technology must solve real problems. This conviction, combined with his extensive solo offshore cruising, led to the creation of NAVOPLAN.
“I didn’t start building NAVOPLAN for a market. I built it for myself, because nothing like it existed and I was spending too much time second-guessing my decisions. Every call I made in port or offshore – about weather windows, vessel readiness, emergency protocols – I was making alone, without a structured framework, relying on experience I was still accumulating. FIRST MATE is the decision partner I needed and didn’t have. Now every bluewater cruiser can have it,” stated Dwain Craddock.
Three Phases, One Integrated Platform
NAVOPLAN operates through a three-phase lifecycle decision support platform, with FIRST MATE as its core AI foundation:
- Exploration ($1,495, one-time): This phase helps aspiring cruisers determine if bluewater cruising aligns with their lifestyle, relationships, finances, and risk tolerance before investing in a vessel.
- Acquisition ($1,495, one-time): For committed buyers, this phase guides vessel selection based on priorities and comfort thresholds established during Exploration, aiming to reduce costly mismatches and facilitate the transition from land to sea.
- Helm ($49-$129/month, tiered): Designed for active liveaboards, this phase offers vessel management, crew and systems oversight, passage structure, a Digital Float Plan, and Emergency Assistance Coordination with Active Tracking. The Helm tiers are named Securite, Pan-Pan, and Mayday, reflecting maritime emergency call hierarchies.
The platform’s knowledge base includes over 200 Bluewater Briefings covering various offshore cruising topics, from seamanship and provisioning to systems management and country entry/exit protocols. Additionally, two books from the Bluewater Living series, authored by Craddock, are integrated with the Exploration and Acquisition phases.
FIRST MATE: Your AI Co-Pilot at Sea
FIRST MATE is designed to provide specific, contextual guidance by drawing on vessel, crew, current and local weather, systems, and maintenance data housed within NAVOPLAN. It clarifies requests, uses multiple-choice reasoning for diagnostic hypotheses, narrows down probable paths, and presents options. Once a captain makes a choice, FIRST MATE delivers a clear, actionable plan.
Craddock emphasizes that FIRST MATE doesn’t dictate actions but assists captains in thinking clearly during critical moments. Every challenging scenario encountered during his 18,000 miles aboard his Nordhavn 40 Trawler, Amarok, has been tested against FIRST MATE, ensuring its practical application in real-world situations.
The Live Test: Hawaii, July 2026
In July 2026, Craddock will embark on a crewed passage to Hawaii, a demanding real-world validation of the NAVOPLAN platform. FIRST MATE will be actively running, and the Digital Float Plan will be live during this voyage.
“The bluewater cruising community doesn’t need another app. It needs a platform that understands that going offshore is a systems problem – human systems, vessel systems, decision systems – and that getting any one of them wrong has consequences that follow you out to sea. NAVOPLAN is built on that understanding. FIRST MATE is the co-pilot who never leaves the helm,” Craddock concluded.
NAVOPLAN is currently available at navoplan.com.
About NAVOPLAN: NAVOPLAN is a bluewater cruising decision support platform built for every stage of the cruising lifecycle. Founded by Dwain Craddock, a Virginia Tech-trained decision systems specialist, Silicon Valley technology veteran, and 18,000-mile offshore cruiser, NAVOPLAN integrates four decades of human performance expertise with the realities of life at sea. Its AI co-pilot, FIRST MATE, provides structured decision support across three sequential phases – Exploration, Acquisition, and Helm. The platform includes 200+ Bluewater Briefings and two Bluewater Living books. NAVOPLAN’s next major milestone is a crewed Hawaii passage in July 2026. navoplan.com
