What if you could finally sleep soundly at anchor? Faced with a risk feared by all sailors, anchor dragging, a French startup, Mooring Solution, has created Morpheis (Morphée in French): a connected, autonomous, precise buoy that warns you before it’s too late. Here’s how a mishap off the coast of Italy gave birth to an innovation that could change the lives of boaters. We met with the two founders of Mooring Solution, based in Marseille’s harbor, on board a boat.
Thomas Fettig contributed to this report.
“It’s crazy that there’s still no truly effective solution against anchor dragging.”
From this simple reflection, born from a bad experience off the Italian coast, Louis Bridlance and his partner Émile Raison invented Morpheis, the first smart buoy designed to make anchoring safer for recreational boaters.
Anchor Dragging: Every Sailor’s Nightmare
For boaters, anchor dragging is a constant threat. The anchor that’s supposed to keep the boat in place starts to slip, sometimes just a few meters, with the risk of setting the boat adrift, potentially with catastrophic consequences.
“If the anchor isn’t properly set on the seabed, it can start sliding a few meters, and there’s a risk the boat drifts off, hits another boat, runs aground, etc. That’s when there’s a real danger.”
Until now, boaters have had to rely on conventional GPS systems — often inaccurate, power-hungry, tricky to set up, and usually ineffective against tides or currents. Louis explains:
“A boat moves with the currents and the wind, which isn’t necessarily dangerous. The problem is when the anchor moves, because it’s supposed to stay fixed. So we figured we had to track the issue at the source: the anchor itself. Instead of monitoring the boat’s movements, let’s track the anchor’s exact position.”
Morphée: The Innovation That Watches Over You While You Sleep
The answer is Morpheis, named after the god of sleep. This connected, orange-and-black buoy positions itself directly above the anchor thanks to a clever spring system. Always floating over the anchor, its built-in intelligence detects the slightest suspicious movement and instantly alerts the crew.
But what makes Morphée stand out from standard GPS devices are its three key advantages: precision, energy autonomy, and SMS alerts.
Unmatched Precision
According to Louis, Morpheis can detect dragging at just 4 meters, where typical GPS systems struggle below 20 meters.
“A standard boat GPS locates your current position. Some GPS units have anchor-drag alarms, but they’re hard to use for several reasons. First, it’s tricky to know exactly where your anchor landed when you dropped it — that’s your first imprecision. Second, you have to set a ‘swing radius’ — the distance at which you want to be alerted if the boat drifts past it. Setting that radius isn’t easy either because it depends on how much chain you’ve dropped, and that’s not always straightforward.
Indeed, in the Mediterranean, the sea level barely changes. But in other areas, like in Brittany, the difference between high and low tide can exceed six meters.
“The swing radius changes twice in a night, which makes standard GPS alarms inaccurate and unreliable. They either alert too often or not at all.”
Hence the solution: monitor the problem directly at the anchor.
Energy Autonomy
Equipped with a solar panel, two hours of charging is enough to secure an entire night at anchor.
“GPS devices also consume a lot of energy. On large boats, that’s fine. But on smaller ones, like the boat we’re on now, where energy saving is crucial, running a GPS all night can be a real problem.”
Remote Alerts
Standard GPS systems can’t send alerts remotely to your phone.
“If you’re anchoring somewhere you’re unsure about, where dragging is a risk, you end up staying on board instead of going ashore.”
Morphée connects via a radio box on board, with the option to send SMS alerts, so you’ll still get a warning even if you’ve gone ashore: “Morpheis Alert: Anchor Dragging.”
“We wanted a solution that’s simple, precise, autonomous and that finally lets you sleep peacefully at anchor.”
Mooring Solutions offers two models: the Essential, which includes the onboard receiver with a sound alarm, and the Remote, which adds SMS alerts.
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A French Technology, Designed by Sailors
Morpheis is Made in France. The buoy’s shell is thermoformed in Alsace, electronics are designed in Brest and assembled in Normandy, and screws and fittings come from Brittany.
“We assemble everything in Marseille. Some parts are even 3D printed in-house. It keeps us flexible and responsive.”
The company has already sold around 50 units, priced between €916 and €1,083 (excl. tax). Their customers are mostly recreational boaters, about 80% French, with the rest mainly from Greece and Italy.
A Small Startup… With Big Ambitions
With a six-person crew, Mooring Solutions is taking the time to perfect the product before scaling up. Backed by BPI France and banking partners, they’re holding off on raising capital for now.
“We’re postponing fundraising as long as possible. There will come a time when it’ll be necessary if we want to distribute on a large scale. Right now, we’re producing a maximum of one buoy per day. We’re investing in molds and tools that’ll let us speed up and scale production in the future.”
They also expect a lot from this first summer season, especially in terms of customer feedback. Some improvements are already planned, like making the buoy more visible with a flag or eventually replacing the onboard box with direct smartphone alerts via a dedicated app.
Other possibilities include forming partnerships with apps like Navily or Donia, to combine safe anchoring with environmental protection, particularly safeguarding Posidonia seagrass in the Mediterranean.
