From Dock Titan to Africa Sun: How BoatOn Book Is Making Its Mark in Ports and Merchant Shipping

The Grand Port Maritime de La Réunion and Djibouti Shipping Company have both adopted BoatOn Book. Two clients, two very different contexts — a strategic port infrastructure and a container vessel operating actively in the Red Sea — and one shared reality: paper-based management and generic tools no longer cut it.

Dock Titan Goes Digital

The Grand Port Maritime de La Réunion (GPMDLR) is no ordinary port. Located at the crossroads of Europe-Africa-Asia maritime routes, it is the island's sole maritime gateway. It spans five activities: commerce (France's 4th largest container port and a transhipment hub in the Indian Ocean), France's 3rd naval base, fishing, ship repair, and cruises.

At the heart of this port sits the Dock Titan — an exceptional asset: 120 metres long, 32 metres wide, 4,600 tonnes lifting capacity, 80 direct jobs. It is the largest ship elevator in the region and a strategic tool for the entire Indo-Pacific region.

Managing maintenance for such equipment means managing a massive volume of information: scheduled interventions, spare parts inventory, supplier orders, regulatory documents, operational histories. This is the daily work of Karine Li Hong Wan's team — now handled centrally with BoatOn Book.

"BoatOn Book allows us to coordinate Dock Titan maintenance and maintain full traceability across all interventions. It's a simple tool that the team adopted quickly." Karine Li Hong Wan, Fleet Manager, Grand Port Maritime de La Réunion

This deployment is part of GPMDLR's "Smart Port" initiative, which aims to digitalize its processes to balance operational performance with environmental responsibility.

Africa Sun: CMMS, ISM Compliance and Digital Logbook in the Red Sea

Djibouti Shipping Company has deployed BoatOn Book on the Africa Sun, an ISM-certified container vessel chartered to CMA CGM. The ship operates a regular service in the Red Sea: Djibouti, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Mombasa.

It's a demanding route. Fast port calls, heavy regulatory pressure, rotating crews, and often limited internet connectivity. Paper logs and spreadsheets couldn't keep up. The modules deployed on the Africa Sun cover the full range of operational needs:

• Preventive and corrective maintenance: every part tracked from installation

• Procurement module: purchase orders and supplier communication centralised

• Real-time budget tracking

• Document management and ISM compliance: certificates, automatic expiry alerts

• Automated logbook via AIS or GPS

• Crew management: embarkation schedules, MLC-compliant work and rest hour tracking, automated timesheets

Everything is accessible from anywhere — on desktop or mobile, even offline — by both crew on board and shore-based personnel, according to their respective access levels.

"The Africa Sun operates on a demanding route with fast turnarounds and heavy regulatory pressure. Tracked maintenance, inventoried parts, centralised documents, digital logbook: that's exactly the use case BoatOn Book was built for." Bertrand Gerbaud, Founder of BoatOn

What These Two Clients Have in Common

You might think Dock Titan and Africa Sun have nothing in common. One is a fixed infrastructure, the other a vessel underway. One is in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the other crosses the Red Sea.

And yet the problems are identical: a high volume of operations to coordinate, field teams who need a simple tool, and management that wants traceability without drowning in spreadsheets or paper files.

BoatOn Book answers both needs: easy to adopt for teams on the ground, rigorous enough for management and regulatory inspectors. It's not a tool designed for large corporate IT departments — it's designed for fleet managers, superintendents, and shipowners who manage vessels or maritime equipment under real operational conditions.

Carbon Reporting, Built Right In

Both clients also benefit from BoatOn Book's automated carbon footprint module, developed with ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency). It calculates GHG emissions and atmospheric pollutants directly from navigation and consumption data already entered in the software — no re-entry, no additional spreadsheet.

This is a key point for both clients: CMA CGM, charterer of the Africa Sun, runs one of the most ambitious decarbonisation programmes in the maritime sector. And GPMDLR's "Smart Port" initiative places environmental performance at the core of its modernisation agenda.

Maritime carbon regulation is tightening — MEPC 83, CII, EU ETS. Having the right data in the right place at the right time is no longer a competitive advantage: it's an operating requirement.

BoatOn Book: CMMS, Digital Logbook and Carbon Reporting in One Tool

BoatOn Book is the first maritime software to combine in a single interface: CMMS (computerised maintenance management system), electronic logbook, crew management (HRMS) and automated carbon reporting. It serves superyacht captains, superintendents, shipowners, fleet managers and fishing vessel skippers — on vessels from 15 to 150 metres. Over 15,000 users worldwide. Backed by Bpifrance and the French Ministry of the Sea.

If you manage the maintenance of a vessel or maritime equipment and are looking for a tool that fits your real operational environment — no lengthy training, no complex setup — now is the time to see what BoatOn Book can do for you. Request a demo at boaton.fr