An independent research initiative · British Columbia, Canada
Two connected projects in development: a diagnostic system that explains marine engines in plain language, and a replicable production system for safe small boats in remote communities. Early-stage, safety-obsessed, and documented in the open as we go.
Why this exists
For coastal and northern communities, small boats carry people, groceries, kids, and emergencies — and both halves of keeping them viable are getting harder. Modern engines are computers that only dealers can talk to, while experienced mechanics retire faster than they're replaced. And the boats themselves are expensive to buy and brutally expensive to ship anywhere a barge only visits once a year.
We're working on both halves of that problem, deliberately in parallel, because they're the same problem: keeping people safely on the water shouldn't depend on how close they live to a dealership.
The projects
A marine engine diagnostic system that explains, not just reads. Every scan tool on the market can pull a fault code; almost none can tell an owner or a small-shop mechanic what it means, how urgent it is, and what to check next. Fathom is being designed around that missing layer: ranked likely causes, honest confidence, severity triage — is this an emergency, or can you get home and fix it Saturday?
We're currently doing the unglamorous part properly: interviewing independent marine mechanics about how real diagnosis happens, so the interpretation is built from working knowledge rather than guesswork.
A replicable production system for safe small boats in remote communities. Not a boat for sale — a documented method: large-format 3D printing of tough marine plastic (including recycled local feedstock), plastic-welded assembly, sealed flotation so the hull floats even fully swamped, and a complete kit of files, procedures, and training so a community workshop can build the next one without us.
Current work is where it should be: validating materials and welded joints under cold conditions before anything carries a person. Safety testing is the gate, not a feature.
How they fit together
Principles
Cold water doesn't grade on a curve. Every hull design targets flotation even when fully swamped, and nothing carries a person until it has passed leak, load, stability, and swamped-flotation testing. On the diagnostics side, the same rule wears different clothes: conservative "stop the engine" calls, and never an unexplained "you're fine."
Success isn't a boat we built — it's a boat built by people we've never met, from documentation good enough that they didn't need us. Files, procedures, training, and test protocols are the real product; communities own their capability.
Both projects are early. There's no product for sale, no boats in service, and no claims ahead of our testing. This page will say "in development" for exactly as long as that's true — and what changes here will have passed a test first.
Status — kept current