While the amount of bandwidth available at sea has increased, so has the demand. “It completely changed the dimensions of the problem,” he said. “On the first boat I did, the idea of high-speed satellite at the time was 64 kilobits per second at $8 a minute, so the business problem was to maximize your utilization of a very slow connection.” But the evolution of commercial VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) technology has changed that, with satellite providers offering fixed-price, unlimited use connections with speeds ranging up to 4Mbps. He owes a lot of it to the changes in commercial satellite networking-and the insatiable digital habits of his customer base. “I wish I could say that I planned for this success,” he said. That desire has made his expertise in demand. Lasher’s clients are people who want to be just as connected at sea as they are in the office. Today, he only has two remaining land-based customers. The yacht IT business “is a niche that supports what I call the craftsman service model,” Lasher said. In 2003, after splitting with his consulting partner, he formed YachtComputing LLC. He liked the niche, so he turned his focus more and more towards the yachting side. “The industry is a tight community where everyone talks to everyone.” So he got called to build out more and more networks-on larger and larger boats. “My introduction to the industry was a very high-end boat,” he said. The Detroit Eagle, since renamed Sea Racer, is currently up for sale-and the asking price is just shy of $30 million.)Īt the time, Lasher says, he didn’t know a thing about satellite communications, but he managed to complete the project well enough that it got noticed. (Penske sold the yacht and bought another a few years ago. So they called in Lasher to finish the project: installing a network and satellite Internet access on the Detroit Eagle, a 153-foot long, three-deck motor yacht being built for Roger Penske. In 2001, that customer had trouble with an IT vendor they had recommended for a project in Holland. That connection would change his business unexpectedly. In 1999, the firm picked up a new customer-a company that specialized in high-tech, high-end audio and video suites for super-yachts. Lasher started doing tech work as a partner in a consulting firm, installing networks for business customers. But he didn’t originally set out to be an IT gypsy of the high seas. ![]() He traded in the suit and tie some time ago his work uniform now is a company polo shirt, jeans, and (usually) bare feet-shoes aren’t yacht-work friendly. Lasher, a former banker with an MBA in finance, works out of Miami, Florida. ![]() “It’s the very top end of the private yachting industry.” “It’s a distinct category-bigger than yachts, bigger than mega-yachts,” said Lasher. Lasher is the owner of YachtComputing LLC, a small IT business with a very exclusive niche: installing and maintaining networks and Internet connectivity aboard “superyachts,” seagoing mansions owned by wealthy individuals and charter companies. Image courtesy of Yachtcomputing LLC reader comments 34 withĮd Lasher has a simple way to measure how cool his job is-he just counts how many people have offered to carry his bags on a service call.
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