The Marinas26 Innovators & Start-Up Showcase introduced five new products and services to the market, with each finalist delivering a punchy seven-minute presentation outlining the unique benefits of their solution for the industry. Held in the last stages of the conference at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, the session was chaired by Andrew Hutchinson of Invest Gold Coast, who said “It was an outstanding session and a real showcase of the talent and ambition driving our industry forward. Every one of the five finalists brought something genuinely useful to the table, and the breadth of ideas, from artificial intelligence through to sustainability and workforce development says a great deal about where the industry is heading.”
All five finalists came to the Showcase from very different corners of the industry, spanning digital and artificial intelligence, environmental innovation and the future of the marine workforce. Founded by Henry Hooper, Metarina showcased its AI-powered Predictive Risk Intelligence Engine, a platform that moves marina operations beyond record-keeping and towards genuine prediction. Rather than logging issues after the fact, Metarina flags vessel insurance gaps, certification inconsistencies and maintenance concerns before a vessel even arrives, while automating compliance and document workflows in any language or format. Already live across the Balearics and Sardinia and expanding into South-East Asia through a partnership with Marina Development Indonesia, Metarina arrived at the Showcase fresh from being named Scale-up of the Year at the Smart Marina Rendezvous Monaco 2025.
Highlighting just how quickly artificial intelligence is reshaping the sector, Southern Sky AI, founded by Kristina Agustin, presented a structured AI adoption practice built specifically for maritime leaders. Where most providers sell tools, Southern Sky AI offers the governance-led framework operators need before they choose their pathway to AI adoption. Southern Sky also use readiness assessments, designed to prevent the tool sprawl and adoption drift that so often follow unguided AI implementation. The practice draws on a rare combination of legal expertise (its founder is a lawyer), two decades of superyacht fleet management experience and formal AI credentials, filling a gap no other provider currently addresses in the Australian marina market.
Turning the audience’s attention to an environmental initiative, ReefFloat, presented by founder and Managing Director Toby Budd, showcased the world’s first foam-free, fully recyclable concrete marina float. For more than fifty years pontoons have relied on EPS foam for buoyancy, yet a single conventional float can contain around 20 million polystyrene beads that take hundreds of years to break down. They are often mistaken for food by turtles, fish and crabs, and are almost impossible to recover if released into the marine environment. ReefFloat eliminates that risk entirely. Developed in partnership with Holcim’s Airium technology, its buoyancy comes not from plastic foam but from an ultra-low-density concrete core wrapped in a high-strength concrete skin — a float that is inert in the water, supports marine biodiversity rather than harming it, and is 100% recyclable at end of life, simply crushed into hardcore for zero landfill.
Bringing a distinctly local flavour to the field, Harbr, founded by Chris Mihatov, showcased an AI-powered marina management platform purpose-built with and for Australian marina operators. Unlike established global systems that have bolted AI on as an afterthought, Harbr was built from the ground up with AI embedded in its core feature set, drawing all the essential functions of running a marina — berth, booking and vessel management, invoicing, payments and customer communications — into a single, modern interface. With its first Queensland marinas onboarding and further interest across Australia and New Zealand, Harbr also donates 1% of every subscription to environmental and marine charities, embedding social responsibility directly into its business model.
Rounding out this year’s Showcase, Marine Futures, founded by Adam Chanter, tackled a challenge felt in every marina around the country: the marine sector’s deepening labour and skills shortage. Marine Futures presented an end-to-end workforce development platform that connects recruitment, industry awareness, training, skills frameworks and advocacy in a single integrated solution. Its the only platform of its kind purpose-built at the intersection of recreational boating, commercial marine and marina operations. Underpinned by original IP developed over more than a decade in the industry, it is designed for national scale from the outset.
Following the presentations, a live poll of the delegates in attendance decided the result, with ReefFloat announced as the winner at the Gala Dinner on the evening of Tuesday 26 May 2026 in a tightly contested vote. Accepting the award, Toby Budd said “We set out to solve a problem the industry has lived with for half a century, and to now have that recognised by the industry’s own people means a great deal to us as we move towards full commercialisation.”
ReefFloat is developed by the team behind ScaffFloat, an established and commercially proven pontoon system. A prototype float has been installed and operational at Falmouth Harbour in the UK for more than 200 days, with an in-situ replacement system, itself a market first, allowing marinas to swap individual floats without removing pontoons or disrupting berth holders. With patents filed and the product progressing rapidly towards full commercial certification, ReefFloat is preparing to scale through a programme of pilots, testing and industry partnerships over the coming year.
Showcase chair Andrew Hutchinson noted, “It’s a great way round out day two of the conference, the Showcase sent everyone away genuinely inspired about innovation. Congratulations to Toby and the ReefFloat team for taking on a real environmental challenge with such a practical, commercially minded solution, exactly the kind of thinking this industry needs.”
More information about ReefFloat and their innovation can found at scafffloat.co.uk/reeffloat/ or by contacting founder Toby Budd
