Warranty and support: what to demand from whoever installs Starlink on your yacht

When connectivity fails aboard, the first half hour is invariably consumed determining who should be called. Is it the terminal? The fitting? The service plan? The network configuration?

That indeterminacy is not accidental. A Starlink installation aboard involves three distinct responsibilities overlapping, each with its own warranty, its own point of contact and its own timescale. Understanding them before signing is what prevents losing connectivity mid-passage while apportioning blame.

The three overlapping warranties

The hardware warranty, granted by SpaceX

Covers manufacturing defects in the terminal and router. If the antenna stops working with no external cause, the claim is made to SpaceX through the application or web portal.

It does not cover water damage arising from a badly sealed connector, corrosion from exposure the design did not contemplate, impact or storm damage, or electrical failure caused by an undersized supply.

One point that causes doubt, and which we addressed in our article on who should install Starlink, is worth stating precisely: this warranty is not voided because a third party carried out the fitting. But nor does it protect you if that third party did it badly.

The workmanship guarantee, granted by the integrator

This is the one most frequently forgotten and the one most likely to be needed. It covers the fitting work: that the deck penetrations do not leak, that the mount holds, that the cabling does not chafe, that the electrical connection is adequately protected.

What should be stated in writing:

One nuance that decides more than it appears: scope matters more than term. Twenty-four months without watertightness is worth less than twelve with it.

Service and coverage, which depend on your plan

This does not constitute a warranty but a contracted service. Starlink publishes no availability SLA with compensation for its maritime plans, in the same way no satellite operator guarantees one hundred per cent. Coverage is what it is, and it is verifiable in advance on the official map.

One consequence is worth accepting: if the vessel sails outside the coverage band, that does not constitute a fault and nobody will compensate it. It is a planning decision taken before signing, not an incident.

“24/7 support”: what it means in practice

It is probably the most repeated and least understood claim in the sector, and it merits dismantling.

In the marine world, real 24/7 support is remote. It means a channel is open at any hour to diagnose a configuration problem, guide a restart or reconfiguration, check terminal status remotely, and determine whether the incident belongs to the equipment, the network or coverage.

That is genuinely valuable and resolves the majority of incidents. What it does not mean is that a technician is willing to come aboard at three in the morning, or that if you are three hundred miles out someone will reach you.

The questions that distinguish real support from the slogan

1. What is resolved remotely and what requires a physical visit? There should be a clear answer, not an evasion.
2. What is the committed response time? Distinguish response from resolution: they are not the same.
3. At which ports can you attend without a travel charge? Every integrator has a working radius; outside it, travel is billed.
4. Who attends if the boat is outside Spain? A decisive question if you make passages.
5. Is the support yours, or do you refer me to Starlink? Numerous incidents are installation matters, not product matters. If you are always referred to SpaceX, you have no installation support.

What to demand according to your sailing pattern

Not every vessel requires the same thing, and paying for cover you will never use is as ill-advised as having none.

Coastal and seasonal sailing. A twelve-month workmanship guarantee with watertightness included, remote support in working hours, and a service radius covering your home port and those where you customarily winter. That is sufficient.

Ocean passage. Here the priority shifts. What matters ceases to be the physical visit — nobody will reach mid-Atlantic — and becomes the quality of remote diagnosis and the solidity of the documentation. Request that the handover record incorporate the cable route diagram: if you must intervene yourself on passage, knowing where it runs marks the difference between resolving it and not.

Charter and commercial operation. Here a written commitment with concrete timescales is appropriate, because a connectivity outage carries direct cost and, frequently, consequences for the client’s experience. Retain all installation documentation as well: the insurer will request it in the event of any equipment-related claim.

The documentation is the guarantee

This is the central point of the article, and the hardest to convey: a guarantee without documentation is not a right, it is a conversation.

If a leak appears at a deck penetration in eight months, what distinguishes an uncontested repair from an exchange of recriminations is having the photographs of how that penetration was executed before it was sealed.

That is why we insist so firmly on acceptance testing and the handover record, which we detail in our article on the scope of a professional installation. This is not bureaucracy: it is the only thing that converts a verbal promise into something enforceable.

The minimum you should retain:

• Photographs of every deck penetration before sealing
• A dated baseline speed test
• The obstruction check
• A diagram of the cable route and electrical connection point
• A signed handover record, with the term and scope of the workmanship guarantee

Keep it aboard and in the cloud. The day you need it you will most likely have no connectivity to go looking for it.

Our approach

At MaritLink we coordinate the installation with a certified naval communications integrator, and our role in this matter is twofold: ensuring the warranty and support terms are stated in writing before anyone steps aboard, and being your single point of contact for any incident, so that you need not determine yourself whether the problem lies with the terminal, the fitting or the configuration.

The advice is not billed and the final price is identical to going direct.

Would you like to review the warranty and support terms before signing off an installation? Request a private consultation: we will go through what you are actually being offered and what is missing — whether or not you go through us.