Why I Founded 3D3D

I researched every company that does what I do. All of them. Not a quick Google search. A full competitive analysis across three industries that 3D3D touches. Here is what I found.

The Landscape

23 yacht management companies worldwide. Y.CO, Burgess, Hill Robinson, and the rest. They manage vessels worth millions. They charge accordingly. Their services are built for superyachts with full-time crew. If you own a 40-foot boat and need seasonal management, they do not return your email.

10 companies doing 3D printing for marine applications. 3D Boat Bits, Solvit3D, Open Boat Projects. Most of them sell STL files online or operate from a fixed workshop. They ship parts. They do not show up at your vessel with a printer, measure the broken fitting, design the replacement, and hand it to you the same day.

5 mobile marine service companies. They travel to vessels. They do not carry printers. They do not write software. They are traditional marine service operators who happen to be mobile.

22 companies in marine software and IoT. Siren Marine, Nautic Alert, Sealogical, Aquator, Seahub, BoatBot, SmartSeas, Signal K. They build monitoring hardware or management software. They do not touch the vessel. They do not make parts. They do not manage refits.

The Gap

Nobody combines all three. Not one company in the world takes a vessel management contract, deploys 3D printing capability to the vessel's location, and builds custom software to manage the entire operation. That combination does not exist.

That is why 3D3D exists. Not because I wanted to start a company. Because the service I needed to provide to CSM after the Cherbourg incident did not exist anywhere in the market. The machine shop quoted $1,200 and weeks. I knew a printer could do it in 8 hours. And I knew the vessel needed more than just a part. It needed someone who understood the whole picture. Mechanical, electrical, digital.

The Diagnosis

In January 2025, I got the ankylosing spondylitis diagnosis. I had known something was wrong for roughly ten years. Some days I cannot walk. The joints fuse. The inflammation is constant.

People ask if I think of it as a disability. I think it enabled me. Everything 3D3D became in one year happened because of that diagnosis. When the mechanic career ended, the pivot to 3D printing and software was not a choice. It was the only path forward. And it turned out to be the right one.

The hyperfocus that comes with the AS diagnosis is real. When I lock onto a problem, I do not stop. The RV workshop with eight printers running in 35-degree heat. The six-month Challenger refit. The Thailand resort project. The Newport-Bermuda campaign. None of that happens without the ability to focus past the point where most people stop.

10 Years Sober

May 2026 marks ten years clean. Ten years from hard drugs and the lifestyle that comes with them. I mention it because it is part of who I am and how I work. The discipline to stay sober for a decade is the same discipline that completes a refit, delivers a project, and shows up when things go wrong.

I do not hide the past. The person managing your vessel has been through worse than anything a refit can throw at them. That is not a weakness. That is why the work gets done no matter what.

What I Actually Want

I want to create value for people. I want to create legitimacy. I do not want to brag. I want to show people I can be an asset to them.

3D3D is one year old as of April 20, 2026. In that year: a Prusa Research partnership, a Rolex Fastnet campaign, a Newport-Bermuda race deployment, three vessels fitted for category zero offshore racing, 20,000+ nautical miles of ocean experience, and a fleet of six printers producing parts for working vessels.

The gap in the market was real. 3D3D fills it. Vessel management, on-demand parts, and custom software. One operator. One point of contact. Everything your vessel needs.