Let’s Talk STARLINK

We have the original RV version right now but will upgrade to the RV mobility soon

I'm hearing all kinds of chatter around the yachting community; no signal when moving more than 10kts, and loss of bandwidth when cruise ships are about.
I'm using Maritime and haven't seen any issues during our first week cruising with it (Exumas)

The 10kts limit started a few months ago after a firmware update. The solution seems to switch to the new mobility version.

and avoid ports with cattle ships

That's in my mandate

In a Facebook group about Starlink on Yachts there was a post about standard RV version, that got 'freed of motors', but still waterproof by itself and slightly sloped so the water goes off by gravity, therefore a bit taller than the version from Post #17. Idea is from Everlanders and the models of 3D printed pieces are here. Somebody may find that helpful.
Photo: Grant Johnson

My .02 cents- There are now several resellers of the maritime kit, they are adding fees to the equipment and for the air time. You might ask, why pay a premium when I can just buy from the web site?
They are pushing the their service and help quality for this premium. For anyone that has tried to use the help ticket and get parts, it can be very frustrating. For those of us that can not afford outages, this is certainly a good way to go. We will be installing the full maritime in the near future via this route.
These resellers have a high threshold for the units they need to sell to continue being a reseller. For most of the leisure boating field the RV in motion is the way to go, but don't be surprised if it stops working at sea. Their geofencing ability is quite accurate, so don't be surprised if it changes in the near future. My standard RV was working fine underway until about a month ago, I returned from the caribbean and it did not work underway (over 10kts), as soon as I stopped and anchored, it came back on. Interestingly it took a few weeks for it return to self alignment from it being horizontal.
SL seems to make changes without telling anybody, I still wouldn't rely on it for my only means of internet or communication.

The resellers are also able to offer lower data packages than the standard. We pay $5000/mo for 5TB. I think you can opt for 1TB at $2500. I'm hoping there is a middle ground, as I'm using about 3TB/mo.
I've been told that in order to become a reseller they have to commit $2M

Yep. That's who we pay. My point is that I hope one of the resellers comes up with a 3TB plan.

I heard from a very reliable source that StarLink knows what we're doing and is going to put an end to "RV" version on a boat. He said they'll be cutting us off this spring. Crossing my fingers, he's wrong.

He's logic was strong. Every rocket Elon sends up is $65m, and each Satellite is about $2m each (5-year life expectancy); when you do the math... Well, $100/month isn't going to cut it.

Now, he did say they are going to introduce new pricing that will help ease the pain.

As a side note from the conversation, he said he has boats that spend $300k/month in the Med on connectivity.

I know we are on yacht forum, but don't forget about the merchant navy, that also needs/wants/seeks less expensive internet. Which in this case, StarLink Maritime, still is. They are the targeting group here I think. And I also hope non-mega-yacht doesn't come in as collateral. But if there is no cheaper competition...

This is just pure speculation on my part, but I suspect that all you RV in motion guys will be OK as long as you are near coastal. The motion component should account for swinging at anchor. As for all The Bahamas users, I suspect you don't have much time before having to switch to Maritime.
As for all my megayacht colleagues who are still getting away with RV units- more power to you, but I won't be at all surprised when the blackout comes.

This is my end goal. I will still keep a SIM card system on board in case I need to buy a local. And I'll keep the VSat on standby for another year. But the quality of the Maritime System has improved drastically since I installed in October. Zoom/Teams/FaceTime are all excellent. We're streaming Hulu, Disney, Netflix, etc. without issue.
You bring up a good point about spare parts. I'll probably stock up on these when I return to Florida in April. Maybe one replacement for each of the mirrored components.

You bring up a good point, he did mention Bahamas specifically.