Questions, answered

Everything you might want to know before you start.

What is Informed Boating?

One place for everything about your boat: the maintenance schedule, service history, parts, manuals, vendors and expenses, plus a FirstMate that answers questions from your own records. It is built for boat owners, to run the boat you have.

Do I have to enter everything by hand?

No. Forward an invoice, a survey or a manual to your boat's private email address, or upload it. It reads the document and files the service history, parts, vendors and expenses it finds. Anything it is unsure of waits for you to confirm instead of being guessed.

What should I send first?

One recent service invoice, or the page of your engine manual with the service chart. From those it can show your first due item. A survey, if you have one, fills in much of the rest.

What is the FirstMate?

Your boat's private assistant. It has read the documents, photos and emails you sent in, so you can ask what oil the generator takes, when the thruster was last serviced, or what the survey flagged. It answers from your boat's own records and says so when the records do not have the answer.

I just bought my boat. Where do I start?

Drop in the survey, the purchase papers and the old invoices the seller handed over. They are read and filed for you, and each survey finding becomes a to-do tied to the survey it came from, so nothing the surveyor flagged gets lost.

What does it cost?

Every account starts with a 14-day free trial of everything, with no card. After that there is one plan: $299 a year, billed yearly, for up to 3 boats with 200 FirstMate messages and 100 photo and document readings a month. There is no free plan and no monthly price: if you do not subscribe, your boat becomes read-only, nothing is deleted, and you can still export everything. An optional one-time Boat Onboarding is $149.

What is the $149 Boat Onboarding?

An optional one-time setup. Send us your photos and documents in bulk and we set up your boat for you, so you start from a filled-in record instead of a blank one.

Can I put my boat's calendar on my phone?

Yes. Maintenance due dates and service appointments go on one calendar you can subscribe to from Apple Calendar or Google Calendar. It refreshes on its own.

Is there a free plan?

No. Every account starts with a 14-day free trial of everything, with no card. After that there is one plan: $299 a year. We email you 3 days before the trial ends and again on the last day.

What happens when the trial ends if I do not subscribe?

When your trial ends, your boat and every record on it are kept. If you have not subscribed, the boat becomes read-only: you can still open everything and export it, and subscribing picks up where you left off. Until subscriptions open, an account whose trial has ended is not locked.

Can I cancel anytime?

Your subscription renews each year until you cancel. Cancel any time in Settings, under Plan and Billing: access continues through the end of the year you paid for, and after that your boat is read-only. Your records are never deleted and stay exportable.

Is my information private?

Your boat's records are yours and are not sold. Every page with your data needs you to sign in. Logins you store for marinas and systems sit in an encrypted vault that the assistant never reads.

What kind of boats does it work for?

Any boat, sail or power, trailered or in a slip. The tools it shows adapt to the boat you add.

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14 days free, no card required.