Simple Mode & Guided Setup

Last updated October 28, 2026 · Markdown

Guided setup asks a few plain questions about your boat, then shapes Home around the answers. Nothing is ever hidden from the sidebar, and you can change every answer later.

Guided setup is rolling out gradually. If you don't see it yet, your account still has everything described in Home & Vessel Summary.

The first run

New accounts start with First Mate's welcome:

1. What brings you here? Pick I have a boat, I crew on someone else's boat, or both.
2. Your boat. The basics are enough: name, make, model, year and type. The HIN can wait (see Getting Started). Press Add my boat.
3. Where does your boat live? On a trailer, on a mooring, in a slip, dry stack, or more than one place.

4. How much do you want to see?

   • Keep it simple: one screen per boat with what's due, when, and a quick way to log things.
   • Show me everything: the full workspace, with maintenance, equipment, trips, crew and more.

   One is marked Recommended. One boat used the usual way gets Simple; several boats, or a liveaboard or charter boat, get the full workspace. 5. If you crew, you're then asked to find the boat you crew on (see Timeline & Your Crew).

Skip for now works at every step.

Simple mode

Simple mode replaces only the Home screen. Every other page stays in the sidebar, exactly where it was.

Each boat gets one card:

• Ready to go? The boat's status: Ready to go, Needs attention, or Overdue. A boat with nothing dated yet shows Nothing tracked yet, never "ready".
• The next three things coming due, across maintenance, registration, insurance, ratings, safety gear and to-dos, with how soon each is due.
• Get more ready · N%. What would make the record more useful for this boat, such as engine hours, safety gear dates, registration or a first maintenance task. Each item links to the screen that adds it.
• ＋ Log something, described below.

Below the boat cards are Suggested maintenance (see Suggested maintenance), one setup question at a time, and Add these dates to your calendar.

Show me everything (top right) switches Home to the full dashboard. Switch to the simple view on the full Home switches back.

Log something

Write a sentence, add a photo, or both, and First Mate turns it into an entry for you to check. For example:

• "Changed the oil and filter today at 212 hours, $60" becomes a service entry.
• "Need to replace the flares by October 20" becomes a to-do with a due date.
• A photo of a receipt becomes an expense, with the photo kept as its receipt.
• A photo of a registration or insurance card becomes a registration or insurance record.

You see every field before anything is saved, and you can change the type under What is it? Nothing is saved until you press Save. If First Mate can't tell what you meant, pick the type yourself or use one of the full forms listed under Or use a form.

A service entry with engine hours raises the boat's engine-hour reading if it's higher than the current one. Log something is free and doesn't use First Mate credits. The words you type aren't stored, only the entry they became.

Add these dates to your calendar

Get my calendar link creates a private calendar subscription with your boats' due dates. Use Open in my calendar app (Apple Calendar or Outlook) or Add to Google Calendar. The calendar then updates itself.

Anyone with the link can see those dates, so treat it like a password. Get a new link replaces it (the old one stops working), and Turn off removes it.

Weekly email

If you use Simple mode, you get a short Your boat this week email when something is overdue or coming due. A quiet week sends nothing. The email notification opt-out in My Account turns it off (see My Account, Plans & Upgrading).

In the full workspace

If you chose the full workspace, Home gets a Get more ready card above the tiles. It shows a readiness bar per boat, the next step for each, and the same one-at-a-time setup questions. Hide collapses it, and it disappears once every boat is fully set up.

Owners who joined before guided setup see Tune my dashboard on Home. Let's do it starts the questions; No thanks hides the offer on that device. Starting it never rearranges a Home layout you've already customized.

Setup questions

One question appears at a time, each with a line on why it's asked:

Skip for now moves on without asking again. Some answers are filled in for you from what the app already knows (a kayak has no engine). Those show as a suggestion to confirm.

Home only hides a tile when your confirmed answers clearly say it doesn't apply. For example, boats that only make day trips close to home hide the Float Plans tile. Turn any tile back on with Customize (see Home & Vessel Summary).

Suggested maintenance

A list of typical jobs for boats like yours, based on what powers the boat, its rig, where it's kept and its season. Each shows how often it's usually done and why it's suggested ("Typical for an outboard").

• Add puts it on the boat's maintenance tasks (see Maintenance Tasks & Service Log). It starts with no "last done" date, so it never shows as overdue until you record when it was last done. Change the timing any time.
• Not for this boat removes it for good on that boat.

Three show at a time; Show N more lists the rest. Seasonal jobs, such as spring commissioning and winterizing, are dated from the launch and haul-out months you gave, and come back each season once last season's is done.

Nudges

When your records change in a way that affects your setup, Home offers one small step at the top. You see at most one per visit.

Each has the step itself, Later (back in a week) or No thanks (never again).