Harbor
Last updated · Markdown
🗺️ Harbor is for harbor master offices and marinas. It shows every mooring and slip on ReadyHelm in the harbors your organization runs, collects the issues owners report there, and lets you put visiting boats on berths that are free. It's on Pro Standard and Pro Plus, for organizations whose type includes Harbor master or Marina (set under Admin & Settings).
Claiming a harbor
An Admin clicks + Claim a harbor, searches the marine directory for the harbor, and adds a note on who you are to it, such as "Town of Scituate harbormaster's office". ReadyHelm checks each claim before approving it. Until then it shows as waiting for ReadyHelm to review, and an Admin can Withdraw it. You get a bell notification and an email when it's approved or not.
Each approved harbor gets a button at the top of the page with its berth count. Give up this harbor ends the claim and the roster disappears. More than one organization can hold the same harbor, for example the town harbor master and a marina inside it. One of them is the harbor's primary organization: the first one approved, unless ReadyHelm moves it. Only the primary places berths on the map, keeps the harbor's boat names and imports. Every holder sees the same roster, map, issues and transient board. If the primary gives the harbor up, the next oldest holder becomes primary.
Roster
Roster lists every live mooring and slip in the harbor: its assignment, the owner, the boat on it now and since when, the permit number and expiry, and open issues. Permits that have expired or expire within 60 days are flagged, and Permits due filters to just those. Filter by Moorings or Slips, search by assignment, owner, boat or permit, and ⬇ CSV downloads the list.
The roster is all you see about a berth unless its owner has also given your organization access to it. Those rows show Open → and open the full mooring or slip, the same as under Berths. Others say Not shared. Owners see on their berth that it's on your roster and what that includes.
Map
Map shows the roster on a map of the harbor, built for a phone on the water. On a phone, open the Pro Portal menu with ☰.
- Each mooring and slip is a dot labelled with its assignment and the boat on it. The colors show a boat on it, empty, a transient guest, or an open issue.
- Search by boat name, mooring number or owner. Pick a result and the map flies to it, with the dot pulsing. This is the quickest way for a new launch operator to find "Sea Spray".
- Chart (the default) is NOAA's nautical chart: soundings in feet, channel buoys and beacons with their numbers, lights, channels and anchorage areas. It isn't for navigation. Map is a street map and Satellite is aerial imagery, which helps you match dots to the balls you can see. Your choice is remembered on that device. Outside US waters, where NOAA has no chart, the street map shows instead.
- 📍 Track me shows where you are, from the device's GPS, and keeps the screen awake while it's on. With a mooring selected, the card shows how far it is and in which direction, for example "🧭 180 m NE (48°) from you". Your position stays on the device: it isn't saved or shared.
The card for the selected berth shows the boat, the owner, the permit and open issues, with + Issue and, if the owner shared it, Open →.
Putting berths on the map. A berth shows where its owner's GPS puts it until your organization places it. Your placement is kept separately, so the owner's own record isn't changed, and it's the position shown wherever the berth is mapped, including the owner's own map. Anyone in the harbor's primary organization can place a berth:
- 📍 Set to my position, while you're tied up to the ball or standing on the slip. This is the fastest way to map a mooring field from the launch.
- Tap the map, then tap where it goes.
- Remove harbor position goes back to the owner's GPS.
A position more than 25 km from the harbor is refused, since it's almost always a swapped latitude/longitude or a missing minus sign. For a berth with no ReadyHelm boat on it, Boat on it (harbor record) lets you note the boat that's there, and it shows on the map and the roster.
Import
Admins of the harbor's primary organization can place many berths at once from a spreadsheet under Import. Choose a CSV file or paste it in. The file needs:
- an Assignment (or Mooring) column;
- Latitude and Longitude, in decimal degrees (42.2058, -70.7201) or degrees and minutes (42 12.348 N, 70 43.206 W);
- optionally Boat and Owner columns.
The roster's ⬇ CSV has these same columns, so you can export it, fill in positions and import it back.
Preview shows what each row would do: Update (a new position or boat name), Create, No change, or Error with the reason. Nothing changes until you click Apply. Rows with errors are left out.
Rows that don't match a berth on ReadyHelm are errors unless you tick Create missing moorings. Then each one with an Owner becomes a berth your organization holds for that person, the same as + Add mooring for a customer or + Add slip for a customer under Berths. Rows are moorings unless a Kind column says Slip; a slip is created as operated by this harbor or marina. No one is emailed.
Issues
Owners report problems with a mooring or slip (a chafed pennant, a sunk ball, a broken cleat) from the berth in their app. When the berth is in a harbor you hold, Send puts the issue in your Issues queue instead of emailing anyone, and your Admins get a bell notification and an email.
Open shows issues still to deal with, All includes resolved and closed ones. Narrow the list to Moorings or Slips, or to one category. Each one shows the berth, the category, who reported it, photos, and what's been done so far. For each:
- Acknowledge tells the owner you've seen it, with an optional note such as "we'll check it Tuesday".
- Resolve records what was done.
- Close ends it without a fix, with an optional reason.
The owner gets a bell notification each time, and sees your notes on the issue.
Your staff can log an issue themselves with + Issue on any roster row or map card, with up to six photos (📷 Add photos takes them with a phone's camera). It goes straight into your queue, and the owner is told and sees it on their berth (they can't edit it).
Transient
Transient shows berths you can put a visiting boat on, for the dates you pick (the next 30 days to start):
- moorings and slips whose owners listed dates they're away and offered them to the harbor;
- moorings your organization holds itself (added for an owner who hasn't joined yet), which are free any time they're empty.
Each berth has a bar across the dates: green is free, navy is a boat already booked. An owner's own guests show only as Owner's guest, without their details.
+ Assign a boat takes arrival and departure dates, the boat's name, its length, the skipper, their phone or email, and the fee. The dates must sit inside a range the owner offered (any dates, on your own moorings), and can't overlap another boat. If the boat is longer or shorter than the berth's approved limits you're warned, but not stopped.
When you assign a boat:
- the berth's owner gets a bell notification and sees the guest on their berth;
- if you enter the HIN of a boat on ReadyHelm (and its owner lets it be found in search), the stay shows up for that boat's owner to confirm. Once they confirm the fee they paid, it's logged in their expenses. The board then says confirmed by the boat's owner, or declined if they say it isn't theirs.
Cancel removes one of your assignments and tells the owner. The fee is recorded for your reference only. ReadyHelm doesn't take payments or split fees between you and the owner.
Common questions
Can a harbor master keep a mooring roster in ReadyHelm?
Yes. Claim the harbor, and the roster lists every mooring and slip on ReadyHelm there, with its owner, boat, permit dates and open issues. You can download it as CSV, import positions from a spreadsheet, and see it on a map built for a phone on the water. Harbor is on Pro Standard and Pro Plus.
Can ReadyHelm help assign transient moorings to visiting boats?
Yes. The Transient board shows berths free on the dates you pick, from owners who offered their dates and from moorings your organization holds, and + Assign a boat books a visiting boat on one.