# ReadyHelm User Guide

> ReadyHelm keeps a boat's maintenance, service history, checklists, equipment, expenses, trips, moorings, slips and documents in one place, tied to its hull identification number (HIN). Boatyards, mooring services, marinas, harbor masters and brokers use the ReadyHelm Pro Portal. This is the user guide for both, one Markdown file per chapter.

Last updated 2026-10-28. The whole guide in one file: https://app.readyhelm.com/guide.md

## Owner app

- [Getting Started](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/getting-started.md): Getting started with ReadyHelm: signing up, adding a boat with First Mate or by hand, why the HIN matters (and that it can wait), finding your way around, and installing the app.
- [Home & Vessel Summary](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/home-dashboard.md): The fleet-wide Home dashboard and each boat's Vessel Summary: the readiness score, overdue maintenance, weather, USCG sea service, the Harbor Master days-at-berth report and the verified history report.
- [Maintenance Tasks & Service Log](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/maintenance-and-service-log.md): Boat maintenance reminders by days, engine hours or date, automatic to-dos, and the service log, with verified entries from your boatyard kept apart from owner-reported ones.
- [To-Do Items](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/to-do-items.md): Boat to-do items: due dates, priorities and assignees, completing a to-do into the service log, sharing one with your boatyard as a service request, and to-dos from maintenance reminders.
- [Checklists](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/checklists.md): Boat checklists: Before Trip, After Trip and USCG Safety, templates such as spring commissioning, custom recurring checklists, required items, equipment readings and run history.
- [Equipment](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/equipment.md): Boat equipment inventory: condition history, service and expense history, replacement tracking by date or engine hours, and adding equipment from receipts with First Mate.
- [Vessel Records](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/vessel-records.md): A boat's records: sharing with crew and boatyards, ownership transfer, insurance, registration, racing ratings, identifiers such as MMSI, specifications and documents.
- [My Account, Plans & Upgrading](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/my-account-and-plans.md): My Account in ReadyHelm: the Free, Skipper and Captain plans, billing, what a downgrade does, certifications and emergency info, reminder emails, two-factor authentication and storage.
- [Giving Feedback](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/feedback.md): How to report a bug, request a feature or ask for help from inside ReadyHelm.
- [Captain's Log](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/captains-log.md): Captain's Log: logging trips with stops and NOAA forecasts, per-person hours and sea days toward a USCG OUPV or Master license, attestation, and inviting crew to a trip.
- [Float Plan](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/float-plan.md): Float Plans: emailing a trip's route, times and safety instructions to people ashore, a default plan that sends automatically, recorded NOAA conditions and closing it out.
- [Timeline & Your Crew](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/timeline-and-crew.md): The fleet-wide timeline and calendar of everything due, your crew list, approving crew requests, finding a boat to crew on, and inviting a boat owner to ReadyHelm.
- [First Mate (AI Assistant)](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/first-mate.md): First Mate, ReadyHelm's AI assistant for boat owners: setting up a boat from documents, reviewing suggestions, filling in missing specs, chatting about your boats, and credits.
- [Messages & Notifications](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/messages-and-notifications.md): Messages with crew, co-owners and your boatyard, attached to a boat, plus the notification bell and reminder emails.
- [Expenses](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/expenses.md): Boat expense tracking: fuel, dockage and equipment costs, receipt auto-fill, a spending chart by type, and CSV or PDF export alongside service log costs.
- [Marine Locations & Weather](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/locations-and-weather.md): Marine locations and NOAA weather: linking a home port or trip stop to a known marina, harbor or anchorage for wind, wave and tide forecasts.
- [Simple Mode & Guided Setup](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/simple-mode-and-guided-setup.md): Guided setup and Simple mode for new boat owners: a short first run, a one-screen Home, Log something, a calendar feed, the weekly email and suggested maintenance.
- [Berths: Moorings & Slips](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/berths.md): Moorings and slips for boat owners: tackle and components, inspections, permits, slip leases and fees, reporting issues to the harbor, lending your berth, and the berths map.
- [Using ReadyHelm from Your AI Assistant](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/ai-assistants.md): Connecting Claude or another MCP assistant to your boats at api.readyhelm.com/mcp: setup, what it can look up and change, read-only connections and disconnecting.
- [Racing](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/owner/racing.md): 🏁 Racing (in Crew Corner; in the More drawer on a phone) is where you register your boat for a club's race season and keep its crew list. Racing is free on every plan.

## Pro Portal

- [Getting Started with ReadyHelm Pro](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/getting-started.md): Getting started with the ReadyHelm Pro Portal for boatyards, mooring services, marinas, harbor masters and brokerages: organizations, agreements, licenses and navigation.
- [Dashboard & Fleet](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/dashboard-and-fleet.md): The Pro Portal dashboard and fleet: owner invitations, finding a boat by HIN, logging work on a boat before its owner joins, and pre-registering a hull.
- [Working on a Vessel](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/working-on-a-vessel.md): Working on a customer's boat in the Pro Portal: access levels, service history, maintenance tasks, tech specs, documents shared with the owner, and owners' service requests.
- [Work Orders & Service Log](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/work-orders-and-service-log.md): Work orders, quotes owners approve by email, QuickBooks invoicing, and logging pro-verified service that shows in the boat owner's app.
- [Disputes & Verifications](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/disputes-and-verifications.md): Answering boat owners' disputes about service entries your team logged, and confirming entries owners logged themselves.
- [Berths: Moorings & Slips](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/moorings.md): Mooring and slip work in the Pro Portal: adding moorings and slips for customers, mooring inspections with photos, amendments, versioned PDF reports and mooring work orders.
- [Brokerage: Listings & Reports](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/brokerage.md): Brokerage listings and ReadyHelm Verified History reports for boats you're selling.
- [Messages](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/messages.md): Messages between your organization and boat owners about a boat, equipment, a service record, a to-do or an inspection.
- [Admin & Settings](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/admin-and-settings.md): Pro Portal admin: access levels, the organization profile and types, verification, team and licenses, the Pro plan and billing, and the QuickBooks Online integration.
- [My Account & Feedback](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/my-account-and-feedback.md): Pro Portal My Account: profile, notifications and email settings, password, required two-factor authentication for Admins, and giving feedback.
- [First Mate](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/first-mate.md): First Mate for marine businesses: asking about your fleet, drafting work orders, quotes and maintenance tasks, completing work, and the team's monthly credits.
- [Harbor](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/harbor.md): Harbor operations for harbor masters and marinas: claiming a harbor, the mooring and slip roster, a harbor map with GPS, CSV import, the issue queue and transient berths.
- [Using ReadyHelm from Your AI Assistant](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/ai-assistants.md): Connecting Claude or another MCP assistant to an organization's fleet at api.readyhelm.com/mcp/pro: requirements, what it can see and change, and disconnecting.
- [Customers, Requests & Pipeline](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/customers-and-requests.md): 👥 Customers keeps the people you work for, whether or not they're on ReadyHelm. 📥 Requests collects service requests from your website and the phone.
- [Customer Email & Texts](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/customer-messages.md): Write to a customer from ReadyHelm by email or text, and their replies come back to the same place. It works for contacts who aren't on ReadyHelm.
- [Bookings, Dispatch & My Jobs](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/scheduling-and-field-work.md): 📅 Bookings lets customers pick a time for service. 🗓️ Dispatch puts jobs on your techs' and bays' calendars. 🧰 My Jobs is a tech's list of their own jobs on a phone, with or without signal.
- [Parts & Purchase Orders](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/parts-and-purchasing.md): 📦 Parts keeps your parts catalog and what you have in stock where. With purchase orders, it also orders from your suppliers and receives what arrives.
- [Racing](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/pro/racing.md): 🏁 Racing is for clubs that run races. It sets up a season's schedule, divisions and registration options, and shows every boat registered. Sailors register in the ReadyHelm app for free.

## Plans & reference

- [Plans, Prices & Limits](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/reference/plans-pricing-and-limits.md): ReadyHelm prices and limits. Owner plans are Free, Skipper ($4.99/month) and Captain ($9.99/month); Pro Portal plans are Pro Free, Pro Standard ($15 per seat per month) and Pro Plus ($25 per seat per month).
- [ReadyHelm for AI Assistants](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/reference/ai-assistants.md): ReadyHelm's MCP connectors for Claude and other AI assistants. Owners connect at api.readyhelm.com/mcp, organizations at api.readyhelm.com/mcp/pro. Covers requirements, what each can do, and where to read this guide.
- [What's New](https://app.readyhelm.com/guide/reference/whats-new.md): Dated list of what's changed in ReadyHelm and the Pro Portal, newest first.