Digital Boat Handover for Charter Companies: How NaviLog Fleet Ends the Deposit Dispute
Photos, checklist, damage report and signature in one record — instead of paper protocols and WhatsApp photos.
Every charter company, boat rental and sailing school knows the end of a handover that goes wrong. The customer brings the boat back, there's a scratch on the port side, and nobody can say whether it was there before. The paper protocol is somewhere in the office. The photos are on the customer's phone, or in a WhatsApp chat, without a date. In the end it's one person's word against another's — and the deposit dispute begins.
NaviLog Fleet replaces paper protocols and WhatsApp photos with a clean digital check-in: photos, checklist, signature and damage report go straight into a report. The dispute ends before it starts.
How it works
1. Scan the QR code
Each boat gets a QR sticker. The skipper scans it with the NaviLog app and lands directly in the right handover for that boat — no searching, no paper.
2. Document
The app guides through the handover in a few minutes, also offline at the dock:
- Mandatory photos of bow, stern and both sides, plus detail shots with a timestamp
- A checklist set up by the company
- A damage report with photos, receipts and a marking on a 2D model of the boat
- A signature from the person taking over the boat, right on the device
3. Get the report
At check-out, a PDF report is created automatically and sent by e-mail to the company and the customer at the same time.
What the company sees
In the web cockpit, the company sees handovers, open damage and key figures per boat and per skipper. The boat history answers the question every base manager asks: "What was broken last time?" Skippers can also attach their NaviLog GPS track to the trip, so an organiser can review it.
No signal in the harbour? Everything works offline and syncs as soon as there's reception again.
Who it's for
- Boat rental and charter companies: every handover with photo evidence, checklist and signature, as a PDF report by e-mail. One prevented deposit dispute pays for the season.
- Sailing schools and organisers of sailing trips: your skippers check in every trip digitally, and you see handovers, damage and statistics per skipper and boat in the cockpit — without collecting WhatsApp photos.
- Skippers: handovers, the boat's damage history and their own GPS logbook in one app — offline, free, without being forced to create an account.
Pricing
Prices are per base or per season, not per check-in, so frequent use isn't penalised:
- Lakes and rental stations (hourly and daily rental): one price per base and season, by number of boats — CHF 790 for up to 5 boats, up to CHF 2,790 for 31 boats and more.
- Organisers and sailing schools: one price per season, by number of trips — CHF 390 for up to 30 trips, up to CHF 1,490 for 100 trips and more. Without commitment: CHF 12 per trip.
- Skippers: free.
- Weekly charter fleets (Mediterranean yachts): price on request.
Prices in CHF excluding VAT; customers outside Switzerland are billed in EUR. For the rest of the 2026 season there's a free pilot for small Swiss rental companies and sailing schools. Current details are on navilogfleet.ch.
See it live
Both demos start without a login, in a simulated organisation with handovers, damage reports and statistics:
To start a pilot — one boat or a whole fleet — write to [email protected]. You get QR stickers and the cockpit this season.
The skipper app:
- Android: Google Play
- iPhone: App Store
More about NaviLog
- Why I built NaviLog — the offline sailing logbook with a real anchor alarm
- The complete guide to NaviLog — every feature explained, from the first trip to the anchor watch
- NaviLog questions answered — free or paid, offline, Android or iPhone, your data
Also on Medium: Digital Boat Handover for Charter Companies: How NaviLog Fleet Ends the Deposit Dispute