Run a busy charter season with guest lists and preferences, itineraries, check-in and check-out, and each booking's payments — in one platform, on the bridge tablet or on Telegram.
A charter captain commands a vessel in active commercial charter — coordinating between guests, crew, central agent, broker, and operator under operational pressure that does not exist on private use.
A charter captain runs multi-charter back-to-back seasons. The expectations are not just safety and navigation — they include hospitality, discretion, and a flawless on-board experience.
Every charter starts with a guest preference brief from the central agent. Dietary, activities, allergies, photo consent, religious observances, family quirks. The captain needs all of it before the crew is briefed.
The 2026 reality, by the numbers
The APA — Advance Provisioning Allowance — funds everything spent on the guest's behalf. End-of-charter reconciliation either keeps the relationship clean or creates a dispute.
Charter captains who run multi-vessel seasons without burning out share a pattern: one platform handles the paperwork, so command attention stays on guests, weather, and crew. See the Charter module for the operational scope.
Typically found inside
Recurring friction points across charter captains — almost all reducible with the right platform.
The central agent forwards the guest preferences 48 hours before embarkation — too late for proper provisioning and crew briefing.
A preference sheet the guests fill in themselves gets the brief to the captain earlier, without retyping.
100+ receipts in a 7-day charter: fuel, dockage, provisioning, excursions, guest extras.
Receipts logged as they happen remove the end-of-charter scramble.
Day 3 the guest changes plans. Captain has to update the central agent, broker, operator — and modify the rest of the week.
24-72h turnarounds between charters with crew swap, deep clean, provisioning. No time for paperwork chaos.
Broker asks via WhatsApp, central agent via email, operator via phone. The captain becomes the synchronisation point for three communication channels.
Commercial charter has additional compliance burden — guest manifest, port authority filings, crew commercial endorsements, charter agreement copies.
SupaSailing's charter module gives the charter captain a clean workflow for every charter — guest details arrive before embarkation, check-in and check-out are recorded step by step, and the office sees the same booking as the bridge.
Filled in online by the guests before embarkation, on the preference sheet your office designs. The guest list holds ID details, allergies, health notes and emergency contacts.
Ask the Telegram bot whether a booking is paid, or register a payment from the dock with a confirmation step. It lands in the booking's payment history.
Itineraries built stop by stop on a map, with activities and experiences. Edit once, and the office sees the same plan.
Guided steps for departure and return: fuel level, damage report with photos, safety briefing, cleaning. Answered in the chat and saved against the booking.
Ask in plain language, typed or by voice: availability, active bookings, missing documents, vessel inventory. Anything that changes data asks for confirmation first.
Certificates, insurance and inspections stored per vessel with expiry reminders. Charter agreements signed by the client are kept against the booking.
Start from a catalogue of itinerary templates and adapt stops, anchorages and activities to the guests. Captain refines.
Every booking, option and maintenance block on one vessel timeline, so turnaround windows between charters are visible at a glance. Provisioning lists per booking export to CSV.
A representative charter cycle for a charter captain on SupaSailing — 7 steps from pre-arrival to wash-up.
The guests' preference sheet answers are in the platform. Crew briefed on dietary, allergies, activity preferences.
Provisioning list prepared against the booking, fuel bunkered, deep clean scheduled. Vessel documents checked for anything close to expiry.
Guests checked in one by one against the guest list; departure check-in recorded on Telegram. Captain greets guests with their preferences already accounted for.
Guests change plans. Captain updates the itinerary in-platform, and the office sees the new plan.
The captain asks the bot whether the balance is paid and logs inventory changes as they happen, from the phone.
Return check-out on Telegram: fuel, damage photos, cleaning confirmed. Guests checked out.
24-72 hours. Next guest brief already in. Crew briefed, vessel ready.
What changes for charter captains who move from spreadsheets + WhatsApp to one charter platform.
Check-in, check-out and damage photos saved against the booking during the charter.
The captain checks a booking's payment status without calling the office.
Structured workflow surfaces gaps before guests arrive.
One timeline shows every turnaround window between charters.
30-minute demo tailored to a charter captain's real use case. If a different platform is a better fit, we'll say so.