Powerboat L2
Required for Safety Boat. Standard RYA qualification, expiry tracked.
Duty rota module - the SailHQ wedge for clubs on spreadsheets
Duty Rota Software for Sailing Clubs
Configurable duty types, qualification gating, swap requests, and email reminders - the duty rota module from SailHQ.
The duty rota problem
Saturday morning, the safety boat slot is empty
If you run a sailing club, you already know how this goes. First race at 11. It's 9.30am. Someone phones in sick. The rota lives in a shared spreadsheet that two people are editing at once and neither of them is the rear commodore who actually owns it.
The pattern repeats every season. Parents of juniors quietly decline the safety boat slots because they want to watch their kids race, not sit in a RIB for two hours. The member who used to hold Powerboat L2 doesn't anymore, but nobody updated the spreadsheet, so they end up assigned anyway and there's an awkward conversation in the dinghy park.
Galley duties get done by the same four people because everyone else has worked out that nobody chases the rota. Race Officer slots in mid-September are blank because no one wants to commit eight weeks ahead. The WhatsApp group fills with "anyone want to swap my safety boat next Sunday?" messages that get buried under photos of someone's new sail.
A duty rota is meant to be a small, boring piece of admin. For most clubs it's the single biggest source of weekly committee stress. The member portal is fine. The website is fine. The duty rota is a spreadsheet, a WhatsApp group, and a hopeful email. That's the bit that breaks first.
Every duty type, set up the way you actually run
SailHQ does not assume your club runs on a fixed list. You define the duty types, the rules around each one, and who can sign up. The defaults cover most clubs. The flexibility covers the rest.
Out of the box you get Race Officer, Assistant Race Officer, Safety Boat, Safety Boat Crew, Galley, and Results. Plenty of clubs need more. A larger club might split Race Officer into Senior and Junior. A training centre might run Instructor and Assistant Instructor as duty slots. A cruising club might track Bar and Cellar. Add what you need.
Each duty type has a name and short name, an icon, a custom colour, a point value, the qualifications a member must hold to be eligible, a self-signup toggle, and a sort order. Group related types into categories (safety duties, hospitality duties, race duties) each with its own colour band so the rota reads at a glance.
Self-signup matters. Some clubs let members claim Galley slots first-come first-served. Others want admins to assign every Race Officer slot manually. SailHQ supports both per duty type, so the same club can run Galley as open self-signup and Race Officer as admin-assigned only.
Qualification gates
Qualification gating that prevents the awkward conversation
The "I'm not Powerboat L2 anymore" moment in the dinghy park is a system problem, not a member problem. SailHQ stops it happening.
Attach a qualification requirement to any duty type. Safety Boat requires Powerboat L2. Safety Boat Crew might require nothing, or might require First Aid. Race Officer can require an in-house Race Officer Certificate that you set up yourself. The system enforces the rule at the point of sign-up.
A member without Powerboat L2 cannot self-sign-up for Safety Boat. The button is gated and they see a clear note explaining why. Admins still have an override, because real life happens, but the default is that members are blocked from claiming duties they aren't qualified for. No more "we just assumed you still had it" conversations on a Sunday morning.
Custom qualifications cover the cases that aren't national standards. "Race Officer Certificate", "Galley Food Hygiene", "Junior Coach DBS", whatever your club tracks. Each qualification has an expiry date. Members see their own. Admins see everyone's, sorted by expiry, and chase renewals before they lapse.
First Aid
Required for any duty where a first aider has to be present.
Custom qualifications
Add your own. Race Officer Certificate, Food Hygiene, anything club-specific.
Swap requests
Swap requests handled properly, not in the WhatsApp group
A member can't make their duty next Sunday. They open the SailHQ portal on their phone, find the duty, and create a swap request. They can target a specific member ("Sarah, can you cover my safety boat?") or open it up to anyone who's qualified.
A targeted request goes to that one member. They accept or decline from their own portal. An open request appears in a list that any qualified member can pick up. Either way, the originating member sees the status update without having to chase.
Once both members agree, the request goes to admin for approval. Admins see all pending swaps in one place, approve or reject with a click, and both members get notified. The duty roster updates immediately. No spreadsheet edits, no double-bookings, no "I thought you were doing it".
Each swap moves through clean states (awaiting target, pending admin, approved, rejected, or cancelled) so you can see exactly where any request is at a glance.
Email reminders
Email reminders and configurable cancellation deadlines
Most no-shows aren't deliberate. People forget, the date creeps up, and there's no nudge between sign-up and the morning itself.
SailHQ sends email reminders before every duty. You configure how many days ahead. Some clubs run a single reminder seven days out, others run a two-step pattern at seven days and two days. Members get a clean email with the duty, the date, and a link straight back to the portal in case they need to swap.
Reminder emails are queued asynchronously, so a club with three hundred members gets every email out reliably without hammering the server when the cron runs. If your mail provider hits a transient hiccup, the queue retries rather than silently dropping the message.
The cancellation deadline is configurable too. Set it to two days, and members can't cancel their own duty within forty-eight hours of the start. The system blocks the action and points them at the swap flow instead. Admins can still override in genuine emergencies, but the default rule stops the Friday night drop-out that leaves you scrambling on Saturday.
Exemptions
Exemptions for the people who genuinely cannot do duties
Every club has them. Committee members already on watch duty all season. Members with a medical exemption. Sponsors who pay a higher rate in exchange for not being rota'd. Life members who've earned a quiet retirement.
SailHQ handles all of these as proper exemptions. An exemption can be permanent or time-bounded with a start and end date. It can apply to a single duty type ("no safety boat duty") or to all duty types. The admin who approved the exemption is recorded against it, along with an optional reason. Exempt members are skipped automatically when admins generate or assign duties.
The audit trail matters. When a member asks why someone else is exempt, you can show them the record: approved by Jane Commodore on this date, valid until that date, on these grounds. No more committee meetings spent re-litigating who got let off last year.
Admin view
The admin side: roster calendar and stats
The rear commodore needs one view that says "here's what's filled, here's what's not, here's what needs my approval".
The admin roster is a calendar by month. Every duty slot for every event is laid out with clear filled or unfilled status. Vacant slots are flagged. Click an empty slot to assign manually and the system shows you only members who are qualified and not exempt. Click a filled slot to unassign or reassign in one move.
Pending swap requests live on a dedicated dashboard so nothing slips. Top of the dashboard: total duties this season, filled count, unfilled count, pending swaps. The four numbers that tell you whether the season is on track. Members confirm admin-assigned duties from their portal, so you also see who has acknowledged their slot and who hasn't.
The wider platform
Beyond the duty rota
SailHQ also handles series templates, membership management, the member portal, and live weather for the club location. If you've already got a system you like for any of those, the duty rota module works on its own - no need to migrate everything at once.
Worth the wider read: how to build a fair duty rota at a sailing club covers the points-and-exemptions design problem itself, separate from any tool, and is the conversation most committees skip until somebody complains.
Already running a duty-only tool? Compare to single-feature tools to see what you gain by bringing the rota into the same platform as membership, boats and events.
For the full picture, see the sailing club software overview, the full features list, or the pricing page.
Duty rota questions
For anything else, see the full FAQ or drop us a line.
Members log into the SailHQ member portal on a phone, tablet, or computer. They see vacant duties for the season and self-sign-up for any duty type that has self-signup enabled and that they are qualified for. Admins can also assign duties manually for members who prefer to be told.
Each duty type can require one or more qualifications. Safety Boat requires Powerboat L2. First Aid duty requires a First Aid certificate. You can add custom qualifications too. If a member does not hold the required qualification, the system blocks them from self-signing up for that duty. Admins can see qualification expiry dates against every member.
Yes. Send your current member list and existing duty rota and we will import them. Most duty rota migrations are done in 1-2 days. You keep historical assignments for reference and start the new season with rules already in place.
No. The member portal runs in any modern web browser on a phone, tablet, or laptop. Members can add it to their phone home screen for an app-like icon, but no download is required. Swap requests, sign-ups, and confirmations all work from a normal web page.
Yes. Any admin or committee role with the duty management permission can approve, reject, or cancel a swap request. The system records which admin approved each one. This means the rear commodore can approve a Sunday swap without waiting for the secretary to log in.
You can mark members as exempt from a single duty type or all duty types. Exemptions can be permanent or time-bounded with a start and end date. Each exemption records the admin who approved it and an optional reason. Exempt members are skipped automatically when generating duties.
Yes. Each duty type has a configurable point value. A Race Officer slot might be worth more than a Galley slot. Members accrue points across the season so admins can see who is pulling their weight and who is consistently avoiding harder duties. Points are visible in the admin reports.
Yes. Every duty type has a name, short name, icon, custom colour, point value, qualification requirements, self-signup toggle, and sort order. You can also group duty types into categories with their own colour. Add Race Officer, Assistant Race Officer, Safety Boat, Safety Boat Crew, Galley, Results, plus any custom duty your club runs.
Hand the duty rota to SailHQ this season
Configure it once. Let it run. Get the rear commodore's Saturday mornings back.