Pilot Gig Planner

Booking for pilot gig clubs

Members book rows, erg sessions and oars from their phone. Captains find out who's free and build the crews. Two crews never turn up for the same boat.

Already rowing with a club that uses it? Log in to your club, or see what's new this season.

Register your club's interest See how it works

A gig with one seat open A Cornish pilot gig seen from above, bow to the right: a cox at the stern and six rowers with oars on alternate sides. Seat 3 is empty. KH JP MK 3 RB NN EB
Tuesday evening row: a cox, five rowers and seat 3 still free. Anyone in the club can take it.

New this season

How it works

Pick a part of the club's week. Each one walks through it step by step, with screenshots from Weymouth Rowing Club's demo site (everyone in them is made up).

Highlights · Everyone

The whole week, boat by boat

Members see every boat's bookings, take a seat in the gig itself, and know the tides and daylight before they go.

  1. The week, boat by boat

    Each boat has its own lane, and each booking shows its start time and a dot per seat. Green is a full crew; orange has seats open. Ergs and oars have tabs of their own.

    The week view: the boats down the side, the days across the top, and each booking as a pill with its time and seat dots.

  2. Tides and daylight

    Open a day for a timeline with sunrise, sunset and high and low water from the UK Hydrographic Office. The dark hours are shaded.

    A day's timeline with sunrise, sunset and tide times along the top and the dark hours shaded.

  3. Seats in the boat

    Take a seat on your side, or Join in one tap. Full? Go on the reserves and hear as soon as a seat comes free. Age groups show on every seat.

    A gig drawn from above with the pilot, six rowing seats and the cox, each seat showing the rower and their age group.

  4. Regatta weekends

    Book a gig, its oars and a trailer away for a regatta. It shows across every day it's gone, and any row booked in it is called off with the reason.

    The week with Bowleaze away at Fowey regatta from Friday to Sunday, and a Saturday row in it cancelled because the boat is away.

  5. On the phone in your pocket

    Install it on your home screen like an app, with no app store. My rows lists what you're booked on; reminders come by email or push, and your rows can show in your phone's calendar.

    My rows on a phone: the member's coming rows by day, with their seat on each.

Walkthrough · For captains

From who's free to booked crews

Captains group their squads, ask who can come, build the crews boat by boat and book them: all in one place, instead of a WhatsApp poll and a spreadsheet.

  1. Make a squad and label it

    Put members in a squad and tag them with your own labels, such as A crew, Stroke or Trial, in colours you choose. Filter by label, side, age group or who's free at a time. Members never see the labels.

    The men's squad roster: labels, preferred side, when each last rowed, their best 2k, and whether they're free on Tuesday at 18:00 and what they said in the poll.

  2. Ask who's free

    Write an availability poll with the sessions you're offering. The squad hears in the bell or by push and answers Yes, Maybe or No with one tap.

    A poll on a phone: Tuesday's sessions, who's coming to each, and Yes, Maybe and No buttons.

  3. See the answers

    A grid of everyone asked, session by session, with counts. Remind anyone who hasn't answered.

    The captain's view of the poll: each member's answer to each of six sessions.

  4. Build the crews

    Everyone who said yes is on the bench. Drag them into to-scale gigs, or tap a name and then a seat on a phone. You're warned about an off-side rower, a missing cox, or someone already booked.

    The crew builder: two still on the bench, one gig with a full crew and a second with its cox.

  5. Book them

    One press books every boat. A free gig and suitable oars are picked for you, and each crew is told. Nothing is booked if anything clashes.

    Booking the crews: each boat with its name, gig, oars, who can join and the crew in their seats.

  6. Say what each row is for

    Give a row a session plan: a rate ladder, starts, a long steady piece. Choose one from the club's library or write your own; the crew see it on the booking, and it can go on every week of a series.

    A booking on a phone with its session plan: a rate ladder, piece by piece.

Walkthrough · For organisers

You choose the crew

For race crews and trial rows, the organiser picks who goes. Members put their hand up; the organiser fills the seats and emails the crew.

  1. Book it as closed

    Choose Closed when you book. Members can't take a seat themselves; you, the cox or an admin choose the crew.

    The booking form on a phone with Closed chosen under Who can join.

  2. Members say they're available

    One tap, with a note if they like: “Can only do the first hour”. It's not a promise and not a queue.

    A closed row on a phone: five people on its Available list, two with notes, and the I'm available button.

  3. Pick the crew

    Pick from the list into a seat or onto the reserves. Whoever's picked is told straight away, and comes off the lists of other rows at the same time.

    The organiser's view of the Available list, with a seat to choose and a Pick button for each person.

  4. Email the crew

    Write to the crew, the reserves or the Available list. Everyone gets their own email with the row's details, and replies come straight to you.

    Email the crew on a phone: who to send to, a subject and a message.

Walkthrough · For crews and those ashore

Follow the boat, live

Someone in the boat shares where it is from their phone. The club can follow it on a map, and family ashore can too, with a link that needs no account.

  1. Share from a phone in the boat

    Anyone in the crew taps Share live location on the booking, from half an hour before. Keep the page open with the screen on; out of signal, positions wait on the phone and fill in later. It isn't a safety device: take a VHF.

    A phone in the boat sharing its location: the map, when it last sent, and how it works and its limits.

  2. See who's out

    Boats sharing live show a red dot on the calendar, with a banner while any are out.

    The calendar on a phone: On the water now, 2 boats sharing live location.

  3. Follow the map

    The boat and its trail on a sea chart, every 10 seconds or so. If it goes quiet, it says when it was last seen.

    A booking's live location: the boat's trail out of Weymouth harbour and across the bay.

  4. Send the link ashore

    The crew can send a link to someone at home. It shows the boat on the map, and nobody's name, and stops when the row ends.

    The share link on a phone with no account: the row, the boat and the map.

  5. Every boat on one map

    On the water shows every boat sharing now, for the safety boat or the club house.

    On the water: two gigs on one map of Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour, with when each was last seen.

  6. With the stroke rate meter

    The meter on the cox's phone can share at the same time, sending the rate with each position. Afterwards the trail can be your report's GPS track.

    The stroke rate meter with Share live location ticked for the row.

Walkthrough · For everyone

Reports and GPS tracks

Once a row is over, the crew can say how it went, add photos, and the track from a watch or phone.

  1. Write a report

    A comment and up to ten photos. Photos lose their location and camera details before they're saved, and only members can see them.

    A report on a phone: the comment, then the GPS track's distance, time and pace.

  2. See the row

    Upload a GPX or FIT file and see the track on a sea chart, with a graph of speed and stroke rate. Only time, position and stroke rate are kept, never heart rate.

    A GPS track: distance, pace and strokes, the route on a map, and a graph of speed and stroke rate.

  3. Pick a stretch

    Drag across the graph to see the pace and rate of one piece; it's picked out on the map too. Distances in metres, kilometres, miles or nautical miles.

    A stretch picked on the graph: its time, distance, pace and stroke rate, and the same stretch in orange on the map.

  4. Your logbook

    Every row and erg session you've done, worked out for you: time on the water, kilometres from GPS tracks, which seats and gigs, month by month. Only you, captains and admins see it.

    A member's logbook: rows, time on the water, distance and erg sessions, seats rowed, gigs, and each month.

Walkthrough · For rowers and the committee

Erg scores, and who's a member

Rowers log their erg tests and see the club's rankings. The committee keeps track of who has paid, and checks the club's own list against the app.

  1. Log an erg score

    500m to 10k, or 30 minutes at rate 20. The split and watts are worked out; keep it private or share it, and add a photo of the monitor if you like.

    Adding a 2k erg score on a phone: the test, date, time and weight.

  2. Club rankings

    Each member's best, for women or men, an age group or lightweights, all time or this year.

    The club's 2k rankings: each member's best time, split, watts and date.

  3. Training zones

    Open the split calculator from your best score for your six training zones. Anyone can use it, under Tools.

    The split calculator on a phone: a personal best and the 500m split worked out from it.

  4. Membership

    Admins mark members active, lapsed, expired or honorary. An expired member can't be booked until they renew. Download it all as Excel or CSV.

    The membership table: counts of each membership, and each member's details.

  5. Check the club's list

    Upload your membership list and see who's missing from it, whose membership differs and who has no account. Nothing changes until you apply it.

    A membership list compared with the app: four not on the list, 28 with a different membership, two on the list without an account.

  6. Club stats

    For the committee: launches per gig each month, cancellations and why, who coxed and rowed most, oars and ergs, as one Excel workbook or a CSV per table.

    Club stats on the History page: the dates, a workbook to download, and each table as a CSV.

Walkthrough · For everyone, and the admins

Damage reports and the maintenance log

Anyone can report a problem with a gig, oars, an erg or a trailer from their phone. The admins hear at once, deal with it, and every item keeps its history.

  1. Report it

    From the booking, or My rows: what, how bad (unsafe, needs fixing or minor), what's wrong and a photo. Organisers of rows using it soon are told too.

    Reporting damage on a phone: the gig, how bad, and what's wrong.

  2. Deal with it

    Admins take it out of service until it's mended (its bookings are told), or mark it fixed, with a note. The member who reported it hears back.

    A damage report for an admin: take it out of service, mark it fixed, or nothing to do.

  3. The maintenance log

    Each gig, oar set, erg and trailer keeps its reports and repairs, newest first.

    A gig's maintenance log: a loose footplate still open, and a scrape fixed.

Something for everyone in the club

Members

  • Take a seat, Join in one tap, or go on the reserves
  • Say you're available for a closed row
  • Reminders by email or push, and a calendar feed
  • Share the boat's live location; send family the link
  • Reports, photos and GPS tracks after a row
  • A logbook of every row, seat and kilometre
  • Erg scores, bests and the club's rankings
  • Report damage from your phone

Coxes and organisers

  • Weekly rows booked once for the whole season
  • A list of rows that still need a cox
  • Pick a closed crew from the Available list
  • A session plan on each row, so the crew know what it's for
  • A stroke rate meter on the cox's phone
  • Email the crew, reserves or Available list
  • Cancel for the weather with one message to the crew
  • A drop-out lock, so nobody pulls out an hour before

Captains

  • Squads, with your own labels in your own colours
  • Availability polls instead of WhatsApp
  • A crew builder with to-scale gigs
  • Every crew booked in one go
  • The club's library of session plans

The committee

  • New members wait for approval
  • Boats, oars, ergs and trailers, with time out for repairs
  • No double booking of a boat, oars or ergs
  • Membership status, and checking the club's own list
  • Damage reports and a maintenance log for every gig
  • Club stats as an Excel workbook
  • Every boat on the water on one map
  • A record of who changed what on every booking

Tools · free for any rower

Split calculator

Your six training zones, from UT3 to AC, worked out from a personal best over 500m to 10k, a target split, or your heart rate. It all happens on your own device: nothing you type is sent anywhere, and there's no account to make.

Open the split calculator

  1. UT3 Fuel utilisation
  2. UT2 Basic oxygen utilisation
  3. UT1 Oxygen utilisation
  4. AT Anaerobic threshold
  5. TR Oxygen transport
  6. AC Anaerobic capacity

Bring your club

Pilot Gig Planner is taking on a few more clubs. Tell us about yours and we'll be in touch to set up your club's site, with your boats, oars and colours.

How many members?