DeckVaktWe built it for the nights nobody wants to stand
DeckVakt started on our own boat, at three in the morning, when the paper on the bulkhead was already a lie and nobody wanted to wake the skipper. We have been running our own passages on it for years. Other crews have stood watches on it too. This site is how we open the same board to you.
Why we built it
The rota was always our problem. Drawn on a chart in the marina, understood by one person, redrawn when someone was seasick. Fairness was something we argued about at breakfast. By then the night had already happened.
And nobody wanted to wake the skipper. So the standing orders stayed vague — “call if you’re worried” — until whatever it was had already got worse. A tired watch will not invent a threshold at 03:10. They will wait. That is not a character flaw. It is what happens when the instruction lives in one head.
We did not set out to start a company. We set out to have a board that told the truth while we were still on it: who is on, who is next, when you are due, and the call-me-if list written once. Then an alarm that actually got through a closed locker. Then a log that did not wait for the fuel pontoon. The sailing watch app is that board, cleaned up enough that someone else can stand the same watches we do.
What a fair night feels like
A fair night is not a slogan. It is the person who had the graveyard watch last night not having it again. It is a six-hour block that actually happens in darkness. It is knowing, without unfolding A3, when you are next on and who you are with.
On the board that feels like this: ship’s time in numbers you can read half asleep. Standing orders at the top, so waking the skipper is an instruction, not a judgement. The next pair already named. The alarm set for your lead time, not for the whole boat.
That is the whole point of the thing. Not a feature list. A night that does not have to be negotiated while you are already tired.
Years on the water
We have been using it on our own passages for years. Not as a demo. As the thing that wakes us, holds the orders, and writes the night down. The ugly edges got fixed because we hit them: a clock change that made the grid a lie, a crew member off the rota at 02:00, a phone that drowned and another that still held the whole passage.
Other skippers have run it too. Eleven passages on pre-release builds, from Biscay to the Caribbean. Sixty-two crew woken by the board rather than a shoulder. Zero alarms missed because there was no signal — because nothing in it has ever needed one at sea. Those numbers, and the quotes next to them, are from people who stood the watches. We have not put their full names on a marketing page. The watches were real.
If you want the method rather than a biography, the guides are what we had to work out to make the board honest: the five systems, fatigue, standing orders, rest hours.
Opening it to other skippers
A tool that only lives on one boat is a hobby. We are opening DeckVakt because the same three problems show up on every crew we talk to: the rota is one person’s head, the night hours do not rotate, and the record gets invented in port.
The public app is still in development. The waitlist is how we tell you when you can run the same board we already stand. The whole system is usable on the phones; the desk app is extra, for a wide screen and the statistics if you want them. Everything is free. After a completed real passage, optional support can be dismissed and never changes a feature. Crew never make an account, and their names stay on the devices that hold the passage. We will not upload a crew list to a server so a website can look clever. Privacy policy.
And if money is what is in the way, tell us. We would rather you sailed with a working board than went without one over the price of a passage — write to everything@deckvakt.com, say what you can manage, and we will figure something out. No means test, and no explaining yourself. Ad astra.
We will not tell you a two-handed crew can have six-hour sleeps. The board shows the cost and lets you decide. That is the same honesty we needed on our own watches.
Questions skippers ask
Who is behind DeckVakt?
Skippers who built a watch board for their own boat and have been running passages on it for years. We are not publishing names and boats on this page.
Have you actually used it at sea?
Yes — on our own passages for years, and on passages other skippers have run. The waitlist is how we open the same board more widely.
Why a waitlist instead of a download?
The public app is still in development. We would rather tell you when it is ready than ship a harbour toy.
Do I need the desk app?
No. The whole system is usable on iPhone and Android. The desk is optional convenience plus extra statistics, not a requirement.
Do the crew need accounts?
No. They join as crew, pick their name, and their phone holds the rota. Nobody needs an account or payment.
One email when the app is ready. Every passage and every export will be free. Nothing else.
Join the waitlist
