Bareboat charter handover checklist — check-in and check-out

A handover is where a charter company earns or loses its deposit disputes, its reviews and its next booking. The check-in sets the guests' expectations and records the boat's condition; the check-out proves what changed. Done well it takes 45 minutes each way and leaves a record nobody can argue with. This list is for bareboat charters from 35 to 80 ft, run by the base manager and the charter skipper together; on a crewed yacht the crew's own pre-departure checklist covers most of it.

Before the guests arrive

• Turnaround done: pre-departure checklist signed off, boat clean, fuel and water full, holding tanks empty, linen and provisions per the booking sheet.
• Inventory count done against the boat's list — cutlery, crockery, snorkel sets, cushions, fenders, lines, tools — with the count sheet ready to sign.
• Photographs of hull (both sides, bow, stern, topsides), gelcoat, prop and rudder if visible, tender and outboard, cockpit and saloon. Timestamped and stored with the booking.
• Fuel and water gauges photographed; engine and generator hours read and written down.
• Documents ready: registration, insurance, radio licence, safety certificate, charter agreement, contact numbers for the base, emergency services and the tow service.

Check-in walk-through (with the guests)

• Safety first: lifejackets, liferaft, fire extinguishers, gas shut-off, EPIRB, flares, first aid, MOB procedure, VHF channel 16 and the base channel.
• Engine and systems: start and stop, gauges, gear and throttle, bilge pumps and alarm, battery switches and charging, shore-power inlet, water pump and heater, heads operation — and what not to put down them.
• Deck: anchor and windlass with the chain markings, snubber, reefing, winches, boom preventer, dinghy davits or lift, swim ladder, passerelle.
• Navigation: chartplotter, depth and wind, autopilot, AIS, charts and pilot books aboard, the cruising limits in the agreement.
• Galley and interior: stove and gas locker, fridge and freezer, water tank switching, grey-water and holding-tank valves, air conditioning, Wi-Fi.
• Walk the inventory sheet together, guests sign it, and sign the condition photographs as agreed.
• Confirm the return time, fuel policy, deposit terms, and who to call if something breaks — with numbers in the guests' phones before they leave the dock.

Check-out inspection

• Same photographs as check-in, same angles, compared side by side; new damage marked and photographed close up with a scale reference.
• Diver or pole check of the keel, prop, rudder and skeg on bareboats; any grounding will show there first.
• Engine and generator hours read; fuel and water levels recorded; holding tanks checked.
• Inventory counted against the signed sheet; missing or broken items listed with replacement cost.
• Systems run: engine, windlass, bilge pumps, heads, water pump, electronics — anything that was working at check-in and is not now is noted.
• Guest debrief: what broke, what was awkward, what they loved — the honest version, before the review is written.
• Deposit settled against the evidence, with the photos and the signed sheets, and the guest signs the check-out form.

Recording it so it holds up

A handover dispute is won by the party with the timestamped photographs and the signed sheet. Keep both for each booking, tied to the boat, for at least the deposit-refund period plus the statutory claims window in your jurisdiction — a year is a safe default. The same record tells you, over a season, which items break on every charter and should be redesigned or removed.

Where iVessel fits — and where it doesn't

iVessel does not run guest check-in and check-out — there is no guest signature, condition-photo comparison or deposit workflow in the app today, so keep those on your base's own form. What iVessel does cover is the boat's side of every handover:

• The turnaround: build your own pre-departure and turnaround checklists, assign them to a crew member or base staff, and every item is signed off with a name and a time.
• Damage and faults found at check-out: log them as issues with photos in seconds, so the repair is scheduled and the parts come off the spares inventory when fitted.
• The boat's own inventory and documents: the master list you count against, and the registration, insurance, radio licence and safety certificates with their expiry dates and reminders.
• Works offline at the dock and syncs when you are back in range. iOS, Android and web.

Your first boat is free for 30 days.