Help

How to Use Built & Launched

This page walks through every part of the site a member or a visitor can use, one step at a time — creating an account, entering a boat, adding photographs, keeping a build log, recording her hours and how far along she is, asking the fleet when something goes wrong, and everything around them. No experience with websites is assumed. Where a screen asks for something, this guide names it exactly as it appears on the screen.

A few words used through this whole guide, explained once here:

Click / tap: Press it once with a mouse, or once with your finger on a touchscreen. Where this guide says click, a touchscreen user should read tap.
Field: A box on a form you type into, or a list you choose from. Every field this guide mentions is named exactly as its label reads on the screen.
My Boatyard: Your own private corner of the registry, reached once you are signed in. It is where you add a boat, write a build log, upload photographs, and manage your account. Nobody else sees it.
Draft: A boat you have started entering but have not yet published. A draft is visible only to you. You can leave one half-finished for as long as you like and come back to it.
Publish: The moment a draft becomes a public page anyone can find. Publishing hands the vessel a permanent registry number. You can still edit every part of her record afterwards.

One

Creating an account and signing in

An account is free and takes a couple of minutes. You need one before you can add a boat, write a build log, comment, follow another builder's progress, or message another member. You do not need one to browse the registry, view a vessel's page, or search.

Creating your account

At the top of any page, click Register Your Boat. If you are on a small screen, first tap the menu button (three lines) in the top corner to open the menu, then tap Register Your Boat.
Fill in First Name, Last Name, and Display Name — the name shown next to your boats in the registry. It can be your own name, a shop name, or whatever you go by on the water.
Type your Email Address. This is only ever used to sign in and to send you notifications you have asked for — it is never shown publicly.
Choose a Password and type it again under Confirm Password. The screen lists the rules as you type; a password must be at least 12 characters.
The box agreeing to the Terms of Use and Privacy Notice is ticked for you. Both are links — click either one to read it in a new tab. Leave the box ticked to continue; an account cannot be created without it.
Click Create My Account.

Check your email next The registry sends a verification link to the address you gave. Open your email, find the message, and click the link inside it. This proves the address is really yours. Until you do, you cannot sign in.

No email after a few minutes? Check your spam or junk folder first. If it still is not there, go to the sign-in page and click Request Another Link, or visit the resend page directly and type your email address again — a fresh link will be sent if the address matches an account waiting to be verified.

Signing in

Click Login at the top of any page.
Type your Email Address and Password.
Click Sign In.

You will land in My Boatyard, or wherever you were headed before you were asked to sign in.

If you forget your password

On the sign-in page, click Forgotten your password?
Type the email address on your account and click Send Me a Link. You will always see the same confirmation, whether or not that address has an account — this is deliberate and is not an error.
Open the email and click the link inside it. It works for one hour and only once, so use it promptly; if it has expired, go back and ask for a new one.
Type a New Password, type it again to confirm, and click Set My Password. You can sign in with it right away.

Two

My Boatyard: your home base

Once you are signed in, My Boatyard is the button in the top corner of every page that takes you back to your own boats. Everything you do as a member — adding a boat, writing a build log, uploading photographs, checking messages, changing your account — starts from here or from a page it links to.

On this page you will find:

A row of numbers — how many boats you have entered, how many are public, how many are still drafts, how many build log entries and photographs you have added in total.
Your Fleet — a card for each of your boats, with her photo, her registry number (or Not yet numbered if she is still a draft), her name, and her latest build log update. Each card has two shortcuts: Add Build Update and Manage Photos.
While You Are Here — quick links to register a vessel, manage your account, edit your builder profile, or explore other people's boats.
If you have unread private messages, a banner near the top says so and offers Open Inbox.

A word about one of your own boats. A band appears at the top of the page — anywhere on the site, not only here — when one of your records has been left half-finished: a boat you entered but never published, and whom nobody else can therefore see, or a boat still listed as under construction whose own record already gives a launch date. It carries the one button that fixes it — Publish Her or Set Her Status — and, beside it, Don't remind me about this, which silences that boat for good. Nothing about her changes either way; only what the registry is willing to say. You can let the registry mention her again from your account settings.

Have no boats entered yet? The page says Your Boatyard Is Empty with a single button: Register Your First Vessel. That is where the next section picks up.

Three

Adding a vessel to the registry

Entering a boat is a form broken into nine short screens, so nothing is overwhelming and nothing is lost. The moment you give her a name on the first screen, she is saved as a draft — visible only to you. You can leave at any point and pick up exactly where you left off; nothing is published until you choose to publish it, on the final screen.

Only her name, on the very first screen, is required to get started. Everything else in this guide can be filled in a little at a time, or left blank and returned to later.

Starting her record

From My Boatyard, click Register a Vessel (or, if you have no boats yet, Register Your First Vessel).
Type her Vessel Name. If she does not have one yet, a working name is fine — you can change it while she is a draft.
Choose her Boat Type from the list.
Under Design, say whether she was built to a design already in the registry's catalogue, a one-off or custom design, or a design that is not listed. If you type a design name close to one already catalogued, the screen will ask you to confirm whether it is the same design before continuing.
Type your Builder Display Name — usually your own name, but say so if she was built by a father, a club, or a shop.
Click Start Her Record.

A bar across the top of the screen now shows all nine steps by name. You can click any step you have already reached to jump back to it. Every screen has a Save Draft button, so you never have to finish in one sitting.

The remaining eight steps

Every field below is optional unless this guide says otherwise. Fill in what you know; leave the rest for later, or for good.

2 — The Build: When you started building, how she was built (construction method), the main material, a short construction note, whether you built from plans, a kit, or your own design, where the plans came from, and where she was built — a description such as a garage in Ohio, never a street address.
3 — Specifications: Choose whether to enter her measurements in Feet, inches and pounds or Metres and kilograms, then her length overall, beam, draft, and displacement. Every one of these may be left blank.
4 — Power: Her propulsion type — No Engine is a normal answer for an oar- or sail-powered boat — and, if she has one, the engine's make, model, and horsepower.
5 — Launch & Location: Her build or launch status, launch date, launch location, hailing port, state or province, country, and home waters. Under Fleet Map Position you choose how precisely she appears on the fleet map — the registry works out her map position from the place name you give; you never type coordinates, and a street address is never asked for at any setting.
6 — The Story: A short description (this is what shows on her card wherever she is listed) and, if you want to write more, her full story in a large text box. A row of prompts — Why did you build this boat?, What was the hardest part? — can be clicked to drop in a heading if you are not sure where to start.
7 — Builder Knowledge: Reflections other builders find useful: what you would do differently, the most difficult part of the build, your most useful tool, the biggest unexpected expense, your best modification, advice for someone starting out, and whether you would build this design again.
8 — Privacy: Titled What the registry may show. How much of her location the public can see, whether an unfinished boat appears in the workshop listings, whether her hours and her build progress are shown on her page (the same switch as on her Hours & Progress screen — see that chapter below), whether comments are allowed on her page, and, if so, how you want to be told when one arrives — by email, by a banner when you sign in, or not at all.
9 — Review: A preview of exactly how her page will look once published. If anything required is still missing, the screen lists it with a link straight back to the step that needs it. From here: Save Draft to keep working later, or Publish Vessel when she is ready.

Publishing A vessel needs, at minimum, a name, a boat type, a status, and a short description before she can be published — and, unless you have chosen to hide her location entirely, a place the registry could map her to. Publishing gives her a permanent registry number and a public page. You can keep editing every part of her record afterwards, and you can withdraw her from public view later without losing her number — see the next section.

Four

Editing, publishing, and withdrawing her record

Once a boat is published, the nine-step form is replaced by an editor built the same way, but shown all on one screen. Open it from My Boatyard by clicking her name, or from her public page (if you own her) by clicking Edit This Record.

Along the top of the editor is a row of tabs: Her Record, Photographs, Build Log, Hours & Progress, Ownership, Her Names, and Preview. Click any tab to move between them.
Under Her Record, her details are grouped into the same eight sections as the original form (The Build, Specifications, Power, and so on). Click a section to open it, make your change, and click that section's own Save button — each section saves on its own, so you never have to re-save the whole record for one small change.
A panel on this page shows Her Link — her permanent public address — with buttons to Copy Link, Share, or Email a Link.

Publishing, withdrawing, and un-withdrawing

A Publish Vessel button appears while she is still a draft. Once she is live, that button is replaced by Withdraw From Registry — this takes her off public view without deleting her; her registry number and everything you have entered stay exactly as they are, kept safe for if you decide to put her back. To do that, come back to this same page and click Put Her Back in the Registry.

A registry number, once issued, is never reused and never removed — that is the whole point of a registry. A published vessel therefore cannot be deleted, only withdrawn. A vessel that has never been published — still a draft — can be deleted for good: on her editor, check the box confirming you understand this cannot be undone, then click Delete Draft.

Her certificate Once a boat is published, a Download Certificate button appears on her editor. It produces a PDF certificate from her current public record, generated fresh each time, so it is always up to date. You can download it as many times as you like.

Five

Adding and managing photographs

Open the Photographs tab on your vessel's editor, or click Manage Photos on her card in My Boatyard.

Uploading photographs

Click the upload area (or drag photographs into it from your computer) and choose the photographs you want to add. You can select up to 12 at a time; if you have more, upload them in a few batches.
Choose a Category for this batch (for example, Build), and, if you have already started a build log, you may choose which Build Log Entry these photographs belong to.
Click Upload Photographs.

Accepted file types are JPEG, PNG, WebP, and GIF, up to 10 MB each. A vessel can hold up to 120 photographs in total — the page shows how many you have used. Your original file is always kept as you uploaded it; the registry makes its own smaller copies to display on the page.

Once a photograph is on her page

Add a caption or change its category. Type in the Caption box, choose a different Category or Build Log Entry, and click Save Details.
Set the cover photo. Click Make Hero on the photograph you want shown first, wherever she is listed across the registry.
Reorder photographs. Use the ↑ Earlier and ↓ Later buttons to move a photograph within the gallery.
Delete a photograph. Click Delete and confirm. This cannot be undone, so make sure you still have a copy yourself if you want to keep it.

Six

Keeping a build log

The build log is her journal — dated entries telling the story of her construction, in your own words, with photographs alongside each one. Open the Build Log tab on her editor to see every entry so far, in order.

Adding a build update

On the Build Log tab (or from her card in My Boatyard), click Add Build Update. If this is her very first entry, the button reads Write the First Entry instead.
Type an Entry Title and choose a Date — it defaults to today, but you can change it, or leave it blank for an undated entry.
Choose a Phase from the list. If this entry is about the day she was launched, choose the Launch Day phase — it gives the entry a special place of honor in her timeline.
Write What Happened in the large text box — as much or as little as you like.
Optional, but recommended: add photographs to go with this entry. See Adding photographs to a build log entry just below.
Optional: record how many Hours on this work you spent — half hours are fine, so 2.5 is two and a half, and whatever you put here goes straight into her hours tracker and into her total. Clearing the box takes those hours off again.
Optional: under Did this finish a stage?, tick any stage this day's work completed. It is marked complete on her progress, dated the same day as this entry, and pointed back at it. The stages usually finished in the phase you chose are flagged Usually this phase; nothing is ticked for you, and unticking one puts it back to still to do. See Hours & Progress, below.
Optional: drop in a Video Link (a YouTube or Vimeo link, not a video file), or attach A PDF — a single document, such as a plan sheet or a calculation, up to 10 MB.
Click Post Build Update.

Adding photographs to a build log entry

There are two ways to attach photographs to an entry, and you can use either or both:

Upload new photographs directly on the entry. While writing or editing an entry, use the From your camera upload area to add photographs straight from your computer — up to 12 at a time, the same file types and size limit as the Photographs tab. If you have more than 12, save the entry first, then upload the rest from the Photographs tab and set their Build Log Entry to this one.
Attach photographs already on her record. Under Already on her record, tick the photographs you want to include in this entry — a count shows how many you have chosen, and Choose all / Clear buttons are there to speed that up. Untick one to set it loose again.

A photograph belongs to the boat and illustrates one entry Every picture on her record is offered here, including the ones another entry is already using — each of those is labelled with the entry that has it. Ticking one moves it to this entry rather than copying it, because a photograph can illustrate only one entry at a time. It stays on her record and in her gallery either way.

Starting from a page you have already written

If the day is already written up on your own blog, a forum thread or a video page, click Import Existing Page on the Build Log tab, paste the address under Public page address, and click Prepare Preview. A build-blog article, a project page, a YouTube video or a Vimeo page all work. The registry reads what is publicly there and prepares one entry for you to edit — title, date, phase, the text, and the video link where there is one. It never copies remote photographs, and the source is linked once beneath the entry.

Nothing is posted until you have read it — and it does need reading, because a page carries menus, captions and unrelated text that the importer cannot tell from the account of the work. Edit it into one useful entry and click Import Entry, or Use Another Page to start again. It is one way of writing an entry rather than a screen of its own, which is why it is a button on the build log and not a tab.

Updating or deleting an entry

On the Build Log tab, find the entry and click Edit Entry. Make your changes and click Save Entry.
To reorder two entries logged on the same day, use the up and down arrows beside them.
To remove an entry, open it and expand Delete this entry, check the confirmation box, and click Delete Entry. Deleting an entry does not delete the photographs attached to it — they stay on her record and can be reattached to another entry from the Photographs tab. Deleting an entry does not delete its hours either; they stay in her ledger, marked as coming from an entry that has gone.

Beside each entry on the Build Log tab is Ask the Fleet About This Update. It opens the question form with the boat, the design and the build phase already filled in from the entry, so you can ask about something that went wrong that day without typing the background again. See Ask the Fleet, below.

No drafts here Unlike a vessel record, a build log entry has no draft stage — once you click Post Build Update or Save Entry, it is live on her page right away (subject to the comment and photo review the registry applies everywhere).

Seven

Her hours, and how far along she is

These are the two things a boatbuilder is asked more than anything else, and they have a screen of their own: Hours & Progress, a tab on her editor beside the Build Log. Open it there, or from the bottom of her build log.

You do not have to use it. A boat with no hours and no stages marked simply says nothing about either, on her page and everywhere else.

Her total, and where it comes from

Her total is three things added together, and the screen shows all three separately so nobody has to take the number on trust:

From her build log: The hours you entered on individual journal entries, in the Hours on this work box. Nothing to do twice — write the day up with its hours and they arrive here on their own.
Logged here: The hours nobody wrote up. The Saturday you sanded and did not photograph, the evening spent reading the plans.
Before the tracker: One number: your own estimate of the hours you had already done before you started keeping the ledger. Nobody is going to enter four years of Saturdays one at a time.

Logging an afternoon at the boat

Under Log Hours, type the number of Hours. Half hours are fine — 2.5 is two and a half.
Set the Date. It starts at today. If you genuinely cannot remember which day it was, empty the box — the hours still count.
Optional: say What you did, in a line — faired the port bilge panel.
Click Log These Hours.

To record the hours you had already done, use the Before the Tracker panel: type a whole number into Hours before the tracker and click Save Baseline. It is an estimate and it is meant to be — her page says as much, and shows it as its own line rather than folding it invisibly into the total.

The ledger

Every session is listed below, most recent first, with any you left undated at the end. Each one can be changed where it sits: correct the Hours, the Date or What you did and click Save, or click Delete to remove that session. Her total is recalculated immediately, either way. A session that came from a journal entry is marked From her build log and links straight to that entry, so the two never disagree.

Under the ledger, a Where the Time Went panel breaks the total down by the build phase of the journal entry each session belongs to. Hours logged on their own have no phase, and are counted honestly as such rather than filed under a stage you never chose.

A boat's ledger holds up to 2,000 sessions. If you reach that, combine some older ones into a single entry to make room.

Marking her build progress

Below the ledger is a list of stages. Which list you get depends on the answer you gave under What kind of project is she? on THE BUILD, because the stages of bringing a boat back are not the stages of building one.

A boat built new — and a boat finished from somebody else’s bare hull, who is building too — is offered 14 stages, in the order most boats meet them:

Plans in Hand — The drawings bought, the kit ordered, or the lines settled.
Lofting Complete — Drawn out full size, moulds and patterns made.
Backbone and Keel — Stem, keel, hog and transom standing on the jig.
Frames Up — Every frame or bulkhead set up, faired and braced.
Bottom Complete — Bottom planked, plated or sheathed — the first surface closed.
Hull Complete — Sides on, seams closed, the shell watertight in principle.
Hull Turned Over — Rolled the right way up — the day the shed changes shape.
Deck Complete — Beams, sheathing and covering boards down.
Cabin and Structures — Coach roof, cockpit, hatches and anything standing above deck.
Faired and Painted — Filled, faired, primed and finished — inside and out.
Interior Complete — Sole, berths, lockers, joinery and the fit-out.
Systems In — Engine, wiring, plumbing, steering and controls aboard and working.
Rig and Gear — Spars, standing and running rigging, sails, oars or the outboard.
Launched — The day she went in.

Nothing is marked until you mark it. The stages are a list of rows, one to a line, each saying the three things you are scanning for — the stage, where it stands, and the day it was reached. Click a row to open it; click it again to close it. Everything about that stage is inside:

Where it stands — Still to do, Under way, Complete, or Not applicable. This one select carries the whole answer, not applicable included.
Date reached, if you know it.
The entry that tells it — pick one of her build log entries and a reader can go straight from the stage to the day it happened.
A short Note, if you want one.
Click Save Stage.

Use ↑ Earlier and ↓ Later inside a row to move that stage up or down the list — moving one does not save anything else you have half typed beside it. Launched is worked out from her launch date rather than ticked off by hand.

Two quicker ways to mark a stage

Finishing a stage and writing the day up are usually the same afternoon, so neither of them needs this screen at all:

On the entry that describes it. While writing or editing a build log entry, look under Did this finish a stage? and tick the stage that day's work finished. It is marked complete, dated the same day as the entry, and pointed at it — so a reader who sees Hull Complete can go and read about the day it happened. Untick it to put it back to still to do; your note survives. The stages likeliest for the phase you chose are flagged Usually this phase, and nothing is ever ticked for you.
On her build log. The top of the Build Log tab carries the same drawing her page shows, with Next up is … and a Mark It Reached button beneath it. That dates the stage today. Use it when the stage is simply done and there is no entry to hang it on.

Stages she does not have, and stages of your own

A dinghy has no cabin. On a stage that does not apply to her, open the row and set Where it stands to Not applicable, then click Save Stage. It leaves the count and leaves the drawing on her page, so she is not stuck short of the finish forever over something she was never going to have — and it stays on this list underneath, where you can change the answer back.
Clear This Stage throws away everything you wrote against a stage — its state, its date, its note and the entry it pointed at — and returns it to still to do. It appears only on a stage you have actually marked, because on any other there is nothing to clear.
A steam launch has a boiler and a catboat has a centreboard case. Under Your Own Stage, type a Stage name, choose what to Put it after, and click Add Stage. You may add up to 10 of your own, and Remove Stage takes one away again.

Progress is counted, not weighted Six of fourteen stages means six marked complete out of the fourteen that apply to her — no more and no less. The registry does not claim that fairing is a ninth of a boat, and it does not try to guess a percentage from your hours.

Who may see it

At the bottom of the screen, under Who may see this, choose Yes, show them or No, keep them to myself and click Save.

Turned on, her registry page carries a Build Progress section with her total, the parts it is made of, and the same drawing of her stages you see on this screen. Turned off, all of it is yours alone and her page says nothing about either — nothing is deleted, and turning it back on puts it back exactly as it was.

It is the same switch that appears on step 8 of her record, under What the registry may show. One setting shown in two places: change either and the other agrees. It is a different question from whether an unfinished boat appears in the workshop listings, which is the switch beside it.

Eight

Ownership history and names

Many boats pass through more than one pair of hands, and some carry more than one name over the years. These two tabs on her editor — Ownership and Her Names — let you record that history alongside her current record.

Recording an ownership period

Open the Ownership tab and click Add a Period.
Type the Owner's name (leave it blank if you do not know it), and, if they are a registered member, their handle under Their registry handle — this links their name to their public profile, but does not notify them or give them any control over her record.
Choose What were they to her? — Owner, Builder, or another role from the list — and the From and, if it has ended, Until dates. Leave Until blank only for the current owner.
Optionally add Where She Lay (a town, harbour, or region — never a street address) and any Notes.
Choose Who may see this period — public, or kept on the record for reference only.
Click Add This Period.

Once added, each period can be reordered, edited (Edit Period), or removed (expand Delete this period) from the Ownership tab.

Recording a name

Open the Her Names tab and click Record a Name.
Type the name she carried, and, if you know them, the From and Until dates.
If the renaming happened at a change of ownership, you can link it to that ownership period, and add a short note on why she was renamed.
Choose whether the name is public or kept on the record only, and click Record This Name.

Nine

Likes, comments, and following other builds

Liking a vessel

Every public vessel page has a Like button. Click it to like the boat; click it again to remove your like. This works whether or not you are signed in. You cannot like your own boat — it is yours to write, not to like. If you own a vessel, her editor has a View Likes button showing roughly where and when likes happened, though never who from.

Commenting on a vessel

If the builder has allowed comments on their vessel's page, a section near the bottom — The Dockside Conversation — lets you leave one.

If you are signed in, your comment is posted under your display name automatically. If you are not, type Your name and Email — your email is never shown publicly.
Write Your comment (between 2 and 4000 characters). Keep it to plain text, and leave personal or private contact details out of it.
Click Post Comment. It appears right away; the builder may ask a registry moderator to review it afterwards if there is a problem.

If you are signed in, you can also flag a comment that seems wrong for a moderator to look at, and, if it is your own boat, reply to a comment as the builder — the original commenter is emailed a link straight to your reply.

Following a build

If you would like to be told when a particular boat's build log is updated, you can follow her without needing to check back yourself.

On the vessel's page, find Follow Her Build and click Follow This Build. (If you are not signed in yet, this section will ask you to sign in or create an account first.)
To stop, return to the same section and click Stop Following, or manage everything you follow in one place — see below.

Builds You Follow, reached from My Boatyard, lists every boat you follow with how many entries you have not read yet. From there you can Read What's New, Mark as Read, adjust how you are told about updates (by email, by a banner when you sign in, or both) with the Save button beside each boat, or Stop Following one at a time — or click Mark All as Read to clear everything at once. You may follow up to 500 boats. A link to stop following is also included in every notification email, and works even if you are signed out.

Ten

Ask the Fleet

Ask the Fleet is the registry's workshop help desk: somewhere to put the problem in front of you, and somewhere the answer is kept afterwards. Reach it from Ask the Fleet at the top of any page.

The thing that makes it worth reading years later is the outcome — what the builder actually did in the end, and whether it worked. That sits at the top of every question that has one, above the answers.

Anyone may read the questions. You need to be signed in to ask one, to answer, or to follow a question.

Finding a question

Along the top of the page is a row of views. You can narrow by Category — the shelf a question is filed on — or by Tag, and the address bar keeps whatever you chose, so a filtered list can be bookmarked or sent to somebody.

Recently Active: Where builders are talking today.
Newest: Just asked.
Unanswered: Nobody has replied to these yet.
Solved: The author has marked an answer that helped.
Builder Tested: Somebody did the work and wrote down what happened.
Questions I Follow: The ones you asked to hear about. Signed-in members only.
My Questions: Everything you have asked. Signed-in members only.
Related to My Build: Questions about your boats, your designs and how they are built. Signed-in members only.

Asking a question

Click Ask a Question. Three things are required and everything else is offered and skippable.

Your question — one specific question, written the way you would ask it out loud, between 15 and 180 characters. As you type, the screen quietly lists existing questions that look similar. Read them if they help; carry on if your situation is different, because that is exactly what this is for.
The detail — the long box, and the part that decides how good the answers are. Say what you are building and what stage it is at, what materials and products were used, what you expected, what actually happened, what you have already tried, and what kind of help you are after.
Category — one shelf. If it sits across two, pick the one somebody would look on first.
Optional: add Photographs — up to 6, up to 10 MB each. One close up and one from further back answers more questions than a paragraph does. You may also add a Video link (a YouTube or Vimeo address; the registry does not host video).
Optional: under What is it about?, tie the question to One of your boats, a Build phase, a Construction method, the Materials and products used, the Conditions you were working in, and up to 5 Tags. None of it is required. Every field you fill in makes the question easier for the right builder to find — now, and in ten years.
Click Ask the Fleet.

There are quicker ways in, and they arrive with the background already filled in: Ask a Question About This Build on one of your vessel's pages, Ask About This Design on a design page, and Ask the Fleet About This Update beside an entry in your build log.

To change a question you asked, open it and click Edit, then Save Changes.

Answering somebody else's question

Open the question and write your answer in the box at the bottom — between 20 and 20,000 characters — then click Post Answer.
To ask a short follow-up about somebody's answer rather than to answer yourself, use the reply box under that answer and click Post Reply.
Click This was helpful under an answer that helped you. It is not a score for the person who wrote it; it is a signal to the next reader.
Cannot answer without knowing more? Click Ask the author for more detail, then leave a reply saying exactly what would help. The question is marked as waiting on them until they say they have added it.
Click Follow this question near the top to be told when something happens on it. The button then reads Following, and clicking it again stops.

Closing the loop on your own question

When a question is yours, two more things appear on it, and they are the whole point of the feature.

This solved it, under the answer that did. It marks that answer on the page and puts the question in the Solved view.
Record what you did. Choose Did it work? — Worked as described, Worked with modifications, Partially solved, Did not solve the problem, or No longer applicable — then write What did you do? and, if you like, a Date completed. Click Record the Outcome.
Say so even when it did not work. A question recording a repair that failed saves the next builder the same weekend, and it is why the Builder Tested view exists.
If the thing comes back, Reopen this question puts it back in front of the fleet. If somebody has clicked Ask the author for more detail, add what they asked for and click I have added the detail asked for.

Before you act on an answer Advice shared here reflects individual builder experience. Verify critical structural, electrical, fuel, lifting and safety work against applicable standards and qualified professional guidance.

Eleven

Sending a private message

Registered members who have turned messaging on can send each other private messages. Open Messages from the top of any page, or from My Boatyard. Across the top of the message centre are its boxes — Inbox, Sent and Archived, with Announcements beside them.

Starting a conversation

In your Messages inbox, click New Message.
Type the recipient's member handle — the @name shown on their builder profile.
Fill in a Subject and your Message, then click Send Private Message.

The subject is the conversation Two members can have several conversations going at once, one for each thing they are discussing, and the subject is what tells them apart. Type a heading you have used with that member before and your message joins that conversation — the headings you already have with them are listed above the form, so you can pick by looking rather than by remembering. Type anything else and a new conversation opens alongside the others. Each one has its own unread mark, its own archive and its own delete. From inside a conversation, New Subject starts a fresh one with the same member.

Reading and replying

Click a conversation in your inbox to open it, type your reply in the box at the bottom, and click Send Reply. A long conversation opens at its most recent messages; ↑ Earlier Messages and Later Messages ↓ walk back and forward through it.

Archive tidies a conversation out of the inbox without losing it, and Restore brings it back. Delete removes it from your own view only — if the other person still has it and replies, it returns with its full history, and anything you sent stays in your sent messages either way.

Your sent messages

The Sent tab lists every message you have written, whether or not you have since deleted the conversation it belongs to, with Open Conversation beside the ones still in your boxes.

Wrote something you would rather not have sent? While the recipient has not yet read it, Recall This Message withdraws it: it leaves their inbox and is never shown to them. Your own copy stays in Sent, marked Recalled. Two things it does not undo, said plainly rather than glossed over — their conversation list shows a short opening extract of the newest message, so unread is not quite the same as unseen; and if they have email notices switched on they have already been told a message arrived, though that email names only you and never contains what you wrote. Once it has been read, it cannot be recalled.

If somebody will not leave you alone

Open the conversation and click Block This Member. Nothing more can be sent between the two of you in either direction. They are not told they have been blocked — they see only that the conversation is not accepting new messages, word for word what they would see if you had simply switched messaging off. Click Unblock This Member on the same conversation to undo it, or manage everybody you have blocked from your account settings — see Members you have silenced under Your Account, below.

If a message needs a person to look at it rather than a switch, Report to the Registry on the conversation sends it to a moderator.

Announcements from the registry

Announcements holds notices sent to every member — they are not conversations, cannot be replied to, and are not deleted. Opening the page marks them read. Occasionally one matters enough that the registry needs to know you have seen it; that one waits for you when you sign in and stays unread until you click I've Read This — Continue, which then sends you on to wherever you were going.

Talking live: direct chat

A private message waits for its answer. A direct chat does not: it is a live conversation in a small window at the foot of the page, for the exchange that is quicker said than written. The bar at the bottom of every page carries Chat, with the number of unread lines, and beside it a count of the members aboard — signed in at this moment.

Click Chat to see your conversations, or the aboard count to see who is here now. Who Is Aboard, in the footer, is the same list on a page of its own.
Click Chat beside a member — on that list, on their builder profile, or on a boat's record — and a window opens. Type, and press Enter.
Anything said to you while you are away is filed in your inbox as an ordinary private message, so nothing is lost by closing the window or by never opening one.
Save at the top of a chat window keeps that conversation as a transcript, under Saved Chats in your message centre. Chat lines are otherwise passing talk and are not kept forever.
The small note beside the bar silences the arrival chime. Both members must have direct chat switched on — see Your Account, below. Turning private messages off turns direct chat off with it.

Private video calls

Some things are easier shown than typed — a scarf that will not close, a plank that will not lie down. Where both members have switched it on, a chat window carries a Video button that invites the other person to a private call.

Click Video in a chat window. The other member is invited, and the invitation rings for one minute before it gives up.
They choose. Accept opens the call; Decline ends it there. Nobody is ever joined to a call without pressing something.
Your camera and microphone start off, and turning either on is your own decision inside the call. The call runs for the time shown on it and closes itself when that runs out.
End call hangs up. Closing the window or losing your connection ends it too — a call cannot be left running by accident.

The registry does not record calls. What it keeps is a note of the call itself — who it was with, when it was, whether it was answered and how long it lasted — filed in your message centre under the subject Video calls, so that both of you have the same record of a conversation neither of you can look back at.

Both members must allow direct chat and video call invitations, and calling is off until you switch it on — see Your Account, below.

Messaging has to be turned on before you can send or receive anything — see Your Account, below, for how.

Twelve

Finding and browsing boats

Searching

The search box at the top of every page searches vessel names, registry numbers, designs, designers, builders, and ports. Type at least 2 characters and press Enter. Type a registry number exactly (for example, a number such as BL-000417, or just the digits) and you will be taken straight to that boat's page.

The Dock — what has been happening

The Dock, first in the menu at the top of every page, is the registry's notice board: a column of cards saying what has happened across the fleet, newest first, with smaller notices beside it about who has just arrived, what went in the water, and whose launch day it is today. It is not a social feed — there is nothing to react to and no number ranking one builder's boat against another's. Every card's job is simply to get you to a record.

Two rows of buttons narrow it, and whatever you choose stays in the address bar, so a view you like can be bookmarked or sent to somebody. Load More at the bottom brings in the next batch.

What kind of thing: All Activity · Build Updates · New Vessels · Launches · Photographs · Conversations · Workshop Questions · Milestones · Registry News.
Whose boats: Every Boat · Under Construction · On the Water. Once you are signed in, Boats I Follow and My Boats are offered as well.

Ways to browse

Not sure what you are looking for? These pages, all reachable from the menu at the top of the page or the links in the footer, are built for browsing:

Explore: A crossroads page linking to every other way of browsing the registry, each showing how many boats, designs, or builders are there to see.
The Fleet: The full, photo-first directory of every public vessel, with filters to narrow it down.
Fleet Map: An interactive map of every boat whose owner has chosen to show a location.
Designs: A catalogue of boat designs and plans, each page showing how many registered boats were built to it.
Builders: A directory of members who have made their builder profile public.
Build Stories: A spotlight on boats with especially thorough written stories, journals, or photo sets.
From the Workshop: Boats somebody is working on right now — in planning, under construction, or being brought back — ordered by whichever has the most recent build log activity.
Registry Statistics: The fleet at a glance — live counts and breakdowns across the whole registry.
Launch Anniversaries: Which boats were launched on today's date in years past.
Recently Launched: Boats ordered by the day they went in the water, newest first.
A Vessel at Random: Takes you straight to a randomly chosen public vessel — a good way to wander.
Ask the Fleet: Every problem the fleet has been asked about, and what came of it — worth reading even when you have nothing to ask. See the chapter above.
Where We're Read: Which countries and states the registry's readers are in, as a map and as two lists. Countries and regions only — never a town, and never anywhere a particular visitor actually stood.

The reference shelf

Not every page here is somebody's boat. These are the registry's own writing — the pages that explain the craft rather than list the hulls. They are grouped because a visitor who does not yet know what a garboard is cannot search for one. Find them in the footer of any page, or start at Start Here in the top menu.

The Reference Shelf: The words, the methods and the plans — the registry's own writing, in one place.
Boatbuilding Glossary: The words builders use, plainly defined — from apron to wineglass transom.
Methods & Materials: How a hull can be put together, what each way asks of you, and what it gives back.
Plans & Designers: Where a set of plans comes from, what you get for the money, and how to choose.
Building Your First Boat: The long answer to "could I actually do this?" — start here if you have never built.
Registering a Boat: All nine screens of the registration wizard, in order, with a boat filled in.

Thirteen

Managing your account

Click Account at the top of any page, or from My Boatyard, to reach your account settings. Each of the following is its own small form with its own Save button, so changing one does not touch the others.

Your Details: First name, last name, display name, and whether you prefer measurements in Imperial (feet, inches, pounds) or Metric (metres, kilograms). Click Save Details.
Email address: Type your new email and your current password to confirm it is you, then click Change Email Address.
Password: Type your current password, then your new one twice, and click Change Password. This signs you out of any other device that was signed in with the old one.
How members may reach you: Allow private messages from other members, and be emailed when a new one arrives. Beneath those, allow other members to open a direct chat with you — turning private messages off turns direct chat off with it. Then, allow private video call invitations. Both members have to have allowed direct chat and calls before either can invite the other, you choose whether to accept each call, and your camera and microphone start off. Last, whether other signed-in members may see when you are aboard — the mark beside your name, your place on Who Is Aboard, and whether the person you are chatting with is told you have read their line. It is never shown to anybody who is not signed in. Click Save Messaging Preferences.
When the registry may write to you first: Almost every letter the registry sends is a reply to something you did. The exception is a note about one of your own boats that has been left unfinished — a record you entered but never published, and which nobody else can therefore see, or a boat whose status never caught up with the day she went in the water. Untick Email me about my own unfinished records and click Save Reminder Preferences to stop them. At most three letters about any one boat, ever, and never more than one letter in three weeks however many boats you keep — and publishing her, or setting her launch date, ends them at once. Turning them off changes nothing else: a comment on your record, a moderation decision and a password reset are letters you asked for and all keep coming. If you have pressed Don't remind me about this on a boat, a Silenced Boats panel appears here with one button to let the registry mention her again.
Members you have silenced: Everybody you have blocked, in one list, with Unblock beside each name. The panel is only there while you have blocked somebody.
The marks beside your name: Badges the registry works out on its own from what it already knows about you and your boats — there is nothing to apply for and nothing to enter. Untick Show my badges beside my name around the registry and click Save Badge Preference to hide them; that does not give them up, and you go on earning them. A badge held by one of your boats belongs to her record rather than to you, and is shown under her name here.
A copy of what we hold: Click Download My Data to receive a file with your account details, your builder profile, every vessel you have entered, your build journals, your photograph details, the ownership periods you added, the builds you follow, your private messages, any badges you hold, the reports you have sent, and your visit history.
Closing your account: Click Continue to Closing My Account — see below.

Your builder profile is separate The bio, location, and contact details shown on your public builder page live on their own screen — click Edit Builder Profile from My Boatyard, or Builder Profile in the account menu, to change your visibility, your About You text, where you build, and how people may contact you.

Closing your account

From Account, click Continue to Closing My Account. Read the table explaining exactly what closing does — and consider downloading your data first, if you have not already.
For each published vessel you have, choose whether to leave her published or withdraw her from public view. Boats already withdrawn need no decision.
Type your Current Password to confirm it is you.
Check the box confirming you understand that your vessel records stay in the register either way, that your personal visitor record is deleted, and that you have 30 days to change your mind.
Click Close My Account.

Changed your mind? Simply sign in again with your usual email and password within 30 days, and your account reopens exactly as you left it — including any boats you withdrew, which will be waiting in My Boatyard to be published again whenever you choose.

Fourteen

Getting help and reporting a problem

If something on a boat's page is wrong — a misattributed designer, a boat entered twice, a detail that needs correcting — or if you have run into a problem the steps above do not cover, there is a way to reach a person about it from wherever you are on the site.

Look for Corrections & Concerns at the bottom of any page, or a Report link on the specific vessel or photograph in question.
Choose What needs attention? from the list, and describe the problem under Details — be as specific as you can about what is wrong and, if you know, what it should say instead.
If you are not signed in, add Your name and Email address so a moderator can follow up if needed.
Click Send Report. A registry moderator will review it — sending a report does not remove or change anything by itself.

For anything else — a question this guide does not answer, or a problem with your account — write directly to support@builtandlaunched.org.

Register Your Boat Sign In Explore the Registry

This guide is kept in step with the site itself — when a screen changes, this page is updated to match it. If you ever find a step here that does not match what you see on your screen, please tell us using Corrections & Concerns above, and it will be fixed.