A white centre-console boat with a T-top and outboard motor underway on calm water
Boat operating system

The boat finally has an operating system.

One helm for every system aboard — energy, range, chart, cameras, circuits, weather, audio and internet — and a native app that puts the boat in your pocket. Aboard over the boat's own WiFi. Away over the cloud.

Register for Helm Get the app
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One system, two surfaces

Helm on board. Boat in your pocket.

BoatPlay runs on the boat computer and shows itself in two places: the Helm at the wheel, and the BoatPlay app on your phone. Same data, same alarms, same rules — sized for where you are standing.

Helm · Tablet or desktop at the wheel

The Helm

The full display — a fixed, no-scroll layout with glove-sized targets, three colour modes for sun, dusk and night vision, and every page one tap away. Runs from the boat computer over the boat LAN, works with the network off, and the interactive demo below is the real thing.

  • Instruments, Chart, Energy, Cameras, Weather, Audio, Switching, Internet, Browser, Settings — ten pages, hash-routed, offline-cached.
  • Mission modes — one tap for Fish, Cruise, Dock, Anchor or Away, with a Night layer.
  • Alarm banner on every page — nothing can paint over it; acknowledge from the banner, review the history later.
  • Demo mode — a full simulated day with a magenta banner, so you can learn the helm at the kitchen table.
Register to use Helm About the Helm
App · iPhone and Android, native

The BoatPlay app

The same helm in a one-handed, six-tab layout — plus what only a real app can do: push alerts, Face ID or fingerprint before any switching or anti-theft action, and a splash that always opens on the boat. It knows where it is talking from and says so on every screen.

  • ABOARD — boat WiFi: live instruments, battery and range, chart with AIS, cameras, and switching for non-critical circuits, straight from the boat computer. Works with the satellite link down.
  • AWAY — cloud: state of charge, charging and ready time, position, camera stills, trip history, push alerts, geofences and immobilise requests.
  • Per-phone credentials, read-only by construction; revoke a phone from the fleet dashboard and it is out in under a minute.
Get the app
What is in it today

Every feature below is built, tested and running on the bench.

Not a roadmap. Twelve feature areas in the current BoatPlay release, page by page — the Helm and the phone share one codebase, so the phone keeps what a phone can do well and drops what belongs at the wheel.

All twelve features in full
Mission modes

One tap puts the whole boat into a mode.

A mode is a recipe applied once over the systems you already have — circuits pre-armed, alarm profiles swapped, the display set — and your own adjustments afterwards survive. A recipe can never touch propulsion, never switch the bilge pump off and never mutes an alarm.

FISHFishing setup — livewell, deck lighting and the cockpit view.
CRUISEUnderway setup — nav instruments, underway audio and the chart.
DOCKDocking setup — the stern camera and the instruments view.
ANCHORAnchored setup — anchor watch and a quiet helm.
AWAYAway setup — the boat watched from the cloud, non-essentials dark.
NIGHTA layer over Fish or Cruise — red-shifted helm, dimmed shell.
How mission modes work
Live demo

This is the Helm. Go ahead and touch it.

A simulated day on the water, running the real helm software. The ring on the chart is the furthest point you could still turn back from with a reserve in hand — it moves with the wind, the tide and the speed you pick.

BoatPlay Helm · simulated data Open full screen →

Native apps

Your boat in your pocket.

The BoatPlay app for iPhone and Android. Aboard, your phone becomes a second, portable helm over the boat WiFi. Away, check in from anywhere over the boat's encrypted cloud link. Push alerts for the things that matter; Face ID or fingerprint before anything that changes the boat.

Both listings are live now. Requires a BoatPlay-equipped boat: the app cannot start, stop or limit propulsion, and every critical circuit keeps its physical control. If your boat is not equipped yet, register below.

Everything the app does
BoatPlay is an information and convenience layer. Propulsion, steering and cutoff never depend on it.

That is a design rule, not a disclaimer. The boat computer can crash, reboot or lose the network and the boat still drives, still steers, and every critical circuit still has its physical control. The software earns trust by being honest about what it is.

The safety architecture
Register for Helm

Run the Helm on your own screen.

The Helm is the desktop and tablet version of BoatPlay. Registration gets you a licensed copy for your boat computer or a tablet at the wheel, your boat's credentials, and first word when the phone apps reach the stores.

  1. Tell us about you and the boatOwner, builder, dealer or just curious — the form takes a minute.
  2. We reply personallyWithin two business days, with the Helm package for your platform and a walkthrough of demo mode.
  3. Your boat gets its credentialsPer-boat, per-device, revocable from the fleet dashboard. Read-scoped by default; a leaked credential can never write telemetry.

Register for BoatPlay Helm

No cost, no obligation. We do not share your details.

You will get a confirmation by email.

For boat manufacturers

License BoatPlay for the boats you build.

White-label helm and app, telemetry to your service desk, and one system in every hull instead of six vendors that never talk to each other. Electric, hybrid or petrol; NMEA 2000 and CAN.

For boat builders
Questions

BoatPlay, in plain answers.

What is BoatPlay?
BoatPlay is a boat operating system: software that runs on the boat computer and shows every system aboard in two places — the Helm display at the wheel (energy, range, chart, cameras, digital switching, weather, audio, internet) and a native BoatPlay app for iPhone and Android. Same data, same alarms, same rules on both.
Does BoatPlay control the engine or steering?
No. BoatPlay is an information and convenience layer. Propulsion, steering and cutoff never depend on it: the app cannot start, stop or limit propulsion, and every critical circuit keeps its physical control. Over-current protection lives in the switching hardware itself.
How do I get BoatPlay Helm?
Register on the home page — no cost, no obligation. We reply personally within two business days with the Helm package for your desktop or tablet, your boat's credentials and a walkthrough of demo mode. The live demo is the real Helm running a simulated day.
All the questions