Binnacle Passage · For Licensed Marine Pilots Associations
Know the ETA before
the phone rings.
Live AIS coverage of your entire zone, a continuous ETA to the boarding point, the pilot-boat launch alert, and a digital transit log — purpose-built for pilots associations, not adapted from fleet software.
Live demo, no login · 22 districts · Hawaiʻi-based
See it live — pick your water
22 districts are live right now with simulated traffic — your boarding ground, your channel, your ship types. Open one, then step into the full dispatch operation behind it.
The dispatch gap most associations still run on
A vessel calls on VHF-16 or the phone. The dispatcher checks a paper board, radios the duty pilot, estimates an ETA by memory or tide table, and scribbles a log entry. When the transit is complete, someone types it into a spreadsheet — if it gets entered at all.
This works until it doesn't: two vessels arrive simultaneously, the tide is running hard, the pilot boat needs an extra 20 minutes, and the VHF is busy. Binnacle puts every inbound vessel on a live board before anyone makes the first call.
Built around the pilot's job
We built the ladder check, the MPX card, the fatigue rules, the squat calc — because this was built for pilots, not adapted from fleet software.
Dispatch operations
The live picture and the coordination work, on one board.
Area AIS scan
Every vessel transiting your coverage zone — not just your own fleet. Any bounding box, multiple named zones for districts that span regions.
ETA to the boarding point
Continuously computed from live AIS — and adjusted for the tidal current at the boarding area, because SOG alone lies in a running tide.
Pilot boat departure alerts
The amber alert fires when it's time to launch, from your configured station-to-boarding transit time. On screen, and off-screen to Slack or email.
Agent order intake + public tracking
Agents file pilot orders on a public form and get a live status link — no login, no "where's my pilot" calls. Dispatch confirms and converts to a transit in one click.
Tug & escort orders
Order tugs per transit — bollard pull, escort requirement, made-fast and released timestamps — instead of coordinating them by phone.
Collision & unpiloted-vessel alerts
CPA/TCPA computed for every moving pair in the zone, and any compulsory-pilotage vessel under way without a pilot gets flagged automatically.
Pilot safety — built around the climb
The parts of the job that hurt people, made checkable.
Pilot ladder safety check
A SOLAS V/23 / IMO A.1045 boarding checklist tapped through at the rail. Failures become a deficiency record the association can escalate — and "refuse boarding" is a button, not an argument.
Master–Pilot Exchange card
The formal exchange, digitized: particulars, passage / speed / UKC / tug plan, defects, contingencies — agreed by the master on screen, stored against the transit.
Fatigue & rest-hours engine
Work hours derived from actual transits and checked against your district's rest rules. The rotation automatically skips a pilot who isn't fit for duty.
Incidents with AIS reconstruction
Logging a near-miss freezes the zone's AIS picture at that moment, and the vessel's track replays around the incident time — a defensible record, instantly.
Navigation judgement
The calls pilots make in their heads, made explicit.
Squat & UKC calculator
Charted depth + tide − draft − squat at speed → dynamic under-keel clearance, with the max safe speed for your required margin.
Tidal transit windows
For a deep-draft vessel, the passable windows on the next 48 hours of NOAA tide predictions — draft + UKC against the control depth.
Transit go/no-go rules
Your district's rules — daylight-only over a draft, visibility and wind minimums, tide-dependent drafts — encoded and evaluated live: one check answers "can she transit now?"
48-hour boarding forecast
Hour-by-hour GO / CAUTION / NO-GO at the boarding point from wave and wind forecasts, with the next favourable window surfaced.
Vessel pilot-card library
Per-vessel particulars, maneuvering quirks, and accumulated pilot-to-pilot notes, keyed by MMSI — recalled automatically when she calls again.
The association's business
The money and the politics, handled transparently.
Rotation equity
Turns and job-value share per pilot against the fair share, with a transparent "owed next" ranking — the dispute that splits partnerships, defused with data.
Tariff & invoicing
Your tariff schedule computes the fee (base + per-GT + per-metre, floored at the minimum) and generates the printable pilotage invoice.
Detention & standby billing
A standby clock on every transit — vessel not ready, weather, berth — and one tap adds the accrued surcharge to the invoice. The waiting time you currently eat, billed.
Receivables & aging
Invoice lifecycle with partial payments, balance-based aging buckets, and a QuickBooks-friendly export for the billing office.
Reports, analytics & currency
Monthly ops reports for the commission, 12-month trends and pilot utilization, route/berth currency with check-ride expiry flags, and a watch-handover log.
How a transit flows through the board
Vessel enters zone
Binnacle scans your coverage bounding box every two minutes via AIS. The inbound vessel appears on the board with MMSI, type, SOG, and position.
ETA calculated
Distance to your boarding point divided by speed over ground, adjusted for the running tide. Updated continuously as the vessel transits.
Pilot boat departure alert
When the vessel's ETA minus your configured pilot-boat transit time hits the threshold, the amber alert fires. The board shows exactly how long you have.
Transit logged digitally
Open a transit from the vessel row. Assign a pilot, record origin/destination and the pilotage fee. Status updates auto-stamp the clock.
Sealed & reported
Completed transits seal into the log with the exchange, ladder check, and any incident. Filter by date, vessel, or pilot — a full audit trail for billing and review.
Free pilot tools
The same engines that run the dispatch board — free, no login, useful on their own.
Pilotage by district
The dispatch challenges of the major US pilotage districts — and how a purpose-built board handles each.
6-month founding partner program
The first five licensed pilots associations to onboard get six months at no cost in exchange for operational feedback and a case study. Your data stays yours — we want to build the dispatch board around how pilots associations actually work.
Full dispatch board access
Area AIS scan, ETA calculator, transit log, and coverage map — everything, for your coverage zone.
Custom zone configuration
We set up your bounding box, boarding point coordinates, and pilot-boat transit time during onboarding.
NAIS endorsement support
If you want to participate in our USCG NAIS access application as a co-applicant, we handle the paperwork.
After the founding period, pricing is a simple flat monthly rate — all features, no per-vessel fees. (Pilots associations coordinate vessels they don't own; vessel-count pricing never made sense here.) Talk to us about pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Apply for the pilot program
Two spots available. We'll follow up within one business day to confirm fit and schedule a walkthrough of your coverage-zone setup.