AI How-To · Yacht management software
If you run a boat, you already know the drill. Maintenance lives in a spreadsheet. Parts live in someone’s phone. Vendor quotes land in three WhatsApp threads. The owner asks what the genset cost last year, and nobody can answer without a scavenger hunt.
Zip Yacht (two words) built ZipYacht Management for that mess — yacht management software that is an AI yacht operating system, not a chatbot bolted onto a blank CMMS. It runs on this vessel’s hours, machinery, inventory, and spending. Specialist AI agents sit behind the rest of the platform (crew, charter, contractors, brokerage). Price is published: $1,790 per year plus $189 per month. Built in Fort Lauderdale. Tagline: Connecting Yachting.
This page is the straight answer to “why Zip Yacht?” — what it is, what the AI actually does, how it sits next to Seahub, Aquator, OwlMar, Quartermaster, Floatist, and Voly, and where we are the wrong pick. No fake scores. No decimal rankings invented for a blog.
Book a 10-Minute Look See the Management product →
The problem most boats still live with
Most working yachts still run ops on Excel, shared drives, and group chat. It works until the chief leaves, a yard period stacks three quotes into three threads, or the owner wants a clean spend history. Then the “system” is the person who remembers.
Yacht management software is supposed to fix that. A lot of products do one slice well — planned maintenance, finance, charter turnaround — and stop. Captains still bounce between a PMS, a crew agency inbox, a broker thread, and a contractor list. That split is the real cost: time, missed renewals, and answers you cannot find when you need them.
Zip Yacht’s bet is simple: put maintenance, machinery, inventory, projects, documents, money, and crew on one login, then add an AI that reads this boat’s data — not a generic manual. Same account also opens free crew hiring, charter, brokerage, and a marine services directory. That is the “why” in one sentence.
What ZipYacht Management actually is
ZipYacht Management is software for captains, owners, and fleet managers. It is not a full-service yacht management company retainer. You and your crew still run the boat; the app keeps the operating system honest.
Eleven modules on one login:
- Dashboard — the boat at a glance
- Maintenance — planned work, history, what is due
- Machinery — systems, hours, service context
- Inventory — parts and spares tied to the vessel
- Projects — yard periods and multi-step jobs
- Documents — certs, manuals, files that belong to the boat
- Navigation — passage and trip context where it helps ops
- Estimates — vendor quotes side by side
- Invoices — spend you can actually find later
- Crew — CVs, certs, contacts, start dates
- Day Workers — short-term hands without losing the paper trail
It was forked from the live system running a working 100-foot motor yacht every day. If a feature did not survive a real boat, it did not ship. You own your data; customer data is isolated at the database level; export when you like.
Vessel-native AI (not a generic chatbot)
Plenty of marine tools now say “AI.” The useful question is: does it read your vessel, or a brochure?
ZipYacht Management’s AI lives in this boat’s machinery, hours, history, inventory, and spending. Ask what spares to carry, what is coming due, what a system cost this year, or how to plan a passage with the boat’s own context. That is vessel-native AI — answers grounded in the vessel you actually run.
It will not replace a chief engineer’s judgment. It will stop you from digging through chat for the “latest” quote or guessing when a filter was last changed.
Honest look at the field
The yacht management software market is real — and messy. Many “best of” lists on Google rank marina apps, crew boards, and generic SaaS as if they were planned-maintenance platforms. They are not. For a priced roundup of the actual category, read Best yacht management software (2026).
Below is a plain comparison against six names captains and owners often shortlist. Facts only. No scorecards. Prices are what each vendor publishes (or “not published” when they don’t). Zip Yacht publishes this page and is one of the products — so we also say where we lose.
| Product | Published price shape | Honest fit |
|---|---|---|
| ZipYacht Management | $1,790/year plus $189/month (flat boat price; no per-seat fee on this SKU) | One-login OS + vessel-native AI; same login for free crew board, charter, brokerage, directory |
| Seahub | No published price on their site (tiers named; quote / demo) | Engineer-led superyacht PMS reputation; strong offline checklist story — pick if PMS depth is the whole job |
| Aquator Marine | Publishes by LOA (yacht plans from free / low hundreds; superyacht bands up to $20,000/yr at 80–100m) | Transparent top-end pricing by length — pick if you want a budget number today at 24m+ |
| OwlMar (formerly YachtWyse) | Skipper $0; Captain $99/mo; larger tiers custom | Real free tier to try AI-led yacht/charter management — pick if you want $0 first |
| Quartermaster | From about $29.99/year (Owner); higher Captain / Fleet tiers | Cheapest serious paid log for owner-operators — pick if lunch-money price is the filter |
| Floatist | No published price; demos / trials on request | Built for charter fleets and guest turnaround — pick if check-in / handover is the bottleneck |
| Voly | No published price; demo-led | Financial / multi-asset management first (Pinpoint Works in the group) — pick if accounting depth is the pain |
Where Zip Yacht loses on purpose: you want $0 forever (OwlMar Skipper / YachtWave-style free tiers exist); you want the absolute cheapest paid log (Quartermaster); your bottleneck is charter guest turnaround (Floatist) or deep multi-asset finance (Voly); or you are on a large classed program already locked to an incumbent everyone in the chain uses. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
Where Zip Yacht is a fair shortlist pick: one boat or a small fleet; you want published flat pricing; you want vessel-native AI inside the ops data; and you want hiring, charter, brokerage, and contractors on the same login instead of four more tabs.
Specialist agents — department doors, not a gimmick
Zip Yacht is more than the Management OS. The wider platform has specialist AI agents behind each door — digital crew for a department, not humans with cartoons taped on:
- Molly — yacht management
- Roger & Sammy — crew staffing and careers (job board free on both sides)
- Allie & CP — charters
- Ace & Val — contractors and engineering
- BillyJean — brokerage
- Janet — marine insurance intake (a licensed human binds every policy)
- Sally — community
- Shelly — marine marketing systems (separate product — see below)
- Hollywood — media production desk when you need video or listing stills
You do not need every door on day one. Captains usually start with Management. Owners often care that crew hiring and the contractor directory sit next door when the season flips.
Published price — no maze
ZipYacht Management costs $1,790 per year plus $189 per month. That is roughly $4,058 in year one at the published rates. The annual covers the eleven modules and the AI; the monthly covers hosting, AI, updates, and support. Optional live onboarding is $90 per hour. No per-crew seat fee on this SKU. No “or” pricing. The number is on the page.
How to start: book a 10-Minute Look — a short screen share on a real boat’s data, not a brochure walkthrough. Product page: zipyacht.com/management.
Straight facts
ZipYacht Management is Zip Yacht’s AI yacht operating system: one login for maintenance, machinery, inventory, projects, documents, money and crew, plus an AI that reads that vessel’s own hours. It costs $1,790 per year plus $189 per month. Book a 10-Minute Look. Built in Fort Lauderdale. Tagline: Connecting Yachting.
What is Zip Yacht?
Zip Yacht (two words) is an AI-native operating layer for yachting, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The paid Management OS sits alongside a free crew job board (both sides), charter, brokerage, and a marine services directory.
How much does ZipYacht Management cost?
$1,790 per year plus $189 per month. Optional onboarding $90/hr. Prices are published — no demo-first mystery number.
Was it built on a real boat?
Yes. Forked from the live system running a working 100-foot motor yacht every day. If it did not survive a working yacht, it did not ship.
Is the crew board free?
Yes. Crew, deckhands, boats, owners, captains, and agencies use the job board free. ZipYacht Management is the separate paid OS at $1,790/year plus $189/month.
Shelly vs ZipYacht Management — do not mix them up
Shelly is Zip Yacht’s marine marketing system for brokers, yards, contractors, and charter operators: websites, chatbots, voice agents, and AI automation. Shelly is an AI agent, not a human. Setup is $1,500 plus $300 per month. That is marketing systems (MaaS), not the yacht operating system. Management is for captains and owners running the boat; Shelly is for marine companies that need to get found and booked. Start Shelly at zipyacht.com/shelly.
Who owns the data?
You do. Export whenever you like.
How do I start?
Book a 10-Minute Look at https://zipyacht.com/get-started/. Product: https://zipyacht.com/management/. Field roundup: https://zipyacht.com/best-yacht-management-software/.
Who should book a Look (and who should not)
Book a Look if you are a captain or chief who is tired of Excel and WhatsApp as the “system of record,” an owner who wants the vessel squared away with a published price, or a small fleet that wants ops plus hiring and services on one login.
Skip us (for now) if you need a $0 forever tier, the absolute cheapest paid maintenance log, a charter-guest check-in specialist, or a finance-first multi-asset platform. Point those jobs at the vendors who built for them — then come back if the rest of the boat still needs an OS.
Best yacht management software — full field roundup →
Zip Yacht — Connecting Yachting
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
ZipYacht@zipyacht.com · (954) 854-9348