Start free

Fishing charters and guides

Six passengers, one booking, everybody signed before you leave the dock.

The booking is one name and a card. Six people show up at five in the morning, two of them are somebody's teenagers, and the mate is holding a clipboard on a wet dock in the dark while the tide does what the tide does.

Where it goes wrong

Not a feature list. These are the three moments this exists for.

One booking, six people you have never met

The reservation carries one name and one phone number. Five other people are coming, you will not know who they are until they are standing on the dock, and every one of them has to sign before the boat moves.

The teenager whose mother is asleep at the hotel

A minor needs a guardian, the guardian booked the trip and is not on it, and finding that out at five in the morning with the engines running is the worst possible moment to discover it.

Paper that has been on a boat

Salt, spray, a cooler lid and a summer in a console locker. If something happens in August and somebody asks for the release in February, you need it to exist and to be readable, and paper that has been on a boat is neither.

What happens instead

1

Text every angler when the booking is made

The person who booked adds the rest of the party; each of them gets their own link on their own phone. Most sign the night before, in the hotel, which is the only time they are sitting still.

2

The guardian signs from wherever they are

A minor on the trip sends the consent to a parent, who signs at the hotel or from home. It is a separate document with a separate signer, not a line on somebody else's form.

3

The captain sees the count before the lines come off

Six of six, or five of six and the name of the one who is missing, on a phone at the dock. A QR code on the transom handles the walk-up who was added to the trip an hour ago.

Two documents, in your account the moment you name your trade

Setup asks what you do. Answer "fishing charters and guides" and these are waiting as drafts, in your words, with the blanks marked and the points a lawyer settles flagged for one. Edit them, or paste what you already use.

waiver

Charter Passenger Waiver and Release

A starter, not legal advice: the wording is yours to change and your attorney's to check. A note left in the text holds the document at send until somebody has.

consent

Guardian Consent for a Minor Passenger

A starter, not legal advice: the wording is yours to change and your attorney's to check. A note left in the text holds the document at send until somebody has.

Start free Or have one drafted for you

Documents this trade sends

Written from the document's side rather than the trade's, for when you know the form you are short of.

Group and participant waivers

group waiver · party waiver · participant list · roster waiver

Parental and guardian consent

guardian consent · minor waiver · permission slip · parental permission form

Signing by text message

text to sign · SMS signature link · text message waiver · mobile signing link

We do not check anybody's fishing licence

The passenger acknowledges that holding the right licence, stamp or permit is theirs, and that acknowledgment is signed and recorded. Whether they actually hold one is between them and the warden. If a state requires the captain to inspect something, this records that you asked; it does not do the inspecting.

Who this is for

If you are on this list, the words above are your words.

Offshore and nearshore charter boats

Inshore and flats guides

Six-pack and head boats

Freshwater and lake guides

Fly fishing guides and outfitters

Bass and walleye tournament guides

Kayak and wade fishing guides

Spearfishing and dive charters

Questions

Is a signature on a phone good enough for a passenger release?

An electronic signature is a signature under the E-SIGN Act and under UETA in the states that have adopted it, and what makes one hold is the evidence behind it: what the person was shown, when, from where, and that they meant to sign. Every signature here carries that. A charter release also sits on top of maritime law, which limits what a passenger release can do in ways that are nothing to do with how it was signed — that part is a question for an attorney who practises admiralty law, and the starter document says so.

Can the person who booked sign for everybody?

No, and you would not want them to. Each adult signs for themselves and a guardian signs for each minor, because a release signed by somebody else is the first thing an insurer looks at and the first thing it throws out.

What happens when the trip is cancelled for weather?

Nothing. The signatures stay on the record and the trip is rebooked. If the party changes, the new people sign and the old ones do not need to sign again unless you want a fresh date on the document.

Does this work with no signal at the dock?

Signing needs a connection, which is why the link goes out when the booking is made rather than at the dock. For the walk-up with one bar, the QR and the signing page are small and plain on purpose.

A hand holding a phone showing a document and a signature, outside a timber lakeside cabin, with two guests walking to the door with luggage.

Ready when the next guest is.

Free for the first 25 agreements a month. No card to start.