Rowing club management · Aotearoa New Zealand
One system for the whole club, from the boat bay out.
Crew Wise brings boats, crews, bookings, training, messaging and club records together in one place — built for the way rowing clubs actually work, and steady at the size of the largest of them.
Works today in any browser on a Mac, PC, Chromebook, Android phone or tablet, iPhone or iPad — and installs to the home screen like an app. The Crew Wise app for iPhone and iPad is in TestFlight testing, with the App Store release next.
The problem
Spreadsheets, paper sign-out sheets, five group chats.
Most clubs run on a stack of things that were never meant to work together: a fleet list in a spreadsheet, a clipboard by the door, bookings in someone’s inbox, RSVPs in a chat thread, damage reported by word of mouth, and a logbook that is only as good as the last person to remember it.
It holds together until the club grows. Then nobody knows which boat is on the water, a crew turns up to find their quad already gone, a cracked rib gets rowed for another week, and the committee cannot answer a simple question about usage without an evening of typing.
“Who has the four?”
A paper sheet only helps the person standing next to it.
“Did anyone tell the boatman?”
Damage reported in a chat is damage nobody has recorded.
“Are they back yet?”
Nobody ashore knows who went out, or when they were due.
“How many kilometres last season?”
The answer exists — spread across six places.
The solution
One practical system, from the shed door to the committee table.
Every part of the club’s day feeds the same records. Sign a boat out and the fleet updates on every device, the outing writes itself into the logbook, and the weather at launch is kept with it. Report damage and it becomes a maintenance job. Reply to a session and the coach sees the numbers before the alarm goes off.
Built to stay simple at size
Search and filters everywhere, roles that decide who sees what, squads and grades to keep large clubs organised, and bulk import so a fleet of eighty boats and three hundred members arrives in one paste.
Safety is the floor, not an upgrade
Sign-out and return, damage reporting, live fleet status, the automatic logbook, the rowing-status light and under-18 messaging protection work on every plan — and keep working even if a subscription lapses.
Made for New Zealand water
Every New Zealand club is in the list at sign-up. Wind, gusts and temperature are read for the shed’s own coordinates, and tidal clubs get high and low water from their nearest LINZ station.
Product tour
Five areas. That’s the whole app.
Five tabs along the bottom on a phone; a bar across the top on an iPad, laptop or shed screen. Nobody needs training to find anything.
Home
Conditions and the rowing-status light, boats free, crews out, your next activity with RSVP, and the button that takes a boat out.
Fleet
Every boat with its status, what it suits, open faults, bookings, rigging and its whole history.
Messages
Club Chat, Coaches, Admins, a men’s and a women’s chat per grade, squads, group chats and private messages.
Club
Schedule, bookings, logbook, monthly goals, club boards, Who’s Out Right Now, Club Rules, Key Contacts and equipment.
More
Your profile and stats, your clubs, your view, the Shedboard — and the Admin area if you run the club.
See how it works
A morning at the club, screen by screen.
Step through the five screens a crew actually touches. This is a walkthrough of the real wording, built into this page — for the live app with sample data, take the three-minute guided tour.
Step 1 of 5 · Home
Everything the shed needs before 6am
Live wind, gusts and temperature at your water, scored against the limits your club set — Good to row, Row with caution or Not suitable — plus tides for tidal clubs, how many boats are free, your next activity and one big button.
Step 2 of 5 · Take a boat out
The right boats first, not all of them
Crew Wise knows the rower’s weight, grade and side, and the weight range and grade each boat is rigged for. Fits you lists what suits them right now; anything else is listed underneath with the one reason it doesn’t.
Step 3 of 5 · Crew
Named seats, Stroke to Bow
One box per seat in real rowing order, coxswains offered first on a coxed boat, the squad’s coach filled in, and an expected duration that due back and overdue are measured against. Weather and tide are recorded for you.
Step 4 of 5 · Return
One honest question
Good, Needs some attention or Out of order. Damage becomes a maintenance job with the boat’s history attached, and an out-of-order boat leaves the available list on every device until an administrator marks the repair done.
Step 5 of 5 · Who’s Out Right Now
The whole club can see the water
Every crew that’s out, who is in the boat, when they’re due and who is late — on the shed screen, the coach’s phone and the committee’s laptop at once. The outing has already written itself into the club logbook.
Walkthrough only — no data leaves this page. Try the interactive demo to use the app itself on sample data from a made-up club, with no account.
For everyone at the club
Whatever your part in the club, it starts on your own screen.
One subscription covers the whole club, and each person sees the club through the part they play in it.
Rowers and coxswains
- Boats that fit your weight, grade and side — first
- Sign out and return in a few taps, damage included
- Book a boat ahead so 6am is settled the night before
- RSVP Going / Maybe / Can’t make it in one tap
- Your own kilometres, hours, favourite boat and longest row
- StrokeCoach on the phone: split, rate, distance and route
Coaches
- Who is out, in which boat, with whom, and when they are due
- Attendance for a session before you leave the house — and a nudge for the ones who haven’t replied
- Crews and seats recorded properly, every outing
- Grade and squad chats, plus the Coaches channel
- The logbook, filtered and exported as CSV
Club administrators
- Fleet manager: grades, weight ranges, private boats, photos
- Members and roles, squad requests, reported messages
- Maintenance queue — every open fault in one list
- Club settings: join code, safety thresholds, tide station, who may book
- Bulk import from a spreadsheet; full club backup out again
Parents and guardians
- A free account of their own, linked to their rower
- The calendar, the RSVPs and what their rower is invited to
- Copied into any private message between their young rower and an adult
- Club Rules written for parents, and Key Contacts to ring
- Never able to take a boat off the rack — that stays with rowers and coaches
Volunteers — boatman, safety officer, committee
- Damage arrives as a job, not a rumour, with the boat’s history attached
- An email the moment a boat is marked out of order
- The Shedboard: a shared iPad or Mac in the boat bay for sign-outs
- Club records for the AGM, insurance and funding applications
- Rules, Key Contacts and the schedule kept in one place
Everyone, safely
- Club Chat, Coaches, Admins and a chat for each grade
- Group chats anyone can start for a crew or a trailer run
- Messages never leave your club
- Under-18 protection: an adult and a young member are never alone in a conversation
- Report a message to your administrators, or block someone, from the thread
Why Crew Wise?
Rowing-specific, end to end.
Clubs usually choose between a general club or team app that knows nothing about boats, and a rowing tool that does one job well and leaves the rest to you. Crew Wise is the rowing workflow itself — the shed, the fleet, the crews and the club records in one system. The comparison below is about categories of software, not about any particular product.
| What a rowing club needs | Crew Wise | A generic club or team app | Separate rowing tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crews and seatsStroke to Bow by name, with the coxswain | ✓Every seat recorded at sign-out and kept with the outing | —Squad and attendance lists, not seats in a boat | ✓Often, in the tool that does crew selection |
| Boat weight ranges and gradesThe right shell for the rower | ✓Fits you: grade, side and a 5 kg tolerance on the boat’s range | —A boat is just an item on a list | —Usually athlete data, not what each hull is rigged for |
| Sign-out and returnWith damage going straight to maintenance | ✓Three conditions on return; out of order removes the boat everywhere and emails the club | —Room and gear bookings, no on-water status | ✓Where a sign-out tool is in use — often separate from the fleet record |
| AttendanceWho replied, who turned up, who hasn’t answered | ✓RSVP Going / Maybe / Can’t make it, Who’s in tabs, and a reminder to the ones not seen | ✓Usually strong here — this is what they are built for | —Training data rather than club attendance |
| Safety-aware communicationYoung rowers protected by design | ✓An adult and an under-18 are never alone: the linked guardian is in the conversation | —Varies widely; often ordinary one-to-one messaging | —Rarely a messaging tool at all |
| A screen for the shedShared device anyone can use | ✓Shedboard: sign-outs and returns only, admin behind a PIN | —Personal accounts on personal phones | —Some sign-out kiosks; not the club’s other records |
| Logbook and club recordsWhat the committee is asked for | ✓Every outing, damage and repair — searchable, filterable, CSV export, full backup | —Membership and payments, not on-water records | —Per-athlete history rather than the club’s own logbook |
| Conditions before launchNZ weather and tide with a status light | ✓Wind, gusts and temperature at the shed against your club’s own thresholds; LINZ tides for tidal clubs | —Not part of the picture | —A separate weather app and a separate tide table |
| Maintenance reportingFrom the person who found it to the person who fixes it | ✓Reported at return, queued for admins, cleared with one tap, kept on the boat’s history | —An issue form at best | —Rarely covered |
Honest limits. Crew Wise does not do membership subscriptions, invoicing to members, or erg-test databases. It manages the club’s boats, people, sessions, messages and records. If your club needs accounting, keep the accounting package you have.
Plans
One subscription per club. Everyone included.
Three plans, priced per club in NZD — never per member. A 30-day free trial with no card, and the safety routine on every tier for good.
Starter
A small club, running safely from day one
$19/month
After a 30-day free trial
- Sign-out, return and damage reporting
- Live fleet status and the logbook
- Boat bookings with the crew on them
- Club Chat, activities and RSVPs
12 boats · 90-day logbook · unlimited members
Club
A club with a full fleet and a training week
$39/month
No annual commitment
- Everything in Starter
- Unlimited boats and the whole logbook
- A Shedboard device, QR sign-out, StrokeCoach
- Squads, repeating training weeks, attendance register
Unlimited boats · full history · 1 Shedboard device
Championship
A squad programme chasing a season
$600/year
Billed monthly in advance ($50/month)
- Everything in Club
- The Crew Wise assistant
- Squads that fill themselves, squad channels
- Attendance analytics and a second Shedboard
Unlimited boats · full history · 2 Shedboard devices
Compare the plans side by sideStart your clubRequest more information
Most club software charges by how many members you have. Crew Wise does not — a club of forty and a club of four hundred pay the same, and the safety routine is never part of a plan.
Our team
Built by people who know the boat bay and the committee room.
Crew Wise is built by a three-person team with practical experience in rowing, club management and technology.
Ashton brings a background in rowing, hands-on work within the sport, and experience across business and other fields. He understands the day-to-day realities facing rowers and clubs.
Jess brings extensive experience managing Hawke’s Bay Rowing Club. As both a club manager and Ashton’s mother, she brings a grounded understanding of how clubs operate, the challenges volunteers face, and what families need from a club platform.
Mathew is an IT specialist whose technical expertise, support and guidance have helped shape Crew Wise into a reliable, practical solution for rowing clubs.
Talk to us about your club
Tell us your fleet size, your membership and how you run the shed today, and we’ll show you exactly how Crew Wise would fit.
Enquiries
Email info@hawkesbayrowing.co.nz — questions about the platform, pricing, or moving a club across from spreadsheets.
Already using Crew Wise?
The Help Centre answers the everyday questions, the guide covers every screen, and getting support tells you how to reach a person.
Want a look first?
Take the three-minute guided tour of the live app on sample data — no account, nothing to install — or open Crew Wise in your browser.