Plan around the water
Keep local wind and tide information close to the session plan, so decisions start with the conditions that matter.
For Sailing Schools & Clubs
Online Booking & Management Suite
Sailing school management, online course bookings & instructor tools.
Irish Sailing Notes unites everyday sailing school management in one easy platform: public course bookings with Stripe checkout, instructor hours clock-in & payroll, live weather and tide safety checks, fleet allocation, and Irish Sailing syllabus progress tracking.
Built from the water up
Made by an instructor, for instructors
I am James Cassidy, a sailing instructor, and I built Irish Sailing Notes around the practical problems instructors and schools deal with during real sessions. The aim is to make planning, teaching, and keeping useful records a little easier.
Support as you get started
I will offer as much help as I can with setup and questions. This is an instructor-built project rather than a large support team, so response times and the amount of support available may be limited by my other teaching and work commitments.
Keep instructors aligned
Give the team a shared view of availability, boats, weekly plans, resources, and handover notes.
Make progress visible
Record student notes and skills consistently, making it easier to see what each sailor should work on next.
Reduce repeat admin
Put the everyday information in one familiar workspace instead of spreading it across messages, notebooks, and spreadsheets.
All-In-One Platform
Complete Management Tools for Sailing Schools & Instructors
Replace scattered paper sheets, spreadsheets, and messy group chats. Irish Sailing Notes combines daily administration, instructor supervision, on-the-water safety, and coaching progression into one unified, mobile-ready workspace.
⏱️
Instructor Hours & Clock-In Station
Dedicated digital clock-in/out station for instructors on mobile or clubhouse tablet. School admins can review shifts, approve recorded hours, calculate pay rates, and export payroll CSV summaries with a single click.
Explore Hours Station →
Payroll Ready
🎟️
Online Course Booking System
Provide parents and adult sailors with a public, branded booking portal. Real-time course availability, instant card payments through Stripe Connect, automatic student registration, and parent self-service accounts.
View Booking Details →
Stripe Integrated
🌊
Live Marine Weather & Tides
Live forecasts, gust ratings, and local tide heights calibrated to your school's exact launch coordinates. Set Go / No-Go safety thresholds tailored to each course level before leaving the slipway.
Windfinder & Tide Gauges
Safety First
⛵
Fleet & Boat Allocation Planner
Easily allocate dinghies, double-handers, and keelboats based on student weight, pairing balance, and prevailing wind conditions. Track safety boat staffing, fuel levels, and radio call-signs across your fleet.
Boat & RIB Roster
Fleet Ready
📊
Student Progression & Digital Logbooks
Record student competencies and sign-offs directly aligned with Irish Sailing syllabi (Taste of Sailing through Advanced Boat Handling). Maintain continuity between different instructors with handover notes and medical flags.
Irish Sailing Syllabi
Full Continuity
🔄
Checklick Direct Sync
Connect your school's Checklick organisation to search for existing students, link profiles, and synchronize levels without tedious re-typing. Keep your national accreditation records organized in half the time.
Checklick API Sync
No Double Entry
📋
Session Plan Templates & EDICT/DICE
Structured session planners with pre-loaded exercises following the EDICT (Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate, Coach, Test) and DICE frameworks. Includes stormy day theory alternatives so sessions never go to waste.
Pre-loaded Drills
EDICT / DICE
🛡️
Compliance, Safeguarding & Vetting Hub
School admins track instructor Garda vetting clearance, Safeguarding certificates, First Aid credentials, and qualification expiry dates in one centralized compliance dashboard with automated renewal alerts.
Garda Vetting & Expiries
Audit Ready
🔧
Breakages & Repairs Maintenance Log
Instructors immediately log damaged spars, torn sails, rudder pins, or engine glitches right from the slipway. Track repair status from "Reported" to "Ready for Water" to keep equipment safe.
Equipment Status
Maintenance
👨👩👧👦
Parent Portal & Photo Sharing
Secure parent access to view child course progress, daily achievements, instructor remarks, and group session photos. Enhances parent satisfaction and drives repeat course bookings year after year.
GDPR Compliant
Parent Access
🗺️
Interactive Nautical Chart & Course Area Map
Interactive Leaflet coastal chart with draggable markers for coaching zones, mooring fields, commercial shipping channels, and shallow hazards. Ideal for morning instructor briefings and junior safety talks.
Leaflet OpenStreetMap
Visual Safety
📅
Instructor Availability & Roster Dispatch
Manage weekly instructor rosters, track staff availability across high season, and dispatch reminders with integrated WhatsApp group chat links. Ensure your required instructor-to-student ratios are always met.
Roster & Messaging
Team Sync
Online Booking Engine
Take sailing course bookings online with zero hassle.
Every sailing school on Irish Sailing Notes gets a turnkey online course booking system. Parents and sailors can view upcoming dates, choose their Irish Sailing level, check place availability in real time, and pay securely by card.
🌐
Your School Booking Link
Get a dedicated booking page on your own subdomain (e.g. yourschool.irishsailingnotes.app) styled with your club logo and custom colors.
💳
Direct Stripe Payments
Course fees go straight to your school's Stripe merchant account. No middlemen holding your funds, with automatic payout directly to your bank account.
⚡
Instant Roster Sync
Bookings automatically populate your instructor lists, medical notes, emergency contacts, and Checklick candidates, eliminating hours of manual data entry.
🔒
Strict Capacity Control
Set exact course participant limits per session. The booking engine automatically closes sold-out courses to safeguard your instructor-to-student ratios.
👨👩👧
Parent Self-Service
Parents create a verified account to view their active course reservations, download receipts, and track all their children's sailing progress in one place.
🏷️
Low 1.5% Booking Fee
Only a 1.5% platform fee on bookings on top of standard Stripe processing. Dramatically lower than typical 5%–10% event ticketing platforms, keeping almost all revenue in your school's bank account.
Predictable Annual Subscriptions
Transparent Pricing Plans for Sailing Schools
Every plan includes full access to all features. We do not lock tools behind higher tiers—choose purely based on your school's student and instructor capacity caps.
Evaluation
Start Free Trial
Free Trial
€0
forever
Test all platform features with real instructors before committing.
Capacity Caps
Up to 10 students
Up to 2 instructors
All Features Included:
- ✓ Online course bookings + Stripe
- ✓ Hours clock-in & payroll CSV
- ✓ Weather, tides & safety notes
- ✓ Fleet allocation & repairs log
- ✓ Syllabus progress & Checklick
- ✓ Compliance hub & parent portal
Small Clubs
Choose Starter
Starter
€100
/ year
Ideal for smaller seasonal sailing clubs and weekend training programmes.
Capacity Caps
Up to 50 students
Up to 5 instructors
All Features Included:
- ✓ Online course bookings + Stripe
- ✓ Hours clock-in & payroll CSV
- ✓ Weather, tides & safety notes
- ✓ Fleet allocation & repairs log
- ✓ Syllabus progress & Checklick
- ✓ Compliance hub & parent portal
Most Popular
Active Schools
Choose Standard
Standard
€250
/ year
The complete hub for active clubs running busy summer sailing courses.
Capacity Caps
Up to 200 students
Up to 15 instructors
All Features Included:
- ✓ Online course bookings + Stripe
- ✓ Hours clock-in & payroll CSV
- ✓ Weather, tides & safety notes
- ✓ Fleet allocation & repairs log
- ✓ Syllabus progress & Checklick
- ✓ Compliance hub & parent portal
Large Centres
Choose Professional
Professional
€500
/ year
For established commercial water sport centres and major regional yacht clubs.
Capacity Caps
Up to 500 students
Up to 100 instructors
All Features Included:
- ✓ Online course bookings + Stripe
- ✓ Hours clock-in & payroll CSV
- ✓ Weather, tides & safety notes
- ✓ Fleet allocation & repairs log
- ✓ Syllabus progress & Checklick
- ✓ Compliance hub & parent portal
Enterprise
Choose Unlimited
Unlimited
€750
/ year
Maximum capacity for multi-venue academies and high-volume training operations.
Capacity Caps
Unlimited students
Unlimited instructors
All Features Included:
- ✓ Online course bookings + Stripe
- ✓ Hours clock-in & payroll CSV
- ✓ Weather, tides & safety notes
- ✓ Fleet allocation & repairs log
- ✓ Syllabus progress & Checklick
- ✓ Compliance hub & parent portal
💡 Low 1.5% Booking Fee: Unlike ticketing portals taking 5%–10% of every ticket, Irish Sailing Notes charges a low 1.5% fee on course bookings on top of standard Stripe processing, keeping maximum funds with your club.
A practical start
How to go live with your school
Going live happens in two halves: first you send a short request from this site, then the school account is set up for you on the platform side. You never need to touch a database or a settings panel — everything technical is done by James after your request arrives. Here is exactly what happens from the moment you submit the form.
Step 1
Submit a school creation request
Use the school creation request page and fill in your name, email, the school's name, and a short message about how you currently run sessions. If you would like to earn commission by referring other sailors and schools to the platform, tick the affiliate partner option while you are there. The request lands directly with the site admin, along with an email notification so it is seen the same day.
Step 2
Admin review and reply
The request is reviewed, and you get a reply by email — usually with a couple of follow-up questions about your location, which courses you teach, and who your first instructors will be. This is also where we agree the smallest useful starting setup, so nobody is buried in configuration before the first session.
Step 3
Your school account is created
On the platform side, your school record is created with its own identity in the shared workspace, including a latitude and longitude for your home sailing area and a tide station ID so weather and tide checks are correct from day one. You are then registered as the school's admin, which means you can approve instructor applications and manage your own team without needing to come back to us for every change.
Step 4
Sign in and invite your team
Once your account exists, sign in to the instructor workspace and your school will be available in the school selector. Colleagues can sign up themselves and apply to your school, or you can invite them directly — you approve the requests, so you stay in control of who sees your students.
Step 5
Add students, boats, and plans
Import students from Checklick by searching your organisation, or add them manually at the right sailing level. Load your boats, set up weekly plan templates, and save the weather and tide spots your team actually checks before launching. None of this needs to be complete before you start — it grows around your first real sessions.
Step 6
Run one real week, then refine
Use the workspace for one normal week of sessions — weather checks in the morning, attendance and notes on the water, handovers at the end of the day. After that week it is easy to adjust the layout, templates, and responsibilities around what your school actually needs, and to ask for changes to your setup if something is missing.
What you need before starting
- •A school name and the rough location you sail from
- •An email address for the person who will own the account
- •A short note on how you currently run sessions
- •Optionally, a Checklick organisation if you want to import students
Your first week
A simple sailing school setup checklist
You do not need to move everything at once. Start with one real week and build from there.
-
1. Set up the school.
Choose the school owner and invite the instructors who need access. -
2. Add local weather and tides.
Save the spots your team checks before launching. -
3. Import or add students.
Search Checklick, link existing records, or create new students. -
4. Run the first session.
Use the weather, attendance, notes, and planning tools during a normal day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything You Need to Know About School Tools & Pricing
Clear answers on management tools, our online booking engine, pricing plans, and onboarding.
What management tools are included for instructors and school admins?
Irish Sailing Notes includes a complete management suite: an online course booking system, instructor hours clock-in station & payroll export, live Windfinder marine weather and tide height gauges, boat and safety RIB fleet arrangement, student progression logbooks mapped to Irish Sailing syllabi, a gear repairs/breakages log, a compliance & safeguarding hub, interactive nautical charts, and direct Checklick synchronization.
Does Irish Sailing Notes offer an online course booking system?
Yes! Each school gets a dedicated online booking portal where parents and adult sailors can view upcoming course dates, select levels, reserve spots in real time, and pay via Stripe. Confirmed bookings immediately synchronize with your instructor dashboard and student lists.
How do the school pricing plans work?
We offer simple flat-rate annual plans: Free Trial (€0 forever), Starter (€100/yr for up to 50 students, 5 instructors), Standard (€250/yr for up to 200 students, 15 instructors), Professional (€500/yr for up to 500 students, 100 instructors), and Unlimited (€750/yr). We also take a small percentage commission (1.5%) cut from your course bookings if you choose to use our booking system.
How does instructor hours tracking and payroll export work?
Instructors use the dedicated Hours Management station on their smartphones or a clubhouse iPad to clock in and out. Supervisors review shifts, approve hours, apply hourly rates, and generate payroll CSV files for your club treasurer.
Can our school import and sync students with Checklick?
Yes. Instructors can search your Checklick organisation, link existing records to Irish Sailing levels, and keep student qualification progress aligned without re-typing sailor details.
How does Stripe payment processing work for course bookings?
Schools connect their own Stripe account via Stripe Connect. All course registration fees go directly to your school's bank account on your standard payout schedule.
How long does it take to get our school live?
Typically under 24 hours. After you submit the request form, James sets up your school record with your custom location coordinates, tide station ID, and admin account so you can start right away.
Can we try the platform before paying?
Absolutely. Our Free plan lets your team run actual sessions, test weather checks, try student progression tracking, and see how much time it saves before choosing an annual plan.
Ready in 24 Hours
What your instructors and admins get on day one
- ✓ Online course booking portal
- ✓ Instructor hours clock-in station
- ✓ Live Windfinder & tide station
- ✓ Checklick organisation search
- ✓ Student progress & medical alerts
- ✓ Fleet & RIB assignment tools
- ✓ Gear breakages & repair log
- ✓ Safeguarding & vetting tracker
💬 Have questions or custom needs? James Cassidy is an active sailing instructor who built this system to solve real clubhouse headaches. We can discuss your school's exact structure.