Everyone decides for themselves
Each paddler enters their own weight. Whether the coach may see it is a separate consent – and it is set to no by default.
In development – be part of it from the start
No more line-ups on paper.
Plan training, collect responses, seat the boat evenly – no group chat, no scraps of paper. I am building this app for my own dragon boat team and opening it up to others.
You know how it goes
Sooner or later, every team ends up here:
The session is announced in the group chat
Somewhere between photos from the last regatta and the question of who has the key. Miss a day of scrolling and you miss the session.
So who is actually coming?
Yes as a thumbs-up, no as a voice message – and then seventeen or nine people turn up at the dock.
The line-up happens at the dock
On a scrap of paper, from memory, under time pressure. Whether the boat sits evenly left to right, you find out in the first few metres.
The subject nobody on the team likes talking about
Anyone who has ever asked a team for their weight knows the silence that follows. A dragon boat is balanced by weight, so an app that works out the line-up needs numbers nobody particularly wants to show around. That is where every spreadsheet solution falls apart – and the part I thought about longest.
The maths happens on the server
Balance is calculated where the numbers live. The app on the phone receives the result – totals and differences – never individual weights. Not even for the coach.
Stored apart
Weights are not kept next to names but in a separate table with its own access rules. No consent, no data – not even by a detour.
Servers in the EU
Data is held by a European provider in an EU data centre. No tracking on this page, no ad networks, no external fonts.
What the app does today
Not planned, but built and tested. This already exists:
Training sessions, including recurring ones
A single session or a weekly series up to a chosen end date. Changes and cancellations apply either to one session or to every following one.
Responses at a glance
Everyone answers for themselves, coaches see the whole squad and can respond on behalf of guests. Before the session you know who is coming.
Line-ups with weight balance
The app works out the seating – left against right, bow against stern. Three options to choose from, seats can be pinned in advance, and you can see immediately where the boat is leaning.
Races and events
Separate responses per race, line-ups drawn only from the paddlers who actually said yes. For mixed races the app checks the crew composition rule for you.
Announcements and reminders
Anything important reaches the crew as a push notification, and the app reminds everyone about training the day before.
Several teams, properly separated
Teams cannot see each other. That is not a setting somebody can forget to tick – it is enforced in the database.
Honestly, here is where things stand
The app is built and tested, but it is not yet running in everyday use for any team but mine – so far, I am the only one using it. So I am not promising you anything finished. I am showing you what I am building, and bringing you along.
I paddle myself. Every feature in this app exists because it was missing on some Tuesday evening at the dock – and since every other team has the same problem, nobody should have to solve it twice.
A one-person project, built alongside a day job. In exchange: no investors, no advertising, and no interest in your data.
Why it is worth joining now
Join early and you get more than a message – you get a say:
The first teams get first access
Working on this alongside a day job, I cannot support twenty teams at once. Sign up now and you are at the front of the queue when I open up.
You help decide what gets built next
There is no queue yet and no fixed roadmap. Whatever you write in the request field goes straight onto my list.
Free – and with fair warning
The app is free for teams, kept running by voluntary donations. If that ever changes to a small fee, you will hear about it in advance, not find out through an invoice.
You do not need to change anything
One team is enough to try it out, nobody else will notice. And you do not need a club: company teams, fun teams and groups of friends are just as welcome.
If I stop, you are not stuck
If I ever discontinue the project, I will say so in good time and you will get your data out in a readable format.
You risk nothing
One email address, nothing more. No account, no installation, no decision you need to justify to the team.
Be there from the start
Two things help me most right now: knowing who wants to be part of this – and hearing what your team is missing.
Should I let you know when it starts?
You just sent a request – you probably want to know what becomes of it too.
Just one email. No newsletter. No sharing.