Rainbow’s End Watch Bill

Two in the morning, mid-race. The helm is due off at 02:00, and the next lookout is asleep, because nobody told them it was their turn. Rainbow's End Watch Bill plans the crew's watches, tells the person on deck who to wake and when, and records each handover. The plan reaches every crew phone as a code on the skipper's screen, so nothing needs a signal at sea. WHY IT'S DIFFERENT — Each person aboard carries their own watches, with an alarm before each one, on the free Watch Bill Crew app. They scan the plan from your screen, and their phone shows a code you scan back. That is how you know whose phone has the latest version and whose does not. The app keeps a phone that scanned it apart from a person you briefed face to face, and tells you to wake the second by hand. We built it aboard our ketch Rainbow, for overnight races and offshore passages. THE ROTATION — The rolling watch with a 2-hour stagger: two on deck at all times; every two hours the helm goes below, the lookout moves to the helm, and the next person comes on as lookout. Or fixed teams in fours or threes, the Swedish 6-6-4-4-4, 4-4-4-3-3-3-3, or night watches only, each with an optional dog watch. The ⓘ lays every system side by side with the hours each would give your crew. THE CHECKER — It warns of an empty post, one person on two posts, someone on the helm not marked as a helm, time off watch shorter than your least, a swap without a reason, and no one trained for the radio on deck. It never calls a plan safe: "No problems found. The skipper decides." THE WATCH BILL — Helm, Lookout and Off watch for every watch of the voyage, the current watch shaded. Swap a watch, with a reason. Print it for the chart table, with each person's hours on deck, what each is trained for, and the wake-up procedure. THE NAV STATION — Leave the Now tab open on an iPad at the chart table, or on your phone. It keeps the screen awake, shows who is on deck and the time to the next change, and twenty minutes before the change, who to wake. On an iPad in landscape it uses both halves of the screen. THE HANDOVER — Recorded at the nav station: position, course and speed, the next mark or waypoint, traffic, wind and sea, sails, the boat, and the standing orders. Each part starts with what was said last time, marked No change. The person coming on acknowledges each critical item before taking the watch. ALARMS — On iOS 26, a wake call is a full-screen alarm that rings with the phone on Silent, once you allow alarms. On earlier iOS it comes as a notification, which Silent and Focus can hide, and the app says so. The person on watch is reminded to wake the next, and to get the handover ready. WHEN PLANS CHANGE — Start the watches when all hands ends. Stop them for a night at anchor and restart them in the morning, where the rotation left off. Each change is a new version with its own code, and the watches already stood stay as they were. SHIP'S TIME — Every watch is fixed to an exact moment in the ship's time you choose, and daylight saving is followed. A phone's own time zone never moves a watch. The printed bill shows ship's time and UTC. A sample overnight race with four crew opens with its watches under way. On iPhone and iPad. Works offline. No account, no server of ours, nothing tracked. Plans pass from screen to screen as a code; nothing is sent anywhere. WHAT IT WON'T DO • Navigate, avoid collisions, steer or call for help. • Promise anyone wakes. Alarms can be silenced, and phones go flat. • Reach a phone that has not scanned a changed plan. It follows the old one until it does, and the app tells you whose. • Send the plan by radio or the internet. Everyone scans the code in person. Watch Bill is an aid to running the watch, not a substitute for the skipper's judgment. The spoken wake-up and the printed watch bill are the backup, always. May you find a rainbow's end and treasure found wherever you sail or set your anchor. Apps for sailors, by sailors.