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Make a boat's safety plan.

Mark where the gear is, draw the way out, and print the sheet for the bulkhead.

How to · 5 November 2026

Plenty of captains keep a laminated sheet on a bulkhead showing where the extinguishers, shutoffs and ways out are. YachtGrade lets you build that sheet from the boat's own deck drawing, keep it with the boat's record, and print it fresh whenever something moves. The safety plan page shows what it is for. This is how to make one.

Find it

Open the boat and tap Safety plan in the row of tiles under its name. It is also in the Menu, under Records. A boat with no plan says "No plan yet".

Add the deck drawing

The plan is drawn on top of a picture of the boat's layout. Use a general arrangement drawing, a deck plan from the boat's manual, or a photograph of one. It has to be an image file, either PNG, JPEG or WebP.

In the Boat layout card, type the deck's name in the box. The first one is filled in as "Main deck". Use names people will recognize aboard, like lower deck or flybridge.
Tap Choose a drawing and pick the image from your phone, a file, or the camera.
Wait while it reads, uploads and saves. The drawing appears with the plan.

The drawing is also filed in the boat's paperwork, named for the deck. A boat with more than one deck gets one drawing per deck. Add the next with the Another deck card, and the decks show as tabs across the top.

Mark where things are

Below the drawing, under Put something on the drawing, is a palette of symbols, grouped into four sets.

Firefighting: extinguishers, fire ports, fire blankets, suppression bottles and fire alarms.
Escape and evacuation: escape hatches, lifejackets, life rings, liferafts, EPIRBs, flares, muster stations, ladders and first aid kits.
Shutoffs and isolators: fuel and gas shutoffs, battery isolators, shore power inlets, seacocks and bilge pumps.
Other equipment: VHF radio, torch, and Something else for anything not listed.

Tap a symbol, such as Fire extinguisher. The screen says "Tap the drawing where the fire extinguisher is."
Tap the spot on the drawing. It is placed and saved.
Tap again to place another of the same kind. It stays ready until you tap Stop placing, so six extinguishers is one pick and six taps.
To move a marker, drag it. To label it, tap it and type where it is exactly, for example "Under the helm seat, 2.5kg dry powder". To remove it, tap the cross beside the label, then tap again to confirm.

There is no save button. Each marker is saved the moment you place it, because you are doing this standing next to the extinguisher, and a dropped signal should not cost you the work. Shape carries the meaning: fire gear is a circle, escape gear a square and shutoffs a diamond, so the sheet still reads in black and white.

Draw the way out

Tap Draw an escape route.
Tap where the route starts, then tap each turn along the way. The screen counts the points.
Tap Save this route. If you tapped a wrong point, tap Undo the last point. Cancel drops it.
Under Escape routes, give the route a name like "Out through the cockpit door". Names print under the drawing, in order.

You can draw more than one route on a deck. To rename a deck, tap its name above the drawing. The cross at the foot of the deck's card removes the deck and everything marked on it, after a second tap to confirm. The layout drawing stays in the boat's paperwork.

Print it to keep aboard

At the top of the Safety plan screen, tap Print the sheet.
Look it over, then tap Print. Use your phone's print or save as PDF options, or print from a computer.

Each deck prints on its own page. The deck name is large at the top, with the boat's name and make and model. Your company's name and phone number are on it, not YachtGrade's. Under the drawing is a key that lists only the symbols used on that page, then the names of any escape routes. The foot of the sheet is dated: "Printed" and the date, and "Replace this sheet whenever equipment moves."

The sheet shows where things are. It does not tell anyone what to do in an emergency. That is for your own procedures and the people aboard.

Keep it current

A safety plan goes out of date the day an extinguisher moves. When something moves, open the plan, drag the marker, and print a new sheet. The date at the foot tells anyone looking at the old one how old it is. The plan shows where gear is. Whether it is in date, serviced or expired is for the checklist and the boat's renewals. See how checklists are built and the maintenance log.

Common questions

How do I make a fire and safety plan for a boat?
Open the boat, tap Safety plan, upload an image of its deck layout, mark the extinguishers, shutoffs and other gear by tapping the drawing, draw an escape route, and tap Print the sheet.

What kind of drawing can I use?
A general arrangement drawing, a deck plan from the manual, or a photo of either, as a PNG, JPEG or WebP image. A PDF cannot be uploaded here, so take a screenshot or a photo of it first.

Can I add more than one deck?
Yes. Add each deck with its own drawing. They show as tabs, and each prints on its own page.

Who can edit the plan?
Anyone on your team except viewers. Viewers can read the plan but cannot change it.

Does the sheet tell the crew what to do in a fire?
No. It shows where the gear and exits are, with the date it was printed. It carries no procedure or advice.

More how-to guides

YachtGrade was designed by a USCG 100-ton captain who spent five years managing, detailing, running and selling boats in South Florida, after four years building IT systems for businesses. Who built it →

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