Legal

Privacy policy.

What we collect, why we collect it, which companies help us run YachtGrade, and what you can ask us to do with your information.

Last updated 21 September 2026

This policy explains what information YachtGrade™ collects, what we do with it and what choices you have. "We" means FC Works LLC, the company that makes YachtGrade. It covers our website, yachtgrade.com, and the YachtGrade app at app.yachtgrade.com, including the report links, QR code guides and calendar feeds the app produces.

Two groups of people are involved. Our customers are the businesses that use YachtGrade and the people who work for them. The people our customers keep records about, such as boat owners and captains, are the second group. Their details are added by the business that looks after their boat, and that business decides what is recorded and why. We store and process it for that business.

What we collect

When you sign up and use the app

  • Your name, email address, phone number and role.
  • Your company's name, contact details, address and logo, and the report wording you set.
  • The email addresses of people you invite.

What your business adds about boats and clients

  • Boats: name, make, model, year, hull identification number, registration, berth address and slip, and equipment with serial numbers and hours.
  • Checks, answers, notes, scores, schedules, maintenance records and documents such as manuals and service invoices.
  • Contact details for owners, captains and others connected to a boat: name, email, phone, how they relate to the boat and any notes, and whether they have agreed to receive text messages.
  • Reviews that clients send through a review link: their name, role, rating and words.

Photographs

Photographs are stored privately and opened only through links that expire. Before a photograph is uploaded, the app redraws it, which removes the information cameras embed in the file, including GPS location. We record the time the photograph was taken, as reported by the device, and the time it was uploaded. The app can print the date and time on the image, and usually keeps a copy without that stamp as well.

Payments

Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store card numbers. We keep only the references Stripe gives us and the status of your subscription.

Cookies and your device

The app uses only the cookies it needs to keep you signed in. It has no advertising or analytics trackers. To work without a signal, the app keeps photographs and answers on your phone until they upload. A QR code guide can remember ticked items in your browser for six hours; that never reaches us.

Our website does not use analytics or advertising cookies. It loads its fonts from Google Fonts, so Google receives your IP address and browser details when a page loads, and our hosting and security providers may set cookies needed to protect the site.

Like any online service, our hosting providers may record technical information such as IP addresses and browser types in their server logs.

How we use it

  • To run YachtGrade for you: checklists, photographs, scores, reports, PDFs, schedules, QR code guides and the reminders you set up.
  • To send the emails and text messages your business turns on. Text messages go only to people marked as having agreed to receive them.
  • To bill you, give support, keep the service secure and meet legal obligations.
  • To email account holders about the service and changes to it.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.

Reading documents with AI

When you upload an owner's manual or a service record and ask the app to read it, the relevant pages or file, with the boat's make, model and equipment list, are sent to Anthropic, our AI provider, to extract the information. What comes back waits for one of your people to confirm it.

Finding a berth on the map

When a berth address is entered, our servers send the address to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service to find its map position. Nothing else is sent.

Who we share it with

Only the companies that help us run YachtGrade, each for its own part:

  • Vercel, which hosts the app.
  • Supabase, which provides the database, file storage and sign in.
  • Stripe, for payments.
  • Anthropic, for reading documents you ask it to read.
  • Brevo or Resend, for email, or your own email account if you connect one.
  • Twilio, for text messages, where your business turns them on.
  • OpenStreetMap Nominatim, for map positions.
  • Elementor, Cloudflare and Google Fonts, for our website.

Things your business shares by link can be opened by anyone who has the link: report links, QR code guides and calendar feed links. Your business decides what to share.

We may also disclose information when the law requires it, to protect people or our rights, or to a buyer if our business is sold, in which case this policy continues to apply to it.

Other businesses on YachtGrade cannot see your information. Each company's records are kept apart in the database itself.

How long we keep it

We keep your information while your account exists and after it ends, until you ask us to delete it. Apart from answers to a question removed from a check, which are deleted 10 days after it is removed, nothing is deleted automatically. Ask us and we will export or delete your data within 30 days. Copies in backups can take longer to disappear.

Security

Everything travels over encrypted connections. Photographs and documents are stored privately and opened only through links that expire. Each company's records are kept apart by the database, and the passwords for any email account you connect are kept in an encrypted vault. No system is perfectly secure, and we will tell you if something goes wrong with your data.

Your choices

  • Ask for a copy of your information, or ask us to correct or delete it, at privacy@yachtgrade.com. We answer every request, whichever state you live in.
  • Ask us to stop any email that is not needed to run your account, and reply STOP to any text message to stop them.

If a service company keeps your details

If your details are in YachtGrade because a business looks after your boat, that business decides what it records and who it shares it with, so it is usually the best place to start. You can also write to us at privacy@yachtgrade.com and we will help.

Children

YachtGrade is for businesses. It is not meant for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information about children.

Where information is kept

Our providers may store and process information in the United States and in other countries.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When we do, we will change the date at the top, and we will email account holders about any change that matters.

Contact

FC Works LLC. Privacy requests: privacy@yachtgrade.com. Everything else: support@yachtgrade.com.

A YachtGrade report is a condition and readiness report. It is not a survey, is not carried out by an accredited surveyor, and is not a substitute for a pre-purchase, insurance or damage survey.