The order crew appear on the iPad's muster list and on the printed hard copy PDF isn't alphabetical — it's the rank order you set in the admin panel. Captain at the top, Chief Officer next, down through the ranks to the most junior deckhand. This matches what an inspector would expect to see and how most yachts organise their watchbill. You control the exact order with a drag-and-drop tool, and you can give crew an explicit muster rank (like "Deckhand A" or "Deckhand B") for rotation positions that aren't captured by their regular role.
Where it lives
In the admin panel, expand Muster List in the left sidebar, click Settings, and scroll to Rank Order & Muster Ranks. You'll see every active crew member grouped by department (Deck, Engineering, Interior, Galley, etc.) with drag handles on the left of each row.
Reordering crew
Grab the drag handle (the six-dot icon) on the left of any crew row and drag them up or down:
- Within a department — reorder deckhands by seniority, put the Chief Engineer above the 2nd Engineer, and so on.
- Between departments — you can drag a crew member across departments if their primary muster role is in a different section than their day-to-day department. Rare, but supported.
Departments themselves can also be reordered — grab the department header and drag the whole group up or down. The default is Deck → Engineering → Interior → Galley → Other, which works for most yachts.
The order saves automatically as you drag. No Save button to hit — every drop is persisted and pushed to the iPads within a second or two.
Setting a muster rank
Each row has a dropdown next to the crew member's name showing their muster rank. This is separate from their job role — it's the position they occupy on the muster list.
Why a separate field? Because for rotation positions, the job role is the same but the muster assignment isn't:
- Three deckhands all have role = Deckhand, but on the muster list they're Deckhand A, Deckhand B, and Deckhand C.
- Two engineers both have role = Engineer, but for muster purposes they're 1st Engineer and 2nd Engineer.
- Two stewardesses share role = Stewardess, but they're Chief Stew and 2nd Stew on the muster list.
Setting a muster rank unlocks a dedup rule that's otherwise invisible: if someone with muster rank "Deckhand A" is on leave and "Deckhand B" is active, the muster list shows Deckhand A as a dimmed placeholder (just the rank label, no name, no photo) to indicate the position exists but isn't currently filled. When Deckhand A returns from leave, they reappear automatically.
Smart default when you add new crew
When you add a new crew member and their role exactly matches one of your existing muster ranks (e.g. "Captain", "Chief Officer"), the muster rank is auto-populated to match. You don't have to remember to set it every time.
The auto-fill only happens when there's no ambiguity. If your department has multiple muster ranks that all share the same role (like "Deckhand A", "Deckhand B", "Deckhand C" with role "Deckhand"), the system leaves the muster rank blank so you can pick the correct one.
What the order controls
The order you set here drives every crew list in the product:
- The hard copy muster list PDF — departments in your order, crew within each department in your order
- The iPad's muster list view — same order as the PDF, so paper and screen match
- Muster Control during an active session — head count list appears in the same order, so a crew member's position on the list is consistent every time
- Abandon ship stations — crew at each station are listed in rank order (Captain first, deckhands last)
- Per-emergency crew assignment tables — when you open an emergency on the Emergencies tab, the crew table is in this order
Setting rank order once in one place and having it flow through everything is deliberate — it means a new crew rotation only needs to be reflected here, and every downstream view updates automatically.
Crew on leave
Crew marked as on leave stay in the rank order but appear with a grey "On Leave" badge. They're hidden from the printed PDF and dimmed on the iPad, but their position is preserved so when they return they slot back in without any reconfiguration.
Common pitfalls
- Leaving muster rank unset — if you never set muster ranks, the system falls back to the role field, which is usually fine for unique roles (Captain, Chief Officer) but loses information for rotations (all your deckhands appear as "Deckhand" with no A/B/C).
- Setting ranks only for some crew in a department — inconsistent. Either use muster ranks for every crew member in the department, or none. Half-and-half means the dedup rules work partially and you'll see strange gaps.
- Reordering mid-drill — you can drag people around during a live muster session and the iPad updates, but it's confusing for the crew who are watching the same list on their side. Do reordering before or after, not during.
- Forgetting to check after a rotation — when one Deckhand A leaves the vessel and a new deckhand joins, they join at the bottom of the list. If they're supposed to take the departing crew's Deckhand A slot, you have to set that explicitly.
What's next
With rank order set, the rest of muster configuration flows naturally — see Building emergency scenarios for assigning crew to stations and duties, and Configuring abandon ship stations for lifeboats and liferafts. Both use the rank order you've just set.