The visitor board is the live, single-screen view of every visitor currently on board your vessel. Painters, surveyors, contractors, charter guests, friends of crew, port officials, anyone who isn't a crew member — if they're on board right now, they're on this screen.
It's the screen the night watchkeeper looks at when something happens at 0200 and they need to know who's still aboard. It's the screen the captain looks at before leaving the dock to confirm everyone non-crew has signed off. And it's the screen any boarding officer can look at to verify the vessel's account of who is and isn't on board.
Why this matters for ISPS
Under the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, every vessel covered by SOLAS Chapter XI-2 is required to maintain a record of all persons on board and to control access to the vessel. The visitor board is how you do that on the iPad — every visitor checks in before stepping aboard, every visitor is logged out when they leave, and the live count is always available to a Port Facility Security Officer or coast guard inspection.
For a deeper dive into what ISPS requires and how The Muster App helps you meet it, see the Visitors section of the help center (coming soon — we'll cover the full security search workflow there too).
What you're looking at
Each row on the visitor board is one visitor currently on board. From left to right:
- Photo — taken at check-in. Every visitor on board has a photo.
- Name and company — full name on top, the company they're representing or the visitor type below (e.g. "Acme Marine", "Charter Guest", "Day Worker")
- Host — the crew member they're visiting. The host is the person on board responsible for the visitor while they're aboard.
- Time on board — how long they've been signed in, updated live
- Sign out button — the action that ends their visit and removes them from the board
The board is sorted with the most recent arrivals at the top by default. Tap the column header to sort by host, by company, or by duration on board if you'd rather see the longest-staying visitors first.
Signing a visitor out
When a visitor leaves the vessel, they (or any crew member) can sign them out from the visitor board with one tap. Find their row, tap Sign out, and the visitor is removed from the live board immediately.
Behind the scenes, three things happen:
- The visitor record is moved from "currently on board" to "departed"
- A departure timestamp is recorded against their visit
- If you're configured to email a copy of the visit summary to the vessel, that email fires automatically
If the visitor is signed out by mistake, you can re-check them in from their record in the admin panel. The audit trail records both events — the original sign-in, the accidental sign-out, and the re-check-in — so the history is preserved.
The "depart all visitors" automation
End of charter day, end of contractor work, end of dockside party — sometimes you have a dozen visitors on board and you don't want to tap "sign out" twelve times. The Muster App has a few options:
- Manual depart all — there's a "Sign out all" button at the bottom of the visitor board that, after a confirmation, signs out every visitor currently on board in one go.
- Automatic daily checkout — configure a time in the admin panel under Visitors → Visitor Settings for the system to automatically sign out every visitor still on board. Most yachts set this to a couple of hours after their typical end-of-work time. The auto-checkout respects your vessel's time zone.
- Overstay email alerts — opt in to receive an email when a visitor has been on board past a configured time. Useful if you want to know whether someone who shouldn't still be aboard is still aboard.
Visitor history
Every visit ever recorded is kept in the admin panel. You can search past visits by name, company, host, date range, or any other field. This is critical for two reasons:
- Repeat visitor recognition — when a visitor checks in again, the iPad recognises their name and offers to pre-fill their details from the previous visit. They tap "Yes, that's me" and skip straight to the agreement and photo step. Most return contractors are signed in in under 15 seconds because of this.
- ISPS audit trail — when a port state control inspector or a charter agent asks "who was on board between these dates?", you have a searchable record going back as far as your retention setting allows.
You can find visitor history in the admin panel under Visitors → History. The iPad doesn't show the full history (it's designed for "live and now") but the history is always accessible from any browser.
Visitor types
Not every visitor is the same. The Muster App supports custom visitor types configured in the admin panel (e.g. "Day Worker", "Surveyor", "Charter Guest", "Crew Family"), and each type can have its own:
- Different agreement / NDA / terms text
- Different required fields (e.g. ID required for contractors but not for charter guests)
- Different badge layout when printed
- Different default host or default location
This means a contractor's check-in flow can include "upload your company insurance certificate" while a charter guest's flow can be three taps and a photo. You configure the types once and the iPad picks the right flow based on what the visitor selects when they tap "Sign in" on the welcome screen.
Watchkeeping use
If your vessel runs a 24-hour watch, the visitor board is one of the most important screens on the iPad. The recommended workflow is:
- At watch handover, the outgoing watchkeeper shows the new watchkeeper the visitor board and walks through who's currently on board. "These three are with the painters, that one is the surveyor, the last one is a friend of the chief stewardess and was supposed to leave by midnight."
- During the watch, the watchkeeper checks the board periodically. If a visitor is still on board past their expected departure time, the watchkeeper investigates.
- At end of watch, the watchkeeper notes any visitors who came aboard or departed during their watch as part of the standard handover log.
The visitor board is designed to be readable from across the bridge. Names and host information are large enough that you don't need to lean in. Photos are big enough to be useful for "is that the person I just saw walking past the engine room?" identification.
When the iPad is offline
The visitor board, like the rest of the app, works offline. New visitor check-ins are stored locally and synced when the iPad reconnects. Sign-outs are also queued and sync the moment WiFi is back.
If you're at anchor with no connection for a few days and you've had a steady stream of contractors and visitors, the board still functions correctly throughout. The only thing offline mode prevents is the email summary at sign-out — those queue up and send when the connection returns.
What to read next
The visitor board pairs naturally with the crew board — together they give you a complete picture of every person currently on board, crew or otherwise. For the actual check-in flow (photo capture, ID scanning, agreements), see the Visitors section of the help center (coming soon, with full coverage of ISPS search controls and ID verification).