Case study: Capital Outrigger Canoe Club

Club canoes, checked out and back safe.

The club owns a one-person and a two-person canoe that cleared members can take out on their own. I built the app that decides who can take them and when, and makes sure someone notices if a paddler doesn't come back.

Who it's for: Paddlers a coach has cleared to take a club canoe out, and the coaches who look after the fleet
What it handles: Checkouts, reservations, check-ins, damage reports, and a public calendar
How people use it: On their phones, saved to the home screen. Sign in with an email link, no passwords.
Running costs: Free hosting, database, and email plans

The problem

Shared canoes need more than a sign-up sheet.

Two club canoes, a list of paddlers allowed to take them out without a coach, and a lake with its own opening hours. The club needed to know who had a canoe, when it was coming back, and what shape it was in. Click a problem to see how the app handles it.

Who can sign in

The roster stays in a spreadsheet

Coaches add cleared paddlers to the club's Google SheetSynced

Anyone with a club email address is an adminBuilt in

Now in the club's app

The custom app

From the dock to the water and back.

A web app paddlers save to their home screen, in the club's colors and seal. It's built for a phone in one hand at the edge of the lake. Screenshots show sample data.

Home screen showing Lake Natoma conditions, OC1 available with upcoming reservations and a club practice block, and OC2 out of service

Everyone

Both canoes, at a glance

The home screen shows whether each canoe is available, out, or out of service, with what's booked next and one tap to check it out.

Live conditions on Lake Natoma: wind, temperature, air quality, and any National Weather Service alert.
A caution when it's windy, when the air is unhealthy, or when there are storms nearby.
Out-of-service canoes show the reason, so nobody drives out for nothing.

Checkout form with a return time, emergency contact fields filled in from last time, and the safety checklist

Paddlers

A safety check before every outing

Checking out takes a minute: pick a return time, confirm an emergency contact, and tick the club's safety checklist.

Return times stop at 2.5 hours, closing time, or the next booking, whichever comes first.
The emergency contact is remembered, so next time it's already filled in.
Every checklist item has to be ticked: PFD, leash, whistle, hull and ama, conditions, and a plan onshore.
The two-person canoe asks for a paddling partner.

Home screen while a canoe is out, showing the due-back time, a Check in button, and an I'm running late control

Safety

Someone always knows when you're due back

Every checkout starts a watch that runs on its own, even if nobody has the app open.

At the return time, the paddler gets a reminder to come in and check in.
"I'm running late" adds 15 to 60 minutes, without running into the next booking or past closing.
Fifteen minutes overdue, their own emergency contact is emailed the canoe, times, location, and the Aquatic Center's phone number.

Check-in form asking about issues with the canoe or gear, with notes and an Add photos button

Paddlers

Check in, and say if anything's wrong

Coming back is one screen: anything wrong with the canoe or gear, a note, and photos if something's damaged.

Up to four photos, shrunk on the phone before they upload.
Reported issues land in the club's maintenance log and email the people who fix things.
Coming back early frees the rest of the slot for someone else straight away.
A thank-you email confirms the return and the time on the water.

Reservation form listing the day's existing bookings with a Notify me if it opens link

Paddlers

Reserve ahead, fairly

Paddlers can book up to two weeks out. The form only offers times when the lake is open and the canoe is free.

Reservations are picked up at their start time and released if nobody shows within 30 minutes.
Someone else has your time? Tap "Notify me if it opens" and get an email if it frees up.
Confirmation and reminder emails, add-to-calendar links, and one-tap cancel without signing in.

Public availability calendar: today's status for each canoe and a timeline of reservations, checkouts, and club-use blocks

Club website

A public calendar on the club's site

Anyone can see when the canoes are free, right on the club's Squarespace website, with a button into the app.

A week of reservations, checkouts, club practices, and lake closures.
Names show as first name and last initial only.
The calendar sizes itself to fit the page, so it never scrolls inside a box.

For coaches and admins

Run the whole fleet from one page.

Coaches manage canoes, repairs, practice blocks, and the season's numbers from a single admin page, with a built-in guide that explains every part.

Maintenance log with an open issue and buttons to mark it fixed or take the canoe out of service — **Repairs, tracked**Mark an issue fixed with a note, or take the canoe out of service in one tap.

Block-out form with canoes, reason, date, times, and repeat weekly, above a list of upcoming club practice blocks — **Practices come first**Block canoes for practices, races, or repairs, repeating weekly. Members can't book over them.

History page with filters for canoe, person, dates, and reported issues, above a list of past outings — **Every outing on record**Filter by canoe, person, dates, or reported issues, and download it all as a spreadsheet.

Usage report with outings, hours on the water, paddlers, and issues, plus a month-by-month table — **The season in numbers**Outings, hours on the water per canoe, late returns, no-shows, and issues, month by month.

And the rest of it

Small touches that keep it running.

Uses the club's spreadsheet

Coaches keep the roster and alert settings in Google Sheets. The app picks up changes within a couple of minutes.

Hours that check themselves

The app holds the Aquatic Center's hours for a year ahead and checks the center's website twice a year for changes.

No-show tracking

Instead of capping reservations, admins see who keeps missing them over the last 90 days.

Alerts people opt into

Coaches choose on the spreadsheet whether they get repair reports and copies of overdue alerts.

A guide for every role

A coaches' guide with screenshots inside the admin page, and a three-page handout for paddlers.

Saved to the home screen

Paddlers add it to their phone like any other app, with the club seal as the icon.

No double bookings

The database itself refuses overlapping bookings, so two people can't grab the same canoe at once.

Plain-language emails

Every confirmation, reminder, and alert reads like a note from the club, not a system notice.

How it came together

Built for the dock, not the office.

The club's coaches shaped the rules: who's allowed out, how long, what has to be checked, and who gets told when something goes wrong.

Safety without a babysitter. Overdue alerts go to each paddler's own emergency contact.
Works with what the club has. The roster stays in Google Sheets and the calendar lives on the club's existing Squarespace site.
Tested end to end. Checkouts, overdue alerts, no-shows, the waitlist, and cancel links were each run through before launch.
Lean to run. It runs on free hosting, database, and email plans, so the club isn't paying a monthly fee.

Sharing equipment, rooms, or vehicles?

Rental gear, company vans, studio time, meeting rooms: anything people book, take, and bring back can be tracked the same way. Start with a free 15-minute call.

Book a free 15-minute call

See the club's team app · See what else I build