Zeil vs SailingClubManager is a sailing-to-sailing comparison. Both products are built around clubs that own boats, run events, and depend on volunteers. The board decision is which of those jobs are available this season, whether the treasurer can read the price, and what a move would leave behind.
SailingClubManager’s strengths come first. This page does not call the product dated, does not score its phone experience, and does not claim it lacks AI. Those judgments wait on Product’s teardown (cdr row 78). Facts below are either Zeil’s claims register or SailingClubManager’s public homepage.
Snapshot
| SailingClubManager | Zeil | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Sailing-specific club system (homepage, 2026-09-23). | Sailing-first club operating system for US yacht clubs and sailing centers. |
| Best fit | Clubs whose week is duty roster, boats and owners, berths and racks, invoicing, and often a bar or gate. | Volunteer clubs whose week is club-owned boat booking, skipper clearance, and crew — and who can wait on scoring and duty. |
| Pricing model | Per active membership, quote-based; no public list in our 2026-07-07 notes. No dollar figure here. | Flat per club: $99 / $199 / $349. |
| Trial | Not graded | 60 days, full-featured, no credit card |
| Migration help | Export for spreadsheets described in 2026-07-07 materials; screens [ASSUMPTION]. | Free white-glove service from SailingClubManager, ClubExpress, or CSV — team import, not a one-click tool. |
| Duty roster | Homepage describes volunteering, allocations, reminders, and swaps. | Roadmap, no date. Not live. |
| Race results | Homepage describes recording results and trophies. Depth not graded. | Roadmap, no date. Series / RRS scoring and PHRF are not live. |
| Moorings | Homepage describes boat park, racks, and on-water moorings | Waitlist-only. Not sold. |
| AI Sail Brief | Not graded. The public homepage, read 2026-09-23, does not describe one; that is not a verdict that none exists. | Live — "AI-generated advisory; verify before sail." |
When SailingClubManager is the better choice
Keep SailingClubManager when:
- The duty roster is in use every week and the club cannot run the next season without an in-product duty roster, which Zeil has not shipped.
- Racks, the boat park, or on-water moorings are the operation members pay for.
- The bar, stock, key fobs, or door and gate access are part of the same system, and replacing them is a separate project.
- Invoicing, payment gateways, and direct debit — as the homepage describes them — are the treasurer’s working tools, and a quote is an acceptable way to budget.
- Volunteers already know the admin paths, and the evenings are not on fire.
Zeil does not replace EPoS or access control. Marina slips are not sellable for 2026 delivery — waitlist only.
When Zeil is the better choice
Pick Zeil when:
- Two members booking one club-owned boat, and “who is cleared to skipper,” are the 10pm problem. Overlap prevention and certification gates are live.
- The board wants a published monthly price and a 60-day trial with no credit card.
- Someone on the vendor side will import the roster and club boats with the admin, instead of handing over a blank template.
- A plain-language pre-sail brief is worth having now. Zeil’s AI Sail Brief is live, with the disclaimer "AI-generated advisory; verify before sail." This page does not claim SailingClubManager cannot brief a skipper.
- Series scoring, a duty roster, or PHRF can wait. They are Roadmap, with no date. If they cannot wait, Zeil is the wrong switch this month.
Capability table
Zeil cells use the claims register (2026-08-19, product head 727dce82): Live, or Roadmap. Race scoring, duty rosters, and PHRF have no date.
SailingClubManager cells use only the public homepage read 2026-09-23, marked Described, unless the cell says Not graded. “Not graded” means the open teardown. It does not mean the feature is missing.
| Capability | SailingClubManager | Zeil |
|---|---|---|
| Membership and contacts | Described — lists, email, SMS, response tracking | Live — roster, invitations, directory, roles |
| Segmented sends | Described — segment members into lists | Announcements + weekly digest Live. Audience segments Roadmap, no date. No SMS claim |
| Events calendar | Described | Club scheduling is the boat calendar, not a general CMS. Do not claim a full events website |
| Duty roster (volunteer, swap, remind) | Described as integrated. | Roadmap, no date. Not live. |
| Boats | Described — boats and their owners | Live for club-owned boats: eligibility checks, database-enforced overlap prevention. No member-boat registry |
| Crew | Described — “crew finder” | Live — invite, request-to-join, discoverable crew |
| Results / series scoring | Described — record results and trophies. Scoring depth not graded. | Roadmap, no date. PHRF corrected-time math is part of that roadmap, not live. |
| Moorings, racks, boat park | Described | Waitlist-only. Not sold. |
| Member payments | Described — invoices, gateways, direct debit | Dues and payments are on the roadmap. Collection is not live yet. When it is, members see a Booking fee of 2%, the same on every payment method, with the fee-inclusive total shown first. The club is the seller. Guest-sail fees are in that same roadmap. Do not promise ACH |
| EPoS, fobs, door access | Described | Not a Zeil product |
| Weather on a booking | Not graded | Not claimed live. Sail Brief, which uses a forecast, is a separate live row |
| AI pre-sail brief | Not graded | Live — "AI-generated advisory; verify before sail." |
| Mobile experience | Not graded. Homepage says people can work from the clubhouse, office, or home. That sentence is not a mobile review | Mobile web Live. Native iOS/Android app Roadmap, no date |
| Waivers | Not graded | Live click-through acknowledgement, versioned |
| Trial | Not graded | 60 days, no credit card |
| Price on a public page | No list in 2026-07-07 notes; /pricing on their site 404 on 2026-09-23. |
$99 / $199 / $349 on /pricing. |
Pricing
Zeil, sellable plans only (live /pricing card as checked 2026-09-22).
| Plan | $/mo | For |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $99 | Smaller clubs — live card says under 75 members |
| Racing | $199 | Weekly racing — flagship |
| Club Pro | $349 | Mid-to-large clubs and sailing schools |
Starter carries a size frame. The live pricing footer and the Starter card still disagree; this page follows the card.
SailingClubManager: our last pricing note (2026-07-07) is per active membership, quote-based, monthly or yearly options, no public list. No example bill is printed here. Their /pricing path returned 404 on 2026-09-23, and no current rate card was confirmed. Ask for a written quote and put it next to $99 / $199 / $349.
Volunteer hours stay a blank line. This page does not claim a measured hours-saved number.
Migration path: SailingClubManager → Zeil
- Confirm the export with the club admin. Spreadsheet export is in our 2026-07-07 notes. Screen names are [ASSUMPTION] until someone sees them.
- White-glove mapping loads contacts and memberships and club boats. The admin sets crew and skipper constraints on club boats during setup.
- Migration covers members and boats only. Duties, past bookings, moorings, results, and SCM invoices are not imported. Race scoring is on the roadmap, with no date. It has not shipped. An in-product duty roster is on the roadmap, with no date. It is not live. Marina+ is waitlist-only. It is not sold, and it has no date. The reservation calendar is live, and the admin can recreate forward bookings. Dues, course fees, guest-sail fees, and ad-hoc requests are on the roadmap. Collection is not live yet.
- Do not promise a member-owned boat registry, a handicap-rating field, or sail numbers as Zeil fields. They are not live.
- Legal still owes interim terms before anyone accepts a member-file export (
cdrrow 26).
Internal runbook: 05-customer-success/migration-service.md §4. That file is not a public click-guide.
FAQ
Are you saying SailingClubManager is old? No. UX, mobile quality, and AI are out of scope until the teardown. The published homepage already describes duty, boats, berths, results, invoicing, and EPoS. Several of those are areas Zeil does not cover live.
Will our duty roster come across? Not into a live Zeil duty module. Duty rosters are Roadmap, with no date. The export can be archived. Plan a parallel roster until the module exists.
Will our moorings come across? Not into a sold marina product. See the migration note above for the waitlist rule.
Is race scoring live on Zeil? No. Race scoring and PHRF are Roadmap, with no date. Founding Clubs on the Racing plan pay $99/mo until race scoring is in their hands; the locked $199 rate starts the month after delivery (Founding terms).
Can we leave Zeil later? Per-user GDPR export is live. Club-level full export does not exist and is unscheduled on the 2026-08-19 register. Do not promise an instant club ZIP.
Does a UK office mean it is wrong for a US club? SailingClubManager publishes an office in Cowes, Isle of Wight, and a UK phone number (2026-09-23). That is an address, not a finding about US clubs, US support hours, or payment rails. Zeil’s positioning is US yacht clubs and sailing centers.