# Claim your boat

Link your own boat to your AIS Fleet account: why it is worth doing, what it costs, the one document you need, and what changes for a boat that already logs with Saillogger.

Claiming your boat is **free**, takes one document, and is what makes her yours here.

- Her followers are listed for you, and you hear about each new one.
- Members can write to you under her name rather than yours. [Messages](https://aisfleet.com/docs/messages.md)
- She can be in fleets, and their chat. [Fleets](https://aisfleet.com/docs/fleets.md)
- Nobody else can claim her afterwards.

**Claiming does not create new position reports or hide existing ones.** It links the vessel to your account for followers, messaging and fleets. [Your boat on AIS Fleet](https://aisfleet.com/docs/your-boat-on-ais-fleet.md) explains what other members can see.

## How to claim her

1. In the account menu, choose **Have a boat? Claim her**.
2. Enter her **MMSI** and confirm the boat we found in the AIS network.
3. Upload one document showing that MMSI is assigned to you or to your boat.

### About the document

A Saillogger crew member opens the file, checks that the MMSI on it matches the boat you are claiming, and **that is the only thing it is used for**. Cover anything that is not the boat, your name and the MMSI before you send it. You hear from us **within 48 hours**, the file **deletes itself within 72 hours of upload** whether we could approve it or not, and we keep no copies.

What counts is the ship radio licence or MMSI certificate issued by your own country's radio authority. In the United States that is an FCC Ship Station License, or a BoatUS or Sea Tow MMSI certificate; in the United Kingdom, an Ofcom Ship Radio Licence; elsewhere, your authority's equivalent. A phone photograph or a one-page PDF is fine, up to 20 MB.

### While it is with us, and afterwards

- **You can withdraw a claim** while it is waiting, from the same screen.
- **If we cannot approve it**, the answer carries the reviewer's own note saying why, and **Claim again** takes you straight back to the start. It is usually something small: a document that does not show the MMSI, or a different boat's paperwork.
- **If the document expired before we got to it** (they delete themselves after three days), we ask you to send it again rather than refusing the claim.
- **Claim answers are always sent**, in the app and by e-mail, whatever your notification settings say.

### If the claim will not start

- **"This MMSI has not appeared in our AIS network yet."** Claiming needs a boat we already know. Check the nine digits, and come back once she has been broadcasting within range of a receiver.
- **"This boat is already claimed."** Another member holds her, or she is an active Saillogger boat. If you believe that is wrong, write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) with her MMSI and we will look at it with you. This is deliberately not something a second claim can overrule.

## If your boat already logs with Saillogger {#if-your-boat-already-logs-with-saillogger}

She is on AIS Fleet already, through her MMSI and your sharing settings, so there is nothing here you need to do and no plan you need to buy. An MMSI that belongs to an active Saillogger boat is refused by an ordinary claim, which is what stops anyone picking up your boat by typing your number.

**The case this is really for is two people on one boat**: a partner or a crew member who wants her in their own AIS Fleet account. Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) and our crew can link her by hand.

> [!WARNING]
> **AIS Fleet recognises one owner per boat, so this moves her AIS Fleet identity to them.** It is worth knowing exactly what changes before you ask for it.

- **On AIS Fleet**, your boat then appears the way any AIS vessel does: her position, and no journal, no logged track and no owner photo, **whatever your Saillogger sharing switches say**. People following her here will no longer see those Saillogger extras.
- **New AIS Fleet followers, and AIS Fleet messages about her**, reach them rather than you.
- **On Saillogger, nothing moves.** Your logbook, your journal, your sharing settings, your public link and your own followers stay yours, and boaters following you through Friends are unaffected.
- **We e-mail you when the link is made**, so you hear it from us rather than from a follower.
- **It is not something you can undo yourself.** Write to [info@saillogger.com](mailto:info@saillogger.com) and our crew can move her back the same way.

[For family and friends without Saillogger](https://saillogger.com/docs/follow-without-saillogger.md) covers the same ground from the boat owner's side, in the Saillogger guide.

> [!NEXT]
> Feeding what your own AIS receiver hears into the network, and seeing it on the map: [Share your AIS receiver](https://aisfleet.com/docs/share-your-ais-receiver.md).