We’ve introduced a new, more flexible way to give club members access to manage races in Afloat, so the right volunteers can help on race day without needing full admin access.

Why we changed this

Until now, the main way to let someone manage races was to make them a club admin. That works well, but many clubs quite rightly prefer to keep admin access to a small number of trusted people for security and governance reasons. At the same time, race days rely on volunteers, OODs, race marshals, and helpers, who often need to view entrants and enter or correct results.

Three ways to give someone race management access

1) Make them a club admin (unchanged)

Admins can manage races, see participants, and update results, as before. If you already have a small committee or core team who handle setup and oversight, admin access is still the simplest option. Most clubs, though, won’t want to make lots of members admins, and that’s exactly what these new options are designed to avoid.

2) Attach permissions to a duty or role (e.g., OOD or Race Marshal)

You can now link race management permissions to specific duties or roles on a race, such as OOD or Race Marshal. Whoever is assigned to that duty for the day will automatically be able to access the race, see the participants, and update results. It’s a great fit for clubs that already run a duty rota and want access to follow the volunteer role, not the person.

3) Directly assign a race manager (any club member)

Need to give access to a specific person, just for one event, a weekend series, or a one-off open meeting? You can directly assign a member to manage a race. This can be any club member, and it’s ideal when responsibilities don’t match a standard duty title, or when you want to delegate quickly without changing broader club roles.

Designed to fit how your club runs

Every club organises racing slightly differently, so we’ve built these options to be simple, secure, and adaptable. Choose the approach (or combination) that suits you:

·        Keep admin access limited, while still empowering duty officers on race day.

·        Reduce last-minute bottlenecks by letting the right people enter results.

·        Make permissions clearer: access is linked to responsibilities, not guesswork.

Try it out

Afloat has a generous free tier for small clubs, so you can try it with your team and see how it works in practice. We’re also constantly developing Afloat, shipping improvements based on real club feedback, and you can use Afloat on the web and in our app, so race-day tasks are easy to handle from the clubhouse or the slipway. If you’d like a smoother way to share race admin without sharing full admin access, give it a go and sign up.