A sail plan, also called a trip or float plan, is your planned route and a description of your boat, left with someone you trust before you go out, “even if it’s only for an hour or 2”, as Transport Canada puts it. If you’re late, they call for help: Transport Canada says to contact a Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, and its fishing advice says 911. It isn’t filed with any authority, and it isn’t required by law, but it’s how a search starts in the right place. VesselSOS doesn’t file a sail plan and doesn’t alert anyone in Canada yet. It adds a live map link for the person holding your plan, and a one-tap rescue call with the words ready.
Transport Canada: “A trip plan is a boating itinerary that includes your travel route and a basic description of your boat.” Write down who is on board, the boat’s name, type, size and colour, where you’re leaving from, your route and stops, and when you expect to be back. “File your plan with a responsible person”, a friend, a family member or your marina, and tell them to contact a Rescue Coordination Centre, or the police, if you don’t come back on time. Then the part people forget: when you’re home, tell them. “This cancels your trip plan,” and saves a search for someone who is already back at the dock.
Transport Canada has a personal boating trip plan form you can fill in online and then print or email to your contact; it doesn’t send anything to the Coast Guard. The Safe Boating Guide has a printable sail plan card too. The numbers your contact may need are the Coast Guard’s marine search and rescue lines: BC and Yukon 1-800-567-5111; Ontario, the Prairies and the North 1-800-267-7270; Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI 1-800-565-1582; Quebec 1-800-463-4393; Newfoundland and Labrador 1-800-563-2444, or 911. From Filing a trip plan and the Safe Boating Guide (2026), checked 10 Oct 2026.
Leave a sail plan every time: VesselSOS doesn’t replace it, and in Canada it doesn’t alert anyone automatically yet. VesselSOS is for being seen live by the person holding your plan, and for making the rescue call fast. It isn’t connected to 911, the Coast Guard or any rescue centre, and it doesn’t replace a VHF radio, an EPIRB or a PLB.
No law requires one for a pleasure craft, as far as we found. Transport Canada encourages every recreational boater to file one before going out, even for an hour or two.
No. You leave it with a responsible person, such as a friend, family member or your marina. Transport Canada’s online form only prints or emails it. If you’re overdue, that person contacts a Rescue Coordination Centre or 911.
No. It doesn’t connect to the Coast Guard at all. Leave your sail plan with someone, and use VesselSOS for what a sail plan doesn’t do: a live link that person can watch, and a rescue call with your position ready.
Tell your contact. A sail plan is only as good as its last update, and an unexplained change of route is exactly what slows a search down. A live link helps here: they see the change as it happens.
Yes. They do different jobs: the sail plan tells someone what you meant to do and when to raise the alarm; VesselSOS shows them where you actually are and gets the rescue call made fast.
It’s a TestFlight beta on iPhone now, by invite; it isn’t in the App Store yet, and Android comes later. Canada routing (the Coast Guard rescue centres, 911 inland) arrives in version 1.8, the next beta. The SOS screen is free; tracking and the return-time check are part of Pro, CA$3.99 a month or CA$19.99 a year with a 14-day free trial. See the plans for what’s in each tier.