> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.qrtub.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Marine and workboats

> Where QRtub fits for a workboat fleet: why stickers do not survive, why one code has to reach several systems, and why the boat has to be tagged before it exists in software.

A workboat is inspected by its master, serviced by a mechanic, surveyed by a regulator and audited
by a client — four groups, three systems, and one hull.

## Where QRtub fits

A fleet of around thirty aluminum workboats runs like this. The boats are assets in one platform,
where masters record pre-operation checks and raise actions and in-house mechanics record outboard
services. The compliance documents — survey and survey-exemption certificates — live in an entirely
different system, which most staff have no easy access to.

So the code on the hull has to reach both. That is the shape QRtub is for: one address per boat,
several destinations behind it, and the choice of which is a setting rather than something decided
when the plate was made.

## What gets tagged

* Hulls, at the helm and at the transom
* Outboards and inboard engines, serviced on their own cycle
* Trailers, which move between boats
* Safety equipment with expiry dates — lifejackets, EPIRBs, extinguishers
* Ancillary gear that leaves the boat and comes back

## QRtub is particularly useful when

* **Nothing adhesive survives.** Salt water, UV, wash-down and hard use mean stickers last weeks.
  Photo-anodized aluminum riveted to the hull is the only reliable answer — and it is not
  economical to produce one at a time.
* **The boat has to be tagged before it exists in software.** A new vessel cannot be given a code
  that points at an asset record and a compliance file it does not yet have.
* **Compliance lives somewhere most staff cannot reach.** A certificate everyone needs, in a system
  only administrators use, is a certificate nobody reads.
* **People pick the wrong asset.** Navigating an inspection app by hand to find one of thirty
  similar boats produces inspections filed against the wrong hull — which is worse than a missing
  inspection, because it looks like compliance and is not. A scan of that boat's own plate cannot
  choose wrongly.
* **The fleet is spread across the country** and the person holding the phone is not the person who
  set the system up.

## The problems you'll hit

1. [One tag, your team and the public](/how/team-and-public) — masters, mechanics, surveyors and
   clients from one plate
2. [Make the installation earn its keep](/how/earn-its-keep) — a plate that reaches the certificate,
   not just the asset record
3. [Let anyone report a fault](/how/report-a-fault) — a defect raised from the water

## Works with

| Tool                           | What a scan opens                                                                                                                       |
| ------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Mitti**                      | The boat's asset profile, a pre-operation check, or a service template — [guide](/integrations/mitti/setup)                             |
| **A compliance system**        | The survey or exemption certificate. Store its per-boat URL in a field and bind it — see [Field Bindings](/destinations/field-bindings) |
| **Google Drive or SharePoint** | Manuals and schematics — [Drive](/integrations/google-workspace) · [Microsoft 365](/integrations/microsoft-365)                         |
| **Google Forms or Jotform**    | A defect report anyone aboard can send                                                                                                  |

The pattern worth copying from that fleet: **one text field per external system**, holding that
boat's own URL or ID, with the Destination built from it. Adding a second system later is a field
and a button, not a re-plate.

## Typical Item fields

Vessel name · fleet number · hull identification · asset ID in your inspection platform ·
compliance record URL · survey expiry · engine hours · home port · last pre-operation check

## Related

* [What Is a Tag?](/tags/what-is-a-tag) — anodizing, engraving and what survives salt water
* [Produce before you know where they go](/links/numbered-links) — reserving codes for boats not yet
  in any system
* [Choosing a Method](/suppliers/choosing-a-method) — why one plate at a time is uneconomical