Terms of service

Plain-English summary of the part we care about most: Zeil is club-management software. It is not a navigation, weather, or safety service. AI Sail Briefs are informational advisories only; the lead skipper always makes the go/no-go call. Your club’s data belongs to your club, and you can get a copy of it out at any time. This summary is for convenience; the sections below control.

1. Who you are agreeing with

These Terms are a binding agreement between Zeil Software LLC, a New Jersey limited liability company (“Zeil,” “we,” “us”), and the club or organization that creates a Zeil workspace or is identified as the customer during signup (the “Club,” “you”).

By creating a Club workspace or using the Service, the person doing so represents that they have authority to bind the Club (for example, as a flag officer, manager, or authorized volunteer). If you do not have that authority, or do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

2. The Service, accounts, and eligibility

2.1 The Service is Zeil’s hosted sailing-club management software at zeilapp.com and Club subdomains (e.g., yourclub.zeilapp.com), including the AI Sail Brief feature, documentation at docs.zeilapp.com, and support. “Authorized Users” are the individuals the Club invites or permits to use its workspace: members, skippers, crew, volunteers, staff, and administrators. “Club Data” is data submitted to the Service by or for the Club or its Authorized Users, including member profiles, emergency contacts, certifications and endorsements, boats, reservations, crew records, waiver acknowledgements, messages, and announcements.

2.2 Accounts. Authorized Users need an individual account; sign-in is passwordless (email links). Accounts are personal and must not be shared. The Club is responsible for who it invites, the roles it assigns, the accuracy of Club Data (including boat constraints, certifications, and endorsements), and activity in its workspace, except to the extent caused by Zeil’s breach of these Terms. An individual account may belong to multiple clubs; each club’s workspace is separate.

2.3 Age. The Service is not directed to children. Authorized Users must be at least 16 years old, and Clubs must not create accounts for children under 13. Zeil does not currently offer any feature for under-13 accounts or parental-consent flows; see Section 10.4 for junior-program roster records.

2.4 Connected AI assistants. A member may connect a third-party AI assistant to their club workspace through Zeil’s authorization flow. When they do, the Service transmits club data to that assistant’s vendor only in response to the member’s own authenticated requests, limited by their role and the access they granted. The member is responsible for the assistant they choose to connect.

3. Free trial

New Clubs receive a 60-day, full-featured free trial. No payment method is required to start, and nothing is charged automatically; we do not collect or store payment card details. At the end of the trial we will contact the Club to arrange a paid plan. If a workspace remains unpaid after the trial, we may suspend or limit it, but only after notice by email, and suspension never cuts off the Club’s export rights under Section 9.

4. Paid plans and billing (as they work today)

4.1 No in-product billing yet. The Service does not yet include in-product checkout, billing settings, or stored payment methods. Paid subscriptions are currently arranged directly with us under a simple order or invoice.

4.2 Plans and fees. Current plans and prices are published at zeilapp.com/pricing (as of this update: Starter $99/mo, Racing $199/mo, Club Pro $349/mo, Marina+ $599/mo, in US dollars). The add-ons listed there depend on roadmap features (see Section 7) and are not available today. Fees stated in a signed order control over the website for that Club, including any founding-club pricing locks.

4.3 Billing, renewal, cancellation. Paid subscriptions are billed monthly in advance and renew monthly until cancelled. The Club may cancel at any time by email to hello@zeilapp.com (subject line “Cancel subscription” helps us route it); cancellation takes effect at the end of the current monthly billing period, and we do not provide pro-rated refunds for partial months. Price changes take effect on at least 30 days’ notice and no earlier than the next billing period; price locks in a signed order are honored for their stated duration.

4.4 Taxes. Fees exclude sales and similar taxes; where we are required to collect them, they will appear on the invoice. Clubs claiming a tax exemption should provide a valid exemption certificate.

5. Reservations, eligibility checks, and weather

5.1 Eligibility checks are an administrative aid. The Service enforces reservation rules (availability windows, overlap prevention, crew minimums, certification and endorsement checks) based on configuration and records entered by the Club. Zeil does not verify the truth of certifications, endorsements, boat specifications, or member information. The Service’s eligibility output is not a determination that any person is competent to operate a vessel or that any outing is safe.

5.2 Weather information. Forecasts are obtained from third-party sources (currently Open-Meteo) and are provided as-is. Forecasts are inherently uncertain; Zeil does not warrant their accuracy, completeness, or timeliness. Weather information in the Service is not a substitute for official marine forecasts, warnings, and notices (for example, from the National Weather Service and the US Coast Guard).

6. AI Sail Brief: read this section

(a) Each Sail Brief is generated by artificial intelligence from forecast data, boat and reservation details, and Club-provided local notes. Every Sail Brief carries the notice: “AI-generated advisory; verify before sail.”

(b) The Sail Brief is an informational advisory only. It is not navigational advice, weather routing, seamanship instruction, or safety advice, and it is not a recommendation that any voyage occur. It may be incomplete, outdated, or wrong, including about conditions, sail plans, hazards, tides, or a skipper’s qualifications.

(c) The lead skipper retains sole and final responsibility for every decision related to a voyage, including whether to go or not go, crew selection, sail plan, equipment, and compliance with law and club rules. The Club will ensure its Authorized Users are informed of this allocation of responsibility and will not remove, obscure, or contradict the advisory notice in (a).

(d) The Club and its Authorized Users must not represent Sail Briefs to any person as official forecasts, professional advice, or safety certifications.

(e) AI inputs and outputs. As between the parties, the Club owns Club Data used as AI input and the Sail Brief outputs generated for its workspace, subject to Zeil’s ownership of the Service. Zeil does not use Club Data to train generalized AI models without the Club’s prior written consent.

7. What is in the Service today, and what is not

7.1 Live today: reservations and fleet management, certifications and endorsements, crew coordination and crew chat, guest invitations, club announcements and email digests, waiver publishing and acknowledgement (Section 7.3), course management (where the Club enables it), AI Sail Briefs, and member data export and account deletion tools.

7.2 Not part of the Service today: online payment processing of any kind (including regatta entry payments), race scoring and series management, and native mobile apps (club sites can be installed to a phone’s home screen as a web app, but there is no app-store app and no push notifications). These are roadmap items; any delivery dates we mention are good-faith targets, not commitments, unless expressly committed in a signed order. When payment features launch, supplemental payment terms will be presented for acceptance before activation.

7.3 Waivers. Clubs can publish versioned waiver text for guest sails, courses, and membership, and members and guests acknowledge it by checkbox before proceeding. Zeil records each acknowledgement with the signer’s name, email, timestamp, and the exact text shown. This is a click-through acknowledgement record, not a formal e-signature service. The Club is solely responsible for the content, legal sufficiency, and enforceability of its waiver documents.

7.4 Communications. The Club is responsible for the content of announcements and messages it sends through the Service and for honoring member communication preferences. The Service provides per-category email preferences that members manage from their profile; the Club must not use the Service to send unlawful communications.

8. Acceptable use

The Club will not, and will ensure Authorized Users do not:

• (a) use the Service except for legitimate club-management purposes, or in violation of law;
• (b) upload content that is unlawful, infringing, defamatory, or malicious (including malware);
• (c) attempt to access another club’s workspace or any data without authorization, probe or breach security controls, or circumvent rate limits;
• (d) reverse engineer, copy, resell, or provide service-bureau access to the Service, or build a competing product using it;
• (e) scrape the Service or extract data by automated means other than provided export features or documented interfaces;
• (f) use the Service to send spam or communications that violate applicable law (including the CAN-SPAM Act and the TCPA);
• (g) misrepresent AI-generated content as human-authored official guidance, or remove required disclaimers; or
• (h) upload data the Service is not designed for (e.g., government ID numbers, payment card numbers, or health records beyond voluntary emergency-contact and safety notes).

Zeil may suspend access immediately for a material violation that threatens the Service or others’ data, with notice and an opportunity to cure where practicable.

9. Your club’s data: ownership, export, no lock-in

9.1 Ownership. As between the parties, the Club owns all Club Data. Zeil claims no rights in Club Data except a limited license to host, copy, process, transmit, and display it solely to provide and support the Service, to prevent or address technical or security issues, as compelled by law (with notice to the Club where legally permitted), or as the Club otherwise instructs.

9.2 Export, always. Individual members can download a copy of their own core account and activity data (JSON format) from their profile at any time. For a full club-level export, email hello@zeilapp.com (subject “Data export”) and we will deliver Club Data in a commonly used machine-readable format within 10 business days. Export rights survive suspension for non-payment and continue for 60 days after termination or expiry. We built Zeil so clubs stay because it works, not because they’re trapped.

9.3 Aggregated data. Zeil may use de-identified, aggregated data (e.g., reservation completion rates across clubs) to operate and improve the Service, provided no Club or individual is identified or reasonably identifiable.

10. Club responsibilities for people data

10.1 Lawful basis and notices. The Club is responsible for having the right to submit Club Data to the Service, including providing any legally required notices to, and obtaining any required consents from, its members and guests.

10.2 Emergency contacts. Emergency contact fields are a convenience for club operations. The Club is responsible for their accuracy and currency. Zeil is not an emergency service, does not monitor voyages or reservations in real time, and will not contact emergency services or emergency contacts on anyone’s behalf.

10.3 Credentials and safety records. Certification, endorsement, and eligibility records in the Service are maintained by the Club. The Club, not Zeil, decides who may operate which boats.

10.4 Minors. Where the Club runs junior programs: the Club is responsible for compliance with laws governing children’s data; the Club must not create accounts for children under 13 (the Service has no under-13 consent flow); and roster records about minors entered by adult administrators must be limited to what the program reasonably requires.

11. Privacy and security

Zeil’s Privacy Policy describes our data practices. We maintain administrative and technical safeguards including per-club data isolation enforced in the application layer and backed by database row-level security policies, encryption in transit (TLS/HTTPS), passwordless sign-in (we never store passwords), hashed access tokens, rate limiting, activity logging, and nightly automated database backups with a 30-day retention window. The Service is hosted on infrastructure in Canada (OVH, Montreal area); Zeil is a US-operated business. We will notify the Club without undue delay after confirming a breach of security affecting Club Data.

12. Intellectual property; feedback; publicity

The Service, documentation, and all improvements are owned by Zeil and its licensors; no rights are granted except as expressly stated. The Club’s name, burgee, and logo remain the Club’s; the Club grants Zeil a license to display them within the Club’s own workspace and communications to its members. Zeil will identify a Club as a customer publicly only with the Club’s prior consent, which either party may revoke prospectively on 30 days’ notice. Feedback the Club or its users choose to provide may be used by Zeil without restriction or obligation.

13. Disclaimers; availability

13.1 Availability. Zeil endeavors to keep the Service available continuously but does not warrant uninterrupted or error-free operation. Planned maintenance will be scheduled outside peak club hours where reasonably practicable. No service-level agreement applies unless stated in a signed order.

13.2 DISCLAIMER. THE SERVICE, DOCUMENTATION, WEATHER INFORMATION, AND ALL AI OUTPUTS (INCLUDING SAIL BRIEFS) ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” ZEIL DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ACCURACY. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, ZEIL DOES NOT WARRANT THAT WEATHER INFORMATION OR SAIL BRIEFS ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, OR CURRENT, AND DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY VOYAGE, VESSEL, PERSON, OR CONDITION IS SAFE OR SUITABLE.

14. Limitation of liability; assumption of sailing risk

14.1 NO INDIRECT DAMAGES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER PARTY WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, GOODWILL, OR DATA, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.

14.2 CAP TIED TO FEES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, EACH PARTY’S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE FEES ACTUALLY PAID BY THE CLUB TO ZEIL IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT FIRST GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY (OR, DURING A FREE TRIAL, ONE HUNDRED US DOLLARS ($100)).

14.3 SAILING ACTIVITY AND SAIL BRIEF ALLOCATION OF RISK. SAILING IS AN INHERENTLY HAZARDOUS ACTIVITY. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, AND WITHOUT LIMITING 14.1–14.2: (a) ZEIL WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR PERSONAL INJURY, DEATH, OR PROPERTY DAMAGE ARISING OUT OF ANY VOYAGE, RACE, OR OTHER ON-WATER ACTIVITY, OR OUT OF ANY DECISION TO SAIL OR NOT TO SAIL; AND (b) ZEIL WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY ARISING FROM RELIANCE ON WEATHER INFORMATION OR ON ANY SAIL BRIEF OR OTHER AI OUTPUT, EACH OF WHICH IS AN INFORMATIONAL ADVISORY UNDER SECTION 6. THE LEAD SKIPPER, THE CLUB, AND ITS AUTHORIZED USERS RETAIN SOLE RESPONSIBILITY FOR GO/NO-GO AND ALL OPERATIONAL DECISIONS.

14.4 Exceptions and basis of bargain. The cap in 14.2 does not apply to the Club’s payment obligations, either party’s indemnification obligations under Section 15, the Club’s breach of Section 8, or liability that cannot be limited by law. The parties agree the fees reflect this allocation of risk and that Zeil would not provide the Service at these prices without it.

15. Indemnification

15.1 By Zeil. Zeil will defend the Club against third-party claims that the Service, as provided by Zeil and used as permitted, infringes a US patent, copyright, or trademark, or misappropriates a trade secret, and will pay resulting damages finally awarded or agreed in settlement. If the Service is enjoined, Zeil may modify it, procure rights, or terminate and refund prepaid unused fees. This is the Club’s exclusive remedy for infringement claims; it excludes claims arising from Club Data, combinations with items not provided by Zeil, or use in violation of these Terms.

15.2 By the Club. The Club will defend Zeil against third-party claims arising out of (a) Club Data (including claims that the Club lacked rights or consents to submit it); (b) the Club’s or its Authorized Users’ violation of law or of Section 8 or 10; and (c) any voyage, boating activity, race, or other on-water or club activity, including personal injury, death, or property damage arising from them, except to the extent a claim under (c) results directly from Zeil’s willful misconduct; and will pay resulting damages finally awarded or agreed in settlement.

15.3 Procedure. The indemnified party must give prompt notice, sole control of the defense to the indemnifying party (no settlement admitting the other party’s fault without consent), and reasonable cooperation.

16. Term, termination, and data deletion

16.1 Term. These Terms start when the Club first uses the Service and continue while the Club has a workspace (including trial and any suspended period). The Club may cancel at any time under Section 4.3. Either party may terminate on 30 days’ written notice of a material breach that remains uncured.

16.2 If Zeil discontinues the Service generally, we will give at least 90 days’ notice and refund prepaid fees for the unused period.

16.3 Effect of termination. The Club’s access ends, except the 60-day export window in Section 9.2. After that window closes, Zeil will delete Club Data from production systems within 90 days on the Club’s written request or in the ordinary course, and backup copies expire in the ordinary backup rotation (currently 30 days), except as retention is required by law. Individual members can separately delete their own accounts from their profile at any time; see the Privacy Policy for timing. Sections 6, 9.2–9.3, and 12–18 survive termination.

17. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms by posting a revised version. For material changes, we will notify Club administrators by email in advance (at least 30 days for changes that reduce the Club’s rights). Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance; a Club that objects may cancel under Section 4.3 before the changes take effect.

18. Governing law and general terms

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, excluding conflicts rules. The parties consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in the state and federal courts located in New Jersey, and each party waives trial by jury. Each party will protect the other’s non-public information with reasonable care and use it only under these Terms; Club Data is the Club’s confidential information. Neither party may assign these Terms without consent, except Zeil may assign to an affiliate or successor in a merger or sale of the business, with notice. Neither party is liable for delay caused by events beyond its reasonable control (except payment obligations). If a provision is unenforceable, it will be modified to the minimum extent needed. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, and any signed orders are the entire agreement; a signed order controls over these Terms for that Club. Authorized Users are not third-party beneficiaries and have no claims against Zeil under these Terms.

19. Contact

Questions about these Terms: hello@zeilapp.com (subject “Terms question” helps us route it).

Zeil Software LLC · 500 Paterson Plank Rd # 31479, Union City, NJ 07087, USA