Open Pilot Guide

Open Pilot Guide is an open platform for publishing and discovering local maritime knowledge.

Preserving Local Maritime Knowledge

Open Pilot Guide brings together practical, place-based knowledge that is often scattered, difficult to find, or slowly disappearing.

Open Access

Free to read and accessible to anyone.

Community Contributed

Built around shared local experience.

Local Knowledge

Learn from people who actually use these places.

Our Story

Open Pilot Guide grew out of real trip planning and real use on the water. While preparing recreational sailing passages, it became clear that essential local information was fragmented, outdated, or difficult to access.

Practical details were often buried in forums, locked behind paywalls, or missing altogether, including which slipways a car could access, suitable islands for a short lunch stop, or wind directions that offered the best launching conditions.

This platform was built by someone who needed this information themselves, with the goal of preserving local knowledge in a clear, map-based, digital format.

Featured Locations

View the Interactive Map to see all of the locations currently available within Open Pilot Guide, or take a quick look at some of our favourites.

Built for the Future

Digital-first, so local knowledge is not lost when printed guides go out of print.
Community-contributed, allowing practical local experience to be preserved over time.
Open access, so essential information is not locked behind paywalls.
Size-independent, applicable from small craft to deep-draft vessels.
Free to read, ensuring access regardless of budget.
Non-affiliated, shared without commercial or institutional bias.