Terms of Service

1.1 The agreement

These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are a contract between you and Helm Marine Services Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Helm”, “we” or “us”). You accept them when you create an account or first use the Service, whichever comes first. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service.

1.2 Other documents

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and share personal information. Before you subscribe to Helm Care, the App shows its price and renewal terms, which Section 6 also sets out. If a screen in the App and these Terms disagree, these Terms apply, except that the Helm Care price shown when you subscribed applies until it changes under Section 6.10.

1.3 Business users

If you use the Service for a business, such as a Provider, you accept these Terms for that business and confirm that you have authority to do so.

3.1 Age

You must be at least 18 years old to hold an account, and you confirm it when you sign up.

3.2 Your account

Give accurate information when you sign up and keep it current. Keep your sign-in details private and do not let anyone else use your account. Tell us at once at danielp@welovehelm.com if you think someone has used it without your permission. You are responsible for what happens in your account, except where it results from a failure of our security or happens after you have told us.

3.3 Boats you add

When you add a Boat, you confirm that you own it, alone or with others, or that its owner has authorized you to add it. If that stops being true, remove the Boat from your account or tell us.

3.4 Crew

An Owner can give other people access to a Boat as Crew and can remove that access at any time. Crew must hold an account and accept these Terms. The Owner decides who has access to the Owner’s Boats. Crew can leave a Boat at any time.

3.5 Providers

A Provider may log work only on a Boat whose Owner has invited it, and only work the Provider actually did. Each Entry shows the Provider’s business name and the name of the person who made it. Each Provider:

1. (a)is an independent business and not part of Helm;
2. (b)is responsible for its own work, licenses, permits and insurance; and
3. (c)makes each Entry truthfully, at the time and place the App records.

No payments pass through Helm between Owners and Providers. The price, terms and payment for a Provider’s work are agreed between the Provider and the Owner.

4.1 What is free

The App is free to download and use. Helm Care is the only paid part of the Service. If we add a charge for anything else, we will show you the price and ask for your agreement before you are charged.

4.2 Boat Profile

We fill the Boat Profile from public records that match the Boat’s HIN or name. These can include U.S. Coast Guard documentation, builder-code and recall records and county property tax rolls. We show this information as its source published it. It can be incomplete, out of date or wrong, and we do not verify it. The Boat Profile is not an official record and is not evidence of title. If a detail is wrong, correct it in the App where the App allows, or tell us.

4.3 Record

Each Entry shows its date and who made it. Entries made by a Provider or by Helm Care are signed by them, and Entries an Owner or Crew add show that they added them. No one can edit or delete an Entry once it is added, including you and Helm, except as Section 7.6 allows. A mistake in an Entry is fixed by adding a correction, which appears with the original, and you can withdraw an Entry you added, with your reason. The original stays as it was.

We record who made each Entry and when, and for an Entry made at the Boat, where. We do not inspect the work an Entry describes and do not confirm that it was done well, and an Entry an Owner or Crew add is their own account of the work. If you think an Entry is wrong, tell us. We will look into it and may add a note to the Entry.

4.4 Papers

When you add Papers, and you have allowed reading with AI in the App, we use AI to read them and suggest details, such as dates, policy numbers and coverage. We show what we read beside the document for you to check and correct, and we keep the original document with the Boat. If the Boat Profile has no HIN, make, model or year yet, we may fill them in from a paper, and you can change them. When you add an invoice or a receipt to the Record, nothing is added until you confirm it. Check what we read before you rely on it.

4.5 Ask Helm

Ask Helm answers questions from the Boat Profile, the Record, your Papers and general information, once you have allowed reading with AI in the App. It uses an AI model run by another company, as Section 8.2 explains. Its answers can be wrong, incomplete or out of date, even when they sound certain.

Ask Helm is not a marine surveyor, mechanic, lawyer, insurance professional or other adviser, and its answers are not professional advice. Check anything that matters with a qualified person before you rely on it, especially anything about safety, seaworthiness, insurance or a sale. Ask Helm cannot call for help. In an emergency, call 911 or the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF channel 16.

4.6 Sharing a record

While you hold an account, you can share an outline of a Boat’s Record by a link, from Export this vessel on the Boat’s page. You choose how long the link lasts, up to 30 days, and you can revoke it at any time.

4.7 Changes and availability

We may add, change or remove features. Section 6.8 covers ending Helm Care. We work to keep the Service available, but we do not promise that it will be uninterrupted or free of errors.

4.8 Our rights in the Service

Helm and its licensors own the App, the Service and the software, design, text and trademarks we provide. We give you a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive license to use the App on Apple devices you own or control, as Apple’s usage rules allow, for as long as you comply with these Terms. You must not copy, modify, reverse engineer or resell the App or the Service, access the Service by automated means, or use it to build a competing product.

5.1 What Helm Care is

Once a month, a Helm employee boards your Boat, photographs a fixed checklist of items and takes readings such as battery voltage, bilge pump count and engine hours. We post a Visit Report in the App on the day of the Visit and add a locked Entry to the Record.

5.2 The first Visit

The first Visit records the Boat’s condition as we find it, including wear and damage already present. We ask you to review that record in the App.

5.3 What Helm Care is not

Helm Care is a documented visual check. It does not replace a survey. A Visit covers what the visitor can see and safely reach on the day. It is not a marine survey, a mechanical, electrical or rigging inspection, a test of the Boat’s systems, or an inspection for a purchase, a loan or insurance. Helm Care does not watch the Boat between Visits. Helm performs no repair, maintenance or other trade work on your Boat.

5.4 Who boards

Every Visit is made by a Helm employee. We do not send contractors.

5.5 Access and your part

You allow Helm employees to board the Boat for each scheduled Visit. You agree to:

1. (a)give us the dock, gate and boarding access we need;
2. (b)tell us about anything on or around the Boat that could hurt someone, such as a weak boarding ladder, a live electrical fault or an animal aboard;
3. (c)obtain any permission your marina requires for us to board; and
4. (d)keep the Boat insured as the law and your marina require.

You remain responsible for the Boat.

5.6 What the visitor does aboard

The visitor follows the checklist. The visitor does not move the Boat or take it out. Where the checklist needs a reading, the visitor may briefly start an engine or a generator at the dock, or run a pump. If you do not want that, tell us by email before the Visit, and the visitor will leave those readings out.

5.7 No custody

Helm does not take possession, custody or control of your Boat. Helm is not a bailee, a marina, a caretaker or a security service. Your Boat stays in your care before, during and after each Visit. If you give us a key or an access code, we use it only for Visits and return or delete it when Helm Care ends.

5.8 When a Visit finds something

The Visit Report says what the visitor saw and photographed. If it shows something that may need work, you can approve passing the finding to a marine service provider you choose. We then send that provider the finding and the photos. Any work, its price and its payment are between you and that provider. Helm does not do the work, choose the provider for you, supervise the work or guarantee it.

5.9 Urgent conditions

If the visitor sees something that puts the Boat, people or nearby boats at immediate risk, such as water rising in the bilge, we will try to reach you, and any emergency contact you have given us, straight away. We may also tell the marina office or the harbor authority. Helm is not an emergency service and does not promise to act to prevent a loss.

5.10 Scheduling and missed Visits

We schedule each Visit and show its date in the App. We may move a Visit because of weather, safety, access or illness. If no Visit takes place in a calendar month, for any reason, that month’s Visit is missed. A missed Visit is not charged and is not carried over.

5.11 Where Helm Care is offered

Helm Care is offered only in Marina del Rey, California, for Boats of 35 to 65 feet, and only where the App offers it. We set the price band from the length in the Boat Profile or the length you give us, and the visitor checks the length on the first Visit. If the Boat belongs in a different band, we tell you the correct price. The new price applies only after you agree to it in the App. If you do not agree, Helm Care for that Boat ends and nothing more is charged.

6.1 Price

The monthly price of Helm Care depends on the Boat’s length band: $199 for a Boat of 35 to 39 feet, $229 for 40 to 49 feet and $299 for 50 to 65 feet. The App shows the price for your Boat, and any tax, before you subscribe. The price covers one Visit a month.

6.2 Founding pricing

The founding offer takes 50 percent off the price of each Visit for the first 6 months after you subscribe with its code. It is open until 100 Boats have subscribed with it or until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on January 31, 2027, whichever comes first. We may offer other codes that lower the price for a stated period. Before you subscribe, the App shows the reduced price, how long it lasts and the regular price that follows. We will email you at least 7 days and no more than 30 days before the reduced price ends, with the new price and how to cancel.

6.4 Your agreement to automatic renewal

Before you subscribe, the App shows the terms in Section 6.3 next to the control you tap to agree to them, and asks for that agreement as a separate step. We keep a record of your agreement, including the date, the price and the terms shown, for at least 3 years or until 1 year after your Helm Care ends, whichever is later.

6.5 Confirmation

After you subscribe, we email you a confirmation you can keep. It sets out the automatic renewal terms, the cancellation policy and how to cancel.

6.6 Card problems

If your card declines a hold, the Visit does not go ahead, and we tell you so that you can update your card. If a charge for a Visit that took place fails, we tell you and try again, and we may pause Visits until it is paid.

6.7 How to cancel

You can cancel Helm Care at any time, without giving a reason:

1. (a)in the App, on the Account page under Helm Care, by tapping Cancel Helm Care; or
2. (b)by email to danielp@welovehelm.com from the address on your account.

A cancellation in the App takes effect when you confirm it. A cancellation by email takes effect when we receive it. We confirm every cancellation by email. Deleting your account also cancels Helm Care.

6.8 When we end Helm Care

We may end Helm Care for a Boat by notice in the App and by email, for example if we stop offering it in your area, if we cannot get access to the Boat or if boarding it is unsafe. Where we can, we give at least 30 days’ notice. Once Helm Care ends, we charge nothing further.

6.9 Annual reminder

At least once a year while Helm Care continues, we email you a reminder of what Helm Care includes, its price, how often you are charged and how to cancel.

6.10 Changes to price or terms

We may change the price or terms of Helm Care. We will email you at least 7 days and no more than 30 days before a price change takes effect, and before any other material change to the terms in this Section 6 takes effect. Each notice states the change, the date it takes effect and how to cancel. If you do not cancel, the change applies from the first Visit after that date.

6.11 Refunds

If we charge you in error, or charge for a Visit that did not take place, we refund that charge to your card. Tell us at danielp@welovehelm.com.

6.12 Payment processing

Stripe, Inc. processes Helm Care payments made in the App and stores your card. We do not receive your full card number. Helm Care is paid by card and not through Apple, because it is a service carried out at your Boat.

6.13 Asking for Helm Care without a card

Where the App lets you ask for Helm Care without saving a card, sending the request does not subscribe you, and nothing is charged. We contact you by email and by phone to confirm the plan, its price and how you will pay. Helm Care starts only when you agree, and before your first Visit we send you, in writing, the terms in Section 6.3 as they apply to how you pay.

7.1 Your Content stays yours

You keep ownership of Your Content. You give Helm a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, process, display and transmit Your Content, and to adapt it for display, so that we can run, secure and improve the Service and show Your Content to you and to the people you share it with. This includes sending it to service providers that process it for us, including AI providers. The license ends when you delete Your Content or your account, except for copies in backups, which we delete on our normal schedule, and anything the law requires us to keep.

7.2 Provider Entries

An Entry a Provider makes on a Boat stays in that Boat’s Record. The Provider keeps any rights it has in its photos and notes, and gives Helm and the Boat’s Owner a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free license to keep, show, copy, export and share the Entry as part of the Boat’s record.

7.3 What you promise about Your Content

You have the right to add Your Content. Where it states a fact, it is true to the best of your knowledge. It does not infringe anyone’s rights. Where the law requires a person’s consent to show or describe them, you have it.

7.4 Content and conduct we do not allow

Helm does not tolerate objectionable content or abusive users. You must not use the Service to post, upload or send anything that:

1. (a)is unlawful, defamatory or fraudulent;
2. (b)harasses, threatens or intimidates anyone;
3. (c)attacks or demeans people because of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or another protected characteristic;
4. (d)is sexually explicit or graphically violent;
5. (e)shares another person’s personal information without their consent;
6. (f)infringes a copyright, trademark or other right;
7. (g)is a false Entry, such as work that was not done or an Entry with a false date or place;
8. (h)impersonates a person or business, or misstates your connection to one; or
9. (i)is spam or contains malicious code.

You must not try to get into another person’s account or Boat, interfere with the Service, or use it to track or watch a person.

7.5 Reporting and blocking

To report content or a user, use the report option in the App where it appears, such as on an Entry or an Ask Helm answer, or email danielp@welovehelm.com with the Boat, the content or account concerned and what is wrong. We review every report within 24 hours, remove content that breaks these Terms and act against the account that posted it under Section 7.6, and tell you what we did. An Owner can remove anyone’s access to a Boat at any time, and Crew can leave a Boat. You can block another user wherever the App offers that option.

7.6 Removal and suspension

We may remove any content that breaks these Terms or the law, including a locked Entry, and may suspend or close the account of anyone who breaks them. We tell the person affected what we did and why, unless the law or someone’s safety prevents it. We close the accounts of people who repeatedly infringe copyright.

7.7 Copyright complaints

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, email danielp@welovehelm.com with the information that 17 U.S.C. section 512(c)(3) requires.

7.8 Feedback

If you send us ideas about the Service, we may use them without any obligation to you.

8.1 Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and share it, and the rights California residents have under the California Consumer Privacy Act. These Terms do not restate it.

8.2 AI processing

When you use Ask Helm, add Papers or an invoice, or, as a Provider, complete a job whose photos are reviewed, we send the content needed for that task to Anthropic, PBC, whose Claude model processes it for us, either directly or through OpenRouter, Inc., which passes it only to Anthropic. Anthropic does not train its models on that content. We do this only after you allow it in the App, and you can turn it off there at any time. The Privacy Policy describes what we send.

8.3 Sharing a Boat’s record

We do not give a Boat’s Record, Papers or Visit Reports, in a form that identifies the Boat or you, to an insurer, lender, buyer, broker or surveyor, unless you share them yourself, you ask us to, or the law requires it.

8.4 De-identified data

We may create data that cannot reasonably be linked to you, to another person or to a Boat, and use or share it for research, product development and analysis. We keep that data in de-identified form and do not try to re-identify it, and anyone we share it with must agree to the same.

9.1 Service messages

We send the messages needed to run your account and Helm Care, such as Visit Reports, charge notices and notices under these Terms, by email and in the App. You cannot opt out of these while you hold an account, though you can turn off push notifications on your device.

9.2 Marketing

We may email you about Helm. Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link, and you can turn marketing messages off in the App’s settings.

9.3 Electronic notices

You agree to receive notices, confirmations and other communications from us electronically, by email and in the App, and that agreeing in the App counts as your signature. Keep your email address current. You can ask us for a paper copy of any notice at no charge.

10.1 Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time in the App. Owners and Crew tap their picture at the top right of Home to open the Account page, choose Settings, then Delete Account, and confirm. Providers tap Delete account on their Profile tab. Deletion is permanent. It removes your account and your Boats with their records, and it cannot be undone. Share or save any record you want to keep before you delete. You can also ask us to delete your account by email from the address on your account.

10.2 What we keep

After deletion we keep only what the law requires or allows, such as payment records we must keep for tax purposes, and data that no longer identifies you. The Privacy Policy explains this.

10.3 When we close an account

We may suspend or close an account under Section 7.6 or where the law requires. If we stop offering the Service, we will give you at least 30 days’ notice so that you can export your records.

10.4 What continues

Sections 7.1 (as to backups), 7.2, 8.4 and 10.2, and Sections 11 to 18, continue after your account is deleted or these Terms end.

11.1 The Service

Apart from the commitments in these Terms, we provide the Service as is and as available. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement.

11.2 Our commitment for Helm Care

We will carry out each Visit with reasonable care and skill, following the checklist.

11.3 Information from others

We do not verify, and are not responsible for, information in the Boat Profile that comes from public records, Entries made by Providers or Crew, or Papers and other content that Owners supply.

11.4 AI output

Answers from Ask Helm and details read from Papers are produced by AI and can be wrong. We do not warrant them. You decide whether to rely on them, as Sections 4.4 and 4.5 explain.

11.5 Helm Care

A Visit records what the visitor could see and reach on that day. We do not warrant that a Visit will find every problem, that the Boat is seaworthy, or that a condition will not appear or change between Visits.

11.6 Providers

Providers are independent businesses. Helm does not vet, endorse, supervise or guarantee any Provider or its work, and offers no guarantee, warranty or protection program for Provider work.

11.7 Not insurance or advice

Helm is not an insurer, an insurance agent or a broker. Nothing in the Service is insurance, a survey or an appraisal, or legal, financial, engineering or navigational advice.

11.8 Your rights under the law

Some states do not allow some of these disclaimers. Nothing in these Terms takes away a right that the law does not allow a contract to take away.

12.1 Indirect losses

To the extent the law allows, Helm and its officers, employees and suppliers are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, loss of use of the Boat or loss of data, arising from these Terms or the Service.

12.2 Total liability

To the extent the law allows, Helm’s total liability to you for all claims arising from these Terms or the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid Helm in the 12 months before the event that gave rise to the claim, and $100.

12.3 Physical damage during a Visit

If a Helm employee damages your Boat or other property, or injures a person, through negligence during a Visit, Helm is responsible for that damage or injury, and Section 12.2 does not limit that responsibility. Helm is not responsible under this Section for a condition a Visit did not cause, for a condition a Visit did not find, for anything that happens between Visits, or for work done by a Provider or any other provider.

12.4 What these limits do not cover

Nothing in these Terms limits Helm’s liability for fraud, for willful injury to a person or property, for gross negligence, for a violation of law that California Civil Code section 1668 does not allow a contract to excuse, for death or personal injury caused by Helm’s negligence, or for any other liability the law does not allow a contract to limit. Nothing in these Terms limits your rights under the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the Automatic Renewal Law, the California Consumer Privacy Act or any other law whose remedies cannot be limited by contract.

13.1 Claims by others

You will indemnify Helm against the reasonable costs, including lawyers’ fees, of a claim brought against Helm by someone else, to the extent the claim arises from Your Content, your breach of these Terms, your unlawful use of the Service or, for a Provider, the Provider’s work. This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from Helm’s own breach, negligence or misconduct. We will tell you promptly about any such claim.

14.1 Talk to us first

If you have a complaint, email us at danielp@welovehelm.com. Before either of us files a claim, we will each send the other a written description of it and try in good faith to resolve it for 30 days. This does not stop either of us from going to small claims court or asking a court for urgent relief.

14.2 Governing law

The laws of the State of California govern these Terms and any dispute about them or the Service, without regard to conflict of laws rules.

14.3 Courts

Claims go to the state or federal courts in Los Angeles County, California, unless the law gives you the right to bring a claim where you live. Either of us may bring a claim in small claims court where it qualifies.

15.1 Parties

These Terms are between you and Helm, not Apple Inc. (“Apple”). Helm, not Apple, is responsible for the App and its content.

15.2 License

The license in Section 4.8 is a non-transferable license to use the App on Apple-branded products that you own or control, as permitted by the Usage Rules in the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions, except that the App may also be used by other accounts associated with you through Family Sharing or volume purchasing.

15.3 Maintenance and support

Helm is solely responsible for maintenance and support of the App. Apple has no obligation to provide any maintenance or support for it.

15.4 Warranty

If the App fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple will refund the purchase price of the App, if any, to you. To the maximum extent the law permits, Apple has no other warranty obligation for the App. Any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs or expenses arising from a failure to conform to a warranty are Helm’s responsibility, subject to these Terms.

15.5 Product claims

Helm, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claim by you or a third party relating to the App or your possession and use of it, including product liability claims, any claim that the App fails to conform to a legal or regulatory requirement, and claims under consumer protection, privacy or similar laws.

15.6 Intellectual property claims

If a third party claims that the App, or your possession and use of it, infringes that third party’s intellectual property rights, Helm, not Apple, is responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement and discharge of the claim.

15.7 Legal compliance

You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. Government embargo or designated by the U.S. Government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on any U.S. Government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

15.8 Third-party terms

You must comply with applicable third-party terms when you use the App, such as your wireless data service agreement.

15.9 Contact

Questions, complaints and claims about the App go to Helm at the contact details in Section 18.

15.10 Third-party beneficiary

Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms. Once you accept these Terms, Apple has the right, and is deemed to have accepted the right, to enforce them against you as a third-party beneficiary.

16.1 Where we post them

We post the current Terms at welovehelm.com/terms with their effective date, and we keep earlier versions, which we send on request.

16.2 Material changes

For a change that materially affects your rights, we tell you by email and in the App at least 30 days before it takes effect and ask you to accept the new version in the App. If you do not accept it, you can delete your account and cancel Helm Care before the change takes effect. Changes to the price and renewal terms of Helm Care follow Section 6.10.

16.3 Other changes

Other changes, such as corrections or changes that do not reduce your rights, take effect when we post them.

17.1 Entire agreement

These Terms, with the Helm Care terms shown when you subscribe, are the whole agreement between you and Helm about the Service.

17.2 Transfer

We may transfer these Terms to a company that takes over the Service or Helm’s business, and we will tell you if we do. You may not transfer them.

17.3 Severability and waiver

If a court finds part of these Terms unenforceable, that part is enforced as far as the law allows and the rest stays in effect. If we do not enforce a part of these Terms, we do not give up the right to enforce it later.

17.4 Events beyond our control

We are not liable for a delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as storms, fire, government action or the failure of networks or service providers.

17.5 Relationship

These Terms create no partnership, agency or employment relationship between you and Helm, or between Helm and any Provider. Apart from Apple under Section 15.10, no one else has rights under these Terms.

17.6 Reading these Terms

Headings are for convenience only. “Including” means including without limitation. These Terms are written in English, and the English version controls.

18.1 Contact

Helm Marine Services Inc., 1223 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 890, Santa Monica, California 90403. Email danielp@welovehelm.com. Help with the App: welovehelm.com/support.

18.2 Notice to California residents

Under California Civil Code section 1789.3, California users are entitled to this notice. The Service is provided by Helm Marine Services Inc., at the address and email in Section 18.1. The App is free. The price of Helm Care is shown in the App before you subscribe, and Section 6 describes how it is charged. To resolve a complaint about the Service, contact us as Section 18.1 states. You may also contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, California 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.