Getting started with Boat Guru

Last updated 2026-04-28

Welcome aboard. Boat Guru provides whole-boat help for repairs, maintenance, troubleshooting, and everyday boating questions. Ask about your hull, deck, plumbing, electrical, steering, anchoring, trailer, sailing gear, safety equipment, seamanship, or engine. Whether you're tracing a bilge-pump problem, checking a hull crack, planning winterization, or trying to remember which oil your outboard needs, Boat Guru is here to give you straight, useful answers.

What Boat Guru is (and isn't)

Ask a question in plain English and Boat Guru will help you work through it. It can explain boating basics, guide common service jobs and checks, point to manufacturer information for supported equipment, and check U.S. Coast Guard recall information. It is not a substitute for hands-on help when something is dangerous — if you smell fuel, see smoke, find structural damage, lose steering, or your boat won't stay afloat, get safe first and call a pro.

Asking your first question

The best way to get a useful answer is to be specific. Instead of "my engine won't start," try "my 2018 Mercury 150 four-stroke cranks but won't fire after sitting two weeks." Include the engine make and model, year, and what you have already checked.

If you're new, here are a few questions that show what Boat Guru does well:

• "What's the recommended oil change interval for a Yamaha F250?"
• "How do I bleed the fuel system on a Volvo Penta D4?"
• "My trim won't go down — where do I start?"
• "My bilge pump runs but no water comes out — what should I check?"
• "How can I tell whether this deck soft spot is structural?"
• "What is the difference between tide and current?"

Set up your boat profile

Answers are more useful when Boat Guru knows what you own. Add your boat's make, model, year, and engine details so it does not assume you have a generic outboard when you run a sterndrive. See the engines guide for help setting it up.

Choosing a plan

BoatGuru Plus includes step-by-step help, photo help, answers that use your manuals, saved history for one boat, and reports you can share with a mechanic. BoatGuru Pro includes the same help for up to five personal boats. Start with a full 14-day trial, then continue with Plus for $24.99 monthly or $249.99 yearly (recommended), or Pro for $39.99 monthly or $399.99 yearly. A payment method is required to start the trial; cancel any time before it ends to avoid the first charge. You can manage your subscription on your billing page.

Where to go next

• Set up your engine in your boat profile — read the engines guide.
• Subscribe to recall alerts so you hear about safety notices on your hardware.
• Stuck? The troubleshooting guide explains how to get unstuck and how to flag a wrong answer so we can fix it.

If you ever feel like Boat Guru misunderstood something, the thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons under every answer feed directly into how we improve. Use them. Honest feedback is how this gets sharper for every owner on the water.