Your Compliance Co-Pilot.
Always On Watch.
Cited answers from the actual regulation texts — not AI guesswork. The IMO conventions, U.S. CFR & USCG guidance, plus flag-state regs from the UK, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Norway, Liberia, Marshall Islands, and Bahamas — current, vessel-specific, and plain English.
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Track your credentials. Generate your USCG paperwork. And actually understand the regulations behind them.
Why RegKnot
The regs are complex.
Getting cited shouldn't be.
Commercial mariners navigate an overlapping web of regs — the IMO conventions (SOLAS, MARPOL, IMDG, COLREGs, STCW, ISM, plus the IGC, IBC, HSC and Load Lines codes), the U.S. CFR Titles 33/46/49 and USCG guidance, and a growing set of flag-state regulators (UK MCA, AMSA Australia, Singapore MPA, Hong Kong, Norway NMA, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Bahamas). Thousands of sections that cross-reference each other, change without warning, and vary by vessel type, tonnage, flag, route, and cargo. One missed detail during an inspection means deficiency citations, vessel detention, or costly litigation.
RegKnot was built by an Unlimited Licensed Captain and her engineer brother. We know these regulations because we live them. This is the tool we wished existed.
General-purpose AI doesn't have access to the SOLAS Consolidated Edition, the STCW Convention, or the ISM Code — and it can't tell the difference between what applies to your towing vessel versus a containership. RegKnot is built on the purchased source texts and your vessel profile, so every answer is specific to your ship and cites the exact section you can verify.
How we're different
Why not just use ChatGPT?
Honest answer: for casual maritime questions, you can. For compliance answers that need to hold up to a Coast Guard inspector or a port-state control deficiency report, here's what general-purpose AI doesn't do.
Every section we cite is verified against the actual text
ChatGPT and Gemini will cheerfully invent a CFR section that doesn't exist. RegKnot runs every citation through a verification pass before you see it. If we can't ground a claim in the retrieved regulation text, we hedge instead of guessing — and we tell you exactly what we couldn't verify.
IMDG Code 2024, SOLAS Consolidated, STCW with current supplements
IMO conventions are paywalled. General AI was trained on web summaries and outdated copies. We've ingested the licensed editions — the IMDG Dangerous Goods List, the full SOLAS chapters, STCW with the latest MSC resolutions, the ISM Code, plus 9 flag-state regulators. When you ask about UN 3480 stowage, we have the actual row from Chapter 3.2.
The answer changes based on your ship
Subchapter L OSV vs Subchapter K small passenger vessel vs U.K.-flag bulker in U.S. waters — the regulatory answer is different for each. RegKnot reads your vessel profile (flag, tonnage, route, subchapter, cargo) and scopes retrieval + answer accordingly. Generic LLMs give you the same one-size-fits-all response no matter what you operate.
A Master Unlimited captain runs the audits
Karynn holds an Unlimited Master license and reviews actual user answers every few days, flagging anything off. When she finds a gap — a missed Annex V exemption, a wrong jurisdictional cite — the prompt rules and ingest pipeline get fixed within the week. This isn't a wrapper around an API. It's a regulatory tool with a mariner in the loop.
We tested it
ChatGPT looks confident.
That's the problem.
We asked ChatGPT specific maritime questions. Every answer came back polished and authoritative. Some of them are wrong. The hard part isn't spotting hallucinations — it's noticing them before the inspector does.
Real question, real answers
“What’s the stowage category for UN 3480 (lithium-ion batteries packed without equipment) on a passenger vessel?”
Bottom line: Category C — on deck only on passenger vessels.
Under the IMDG Code, UN 3480 (fully regulated lithium-ion batteries) is assigned Stowage Category C, which means “on deck only” on passenger vessels. If this is for a Coast Guard exam or company policy question, the expected answer is almost always Category C.
Stowage Category: A — on or under deck on cargo and passenger ships.
Cited — IMDG 3.2 — UN 3480
“Stowage Category A means the substance may be stowed on or under deck on cargo ships and on or under deck on passenger ships. Stowage codes: SW19. Segregation codes: SG7.”
Source: IMDG Code, Volume 2, Dangerous Goods List entry for UN 3480
Why this matters: Over-restricting stowage based on a hallucinated category fails a tabletop audit and creates avoidable operational cost.
Examples captured 2026-05-04 from ChatGPT with web browsing enabled. Verifiable against eCFR, the IMDG Code, and USCG NVIC archive.
See It In Action
U.S. Captain. Channel ferry. Hazmat fire. Liberian bulker. Real cited answers, every time.
Lifeboat Inspection Requirements
46 CFR 199.190 your vessel must conduct inspections on the following schedule:
Weekly:
Visual inspection of survival craft, rescue boats, and launching appliances for readiness.
Monthly:
Each lifesaving appliance must be verified complete and in good working order, with results recorded in the vessel's official logbook 46 CFR 199.190(e).
Annually:
Full operational tests including launching appliances at loads from light to full load 46 CFR 133.45(b).
Note: SOLAS Chapter III applies to vessels on international routes in addition to these CFR requirements.
Answers cite exact regulation sections. Tap any citation to read the full text.
Ready in minutes.
Create your account
Register and tell us your role onboard. Captain, mate, engineer — we tailor guidance to your position.
Set up your vessel
Enter your vessel type, route, and cargo profile. Tonnage thresholds and SOLAS applicability resolved automatically.
Ask anything
Get instant cited answers, 24/7. Every response references exact CFR sections, IMO convention paragraphs (SOLAS, MARPOL, IMDG, COLREGs, STCW, ISM), USCG circulars, ERG entries — anything you can verify.
What we know
Every reg in our index, sorted by where it comes from. Click any chip to open the source.
International conventions & references
Non-U.S. flag-state regulators
Reference & emergency
Beyond Chat
Your record, your career,
reasoned against the regulation.
Snap a photo of your MMC, TWIC, or medical cert. We extract the data, track the expiry, and answer the regulatory questions only your stored record can trigger — including which credential upgrade you're closest to qualifying for.
Credential Vault
MMC, TWIC, medical, STCW, passports, course certs, sea-service letters, drug-test letters, vaccine records, union paperwork, pay stubs — all in one place.
Snap → extract → done
Snap + Understand
One photo, structured data + the regulation behind it. “Your MMC says Master Inland 100 GT — here's what 46 CFR 11.422 requires to upgrade to 200 GT.”
Other apps stop at the photo
Renewal Co-Pilot
Personalized readiness for every credential. ✓ medical cert valid, ✗ drug-test letter missing per 46 CFR 16.230, ✓ sea-time exceeds threshold — not just “your MMC expires in 47 days.”
Calendar + the rule + your record
Career Path
We read your stored credentials + sea-time, then look at the actual CFR ladder. “You're cap-eligible for Master Inland 200 GT now; Master Near-Coastal 200 GT is 180 days away under 46 CFR 11.422.”
What credentialing services charge for, free
Plus four more AI co-pilots reasoning over your record
Vessel Analysis
Drop in a COI, get the regulatory implications mapped.
PSC Co-Pilot
Inspection prep tailored to vessel + flag + MOU region.
Compliance Changelog
What changed in the regs that affects your record.
Audit Readiness
Score, gaps, and what to fix first across credentials + vessels.
Other mariner apps store the paperwork. RegKnots stores it AND explains the rule the paperwork points to.
Simple pricing. No surprises.
Built for working mariners, not corporate procurement.
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- 7-day free trial
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$19.99
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- Full reg corpus (see above)
- Vessel profile + chat history
- Credential vault with auto-OCR
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- Cited regulation answers, not summaries
Captain
$39.99
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- USCG sea-service letter generator
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Security is the floor, not the feature.
For crews — Wheelhouse
One vessel. Up to 10 crew. Shared chat, dossier, and rotation handoff.
$99.99/month or $89.99/month billed annually ($1,079.88/yr). 30-day free trial — no card required.
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