Sub-Groups: Organise a Three-Boat Sailing Flotilla

A flotilla sailing trip sounds like a simple plan: three boats, around twenty people, one shared route. On the water it usually works out that way. The trouble is everything around it. Boat 1 buys provisions for the week, Boat 2 fills up with diesel, and in the group chat someone asks whether yesterday's receipt counts for everyone or only for their crew.

You are one travel group and three crews at the same time. That is what sub-groups in Kithora are for. Using a flotilla as the example, this post shows how they work, what they change day to day and where their limits are.

What sub-groups are

Sub-groups divide a Kora into freely named areas. You can create, edit and delete them, give each group a colour and assign members. A member can belong to several sub-groups at once.

The example: a flotilla with three boats

The whole flotilla gets one shared Kora, for example with the Travel group template. In it you create a sub-group for each boat and name it after the boat. Each group gets a colour, say blue, orange and green, and the crew is assigned to it.

Because someone may be in several sub-groups, overlaps are easy to model. The three skippers get an extra sub-group called “Skippers”, and anyone who switches boats halfway simply belongs to both crews.

Switching between views

In the menu you choose what is shown. There are four views:

My view: shows what belongs to you and your groups.
Show all: shows the entries from all sub-groups, so the whole flotilla.
Global without group: shows the entries that are not assigned to any sub-group.
A single sub-group: shows only the entries of that group, for example Boat 2.

The filter applies to tasks, shopping list, finances, the Chronicle, recipes, steps and the member list. Whoever is shopping for Boat 2 selects Boat 2 and sees only that boat's shopping list.

Assigned entries can also be marked with the group colour. In the overall view you can then see at a glance which boat an entry belongs to.

What this does for everyday life on the trip

Shopping, tasks and the galley

Each boat keeps its own shopping list: Boat 1 needs gas and bread, Boat 3 forgot the charcoal. Tasks work the same way, whether it is the watch plan, filling the water tanks or checking the fenders. The skipper group gets its own tasks, such as checking the weather before casting off. Recipes can be filtered by sub-group too, if each boat runs its own galley.

Finances: a crew kitty per boat

This is where the feature saves the most arguments. You record expenses as usual, but totals and settlement suggestions follow the selected filter. With Boat 2 selected you only see its expenses and who owes whom, while the overall view shows the costs of the whole flotilla.

One rule applies: for an expense assigned to a sub-group, everyone involved must be a member of that group. Boat 2's diesel can therefore only be split among Boat 2's crew. Costs that concern everyone, such as the shared dinner in the harbour, you enter without a sub-group.

Chronicle, steps and members

In the Chronicle each boat collects its own photos, and the overall view still turns into one shared album of the trip. In steps you plan stages per boat, in case one crew heads for a different bay, and the member list can be filtered by crew as well.

What sub-groups are not

So the boats do not keep their data secret from each other. On a flotilla that is usually intended: if Boat 3 has engine trouble, the others should see it and be able to help.

Sub-Groups in Kithora: One Flotilla, Three Boats, One Kora

How to set up sub-groups

Open sub-groups in the main menu and create a new group.
Create a sub-group for each boat, name it and give it a colour.
Assign the crews. Anyone who sails on several boats or belongs to a special circle such as the skippers joins several sub-groups.
When creating tasks, purchases, expenses and steps, assign the matching sub-group.
In the menu, pick the view you need right now.

Useful on land too

The principle fits wherever a group travels together but is still made up of parts: two cars on a road trip, several families in one holiday house or a large hiking group with separate rooms. How to set up a trip as a whole is covered in the article “Group Trip Planner: Itinerary, Travel Kitty and Crew in One App”.