The basics
What is Bench Eleven?
An app for running a dragon boat club: who’s coming to practice, who sits where, and who races. It works on iPhone, Android and the web.
Who is it for?
Any club that puts paddlers in a boat — community and competitive clubs, corporate crews, youth teams, survivor and para crews. It handles standard 20-paddler boats and small 10-paddler boats.
How do people join?
A manager invites each person by email. They tap the link, see what the club’s managers will be able to see about them, and join. An invitation lasts 30 days.
Is there a password?
No. You sign in with a link sent to your email. Each link works once, within 15 minutes.
Does everyone need the app?
No. A manager can add someone as a guest — a name, a weight and a side — and seat them like anyone else. Guests are never sent anything. If they join later, they take over their place and their history.
Does it work on a computer?
Yes, in the browser at bencheleven.com. Phones get push notifications; on the web, cancellations come by email.
Paddlers
Do I pay anything?
No. Paddlers never pay. The club does, and the app you use is the same on every plan.
Who can see my weight?
The people who run your club, to balance the boat for safety. Other paddlers can’t. The same goes for your birth year and the para and survivor details. Other members see your name, photo, sides and gender.
How do I say I’m coming?
Tap Yes, Maybe or No on the practice. You can change it any time; if you’ve already been seated, your coach sees the change on your seat.
Where do I sit?
When the lineup is published you’re told, and the practice shows your seat — Boat 1 · 7L is boat 1, row 7, left. View full lineup shows the whole boat.
What will I be notified about?
On your phone: new and changed practices, cancellations, a reminder the day before, lineups and race crews. Turn each on or off in You › Preferences › Notifications. Cancellations also come by email.
Can I be in more than one club?
Yes — one account for all of them. Your details are the same in every club, and Home shows what’s coming up across all of them.
How do I leave a club?
You › Leave a club. You stop seeing its practices and lineups; the seats you’ve already paddled stay in its history.
How do I delete my account?
You › Your details › Delete account, or on the website. Your contact details are erased straight away. Your name, weight and side stay on past lineups you paddled in, so other people’s seasons still add up.
Coaches and captains
Can it fill the boat for me?
Fill remaining seats the empty benches from the yes answers, then the maybes, weighing sides, zones, balance and where each paddler has sat lately. It picks a steersperson too, and leaves the drummer to you.
How is balance worked out?
Every seat’s weight counts by how far it sits from the middle of the boat — side to side, and bow to stern, drummer and steersperson included. A dragon boat is widest in the middle, so a paddler there leans it more than the same paddler at the bow. The reading is the weight you’d move at the widest bench; shift about half of it across and the boat is level.
What gets flagged?
An empty seat that has to be filled, a paddler on a side they avoid, a steersperson or drummer who doesn’t usually do it, and anyone who withdrew or changed to maybe after being seated.
Can two of us work on the same lineup?
On Club and Pro, yes. You’ll see who else is editing, and their changes as they happen.
Can one practice have two boats?
Yes. Seat as many boats as turn up; nobody can be in two at once.
Can we use our own words?
Yes. Start from North America, Australia/NZ or IDBF wording, or choose each one: left/right or port/starboard; row, seat, bench or pair; numbered from the bow or the stern; drummer or caller; steersperson, steerer, sweep or helm; sub or reserve; pounds or kilos.
Can we run separate teams?
Teams, on Club and Pro, each with their own practices. A paddler can be on more than one.
Can I give someone just one job?
Pro is built for clubs that run on roles. A Team manager runs one team’s practices, lineups, members and invitations. A Competition manager runs a festival’s crews, races and lineups. A Roster editor builds and publishes lineups. A Member manager looks after invitations, member details and teams. One person can hold several roles; on Club, your club admins can do it all.
Festivals
How does a festival work?
Enter the festival, set up its divisions, pick crews and add the races with their heat numbers. Paddlers answer Going, Maybe or Can’t for the festival, and once their crew is published its races appear in their schedule.
Which rules does it know?
Start from a preset based on the IDBF, EDBF, Pan Am, Dragon Boat Canada or USDBF rulebook, then match it to the event bulletin. Crews are checked for composition, ages, para places and drummer and steersperson rules. The checks are guidance: event officials make the final call on eligibility.
Can a paddler race in more than one crew?
Yes. Two crews in the same class are flagged, and so are two races too close together.
Will it stop me entering a crew that breaks a rule?
No. It warns, and you decide. Acknowledge a warning once you’ve dealt with it.
Can I get the crew list for registration?
Share this crew exports a spreadsheet with names, emails, birth dates, roles and the captain.
Plans and billing
What does it cost?
Club is $130 a year or $30 a month for the whole club; Pro is $260 a year or $60 a month, in US dollars. Paddlers never pay. A group of up to 10, run by one person, can stay on Free. Compare plans.
What’s the difference between Club and Pro?
Club runs the whole club: unlimited members, any number of club admins, practices, lineups, teams and festivals. Pro adds specific controls with roles, such as a manager for a single team or festival, a roster editor who builds lineups, and a member manager who handles invitations. It also adds history: each paddler’s answers, seats and races, and how often people get seated. Paddlers see the same app on both. Compare plans.
Is there a trial?
Yes. Your first club gets 14 days of Club with no card — every paddler, every practice, lineup and festival — so you can decide before you buy. It’s once per account. After that, a club of 10 or fewer moves to Free; a bigger one is locked, with every lineup kept, until someone picks a plan.
How do we pay?
By card on the web, under You › Subscription. On an iPhone it will be through the App Store, when the app is out. The price is the same everywhere.
What if we stop paying?
Members can’t open the club until it’s paid for again. Everything is kept for a year, so a club can skip a season.
Privacy and your data
Do you sell data or show ads?
No. Your data is never sold and never used for advertising. Our hosting provider (Cloudflare) logs each request, including your IP address, for 7 days so we can trace errors; we don’t store it anywhere else.
Who else handles our data?
Cloudflare hosts the app and its database and sends its email. Stripe takes card payments on the web, and Apple takes payment for plans bought on iPhone. Expo with Apple and Google delivers push notifications, and Sentry receives error reports from the app and the website, with names, weights and notes stripped on the device first, except crashes in the phone’s own code.
Can managers write notes about me?
Yes. You won’t see a note in the app, but it’s your data: email support from your account’s address and we’ll send you a copy. A note is deleted twelve months after it was last changed.
Can I get a copy of my data?
Email support from your account’s address and we’ll send you a file of your profile, clubs, answers, seats and any notes about you.
What about children?
Bench Eleven isn’t for people under 13. A youth paddler is added by the club as a guest, with no account, and receives nothing from us.
Where can I read the details?
What we store and why lists everything we keep and for how long.
Help
How do I get help?
In the app, You › Contact us — it’s fastest, because it tells us which account and clubs you mean. Or email support@bencheleven.com. One person reads these.
I can’t sign in.
Email support from the address you signed up with. Before anything on an account is changed, an admin of one of your clubs is asked to confirm it’s you.
How do I report someone?
Open their profile and choose Report this profile, or email support@bencheleven.com. Reports are looked at within 24 hours.
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