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Build order

Which Florida water goes into Florida Boater, in what order, and what is actually finished.
Last updated August 10, 2026

Status, not marketing. Nothing here is a launch commitment, and no region has shipped yet. Target dates are deliberately left off — a solo build cadence cannot be predicted honestly this early. Target dates are deliberately omitted; a date that slips is worth less than no date.

What’s in here

  1. The Florida regions
  2. How a region gets authored
  3. Validation gates
  4. After Florida

1. The Florida regions

Region boundaries and names are approved. Signed off by Michael Parriott, Sr., Managing Member on 10 August 2026. The assignments for systems holding field data were derived from the counties already recorded against those systems; the division of the rest of the state was a first cut, reviewed and accepted.

Changes from here are amendments to an approved plan rather than edits to a draft. The register records this as version 11.

Florida Boater is being built to chart every waterway in the state. The work is broken into 3 sizeable regions — a basin, a bay and its tributaries, or a spring cluster. A region is the unit of work and the unit of release. None of them is a separate download or a separate purchase.

Charted is not verified. Every waterway named below is drawn on the map. Only the ones in dark type carry field data we collected ourselves — verified ramps, springs, reefs, hazards and regulations. Gray names are charted and nothing more. 10 waterways across 1 regions currently hold field data.

  1. 1

    North Florida In build — not submitted

    Alachua · Baker · Bay · Bradford · Calhoun · Clay · Columbia · Dixie · Duval · Escambia · Franklin · Gadsden · Gilchrist · Gulf · Hamilton · Holmes · Jackson · Jefferson · Lafayette · Leon · Levy · Liberty · Madison · Nassau · Okaloosa · Santa Rosa · St. Johns · Suwannee · Taylor · Union · Wakulla · Walton · Washington county

    Steinhatchee · Suwannee · Ochlockonee · Santa Fe · Aucilla · Wacissa · Withlacoochee (North) · Econfina · Fenholloway · Ichetucknee  |  Waccasassa (unverified)  |  Apalachicola · Chipola · Choctawhatchee · Escambia · Perdido · Blackwater · Yellow · Shoal · St. Marks · Wakulla · Sopchoppy · Carrabelle · St. Marys · Nassau · Amelia · Alapaha · Ortega · Trout

    The Panhandle, the Big Bend, the spring country and the First Coast. Every one of the eleven field-verified systems sits here, and it is where the founder's own water is. Steinhatchee is authored first and the Suwannee second, inside this region. Not submitted to the App Store.

  2. 2

    Central Florida Charted only — no field data yet

    Brevard · Citrus · Flagler · Hardee · Hernando · Hillsborough · Indian River · Lake · Manatee · Marion · Orange · Osceola · Pasco · Pinellas · Polk · Putnam · Seminole · Sumter · Volusia county

    St. Johns · Ocklawaha · Wekiva · Econlockhatchee · Homosassa · Weeki Wachee · Withlacoochee · Anclote · Hillsborough · Alafia · Little Manatee · Manatee · Braden · Halifax · Tomoka · Eau Gallie

    The St. Johns corridor, the Central Florida lake chains and the Nature Coast springs down through Tampa Bay. The lake chains carry the inland rule set rather than the coastal one, so this region needs both.

  3. 3

    South Florida Charted only — no field data yet

    Sarasota · DeSoto · Charlotte · Lee · Glades · Hendry · Highlands · Okeechobee · St. Lucie · Martin · Palm Beach · Broward · Collier · Miami-Dade · Monroe county

    Caloosahatchee · Peace · Myakka · Loxahatchee · North Fork Saint Lucie · Orange · Imperial · Gordon · Barron · Turner · Harney · Broad · Roberts · Watson · North River

    Charlotte Harbor and the southwest, the Everglades and Ten Thousand Islands, and the Keys. Shallow-draft and paddle country over much of it, with different hazards and its own safety treatment.

North Florida holds all eleven field-verified systems, including Steinhatchee and the Suwannee. The standing Steinhatchee-then-Suwannee decision is now an ordering inside North Florida rather than between regions. Central and South follow North. Neither holds field data yet, so the order between them is open and the owner has not set one. Record counts for every field-verified system are on the coverage page.

1a. Where the work actually stands

Bright blue is a waterway carrying verified field data — ramps, springs, reefs, hazards and regulations we collected and confirmed. Red is charted and nothing more. Records alone do not earn blue: nine systems hold 667 records with no verification and are drawn red, the same as a river nobody has touched.

Alafia River — needs field workAlapaha River — needs field workAlapahoochee River — needs field workAmelia River — needs field workAnclote River — needs field workApalachicola River — needs field workBarron River — needs field workBlackwater River — needs field workBraden River — needs field workBrickhill River — needs field workBroad River — needs field workBrothers River — needs field workCaloosahatchee River — needs field workCarrabelle River — needs field workCedar River — needs field workChattahoochee River — needs field workChipola River — needs field workChoctawhatchee River — needs field workConecuh River — needs field workCrooked River — needs field workCumberland River — needs field workDead River — needs field workEast Bay River — needs field workEast River — needs field workEau Gallie River — needs field workEconlockhatchee River — needs field workEscambia River — needs field workFlint River — needs field workGordon River — needs field workHalifax River — needs field workHarney River — needs field workHillsborough River — needs field workHomosassa River — needs field workImperial River — needs field workJackson River — needs field workLittle Manatee River — needs field workLittle Ochlockonee River — needs field workLittle River — needs field workLittle Satilla River — needs field workLoxahatchee River — needs field workManatee River — needs field workMatanzas River — needs field workMyakka River — needs field workNassau River — needs field workNorth Fork Saint Lucie River — needs field workNorth Prong Alafia River — needs field workNorth River — needs field workOcklawaha River — needs field workOrange River — needs field workOrtega River — needs field workPalm River — needs field workPea River — needs field workPeace River — needs field workPerdido River — needs field workRibault River — needs field workRoberts River — needs field workSatilla River — needs field workShoal River — needs field workSopchoppy River — needs field workSouth Amelia River — needs field workSouth Prong Alafia River — needs field workSt. Johns River — needs field workSt. Marks River — needs field workSt. Marys River — needs field workStyx River — needs field workTolomato River — needs field workTomoka River — needs field workTrout River — needs field workTurner River — needs field workWakulla River — needs field workWatson River — needs field workWeeki Wachee River — needs field workWekiva River — needs field workWhite River — needs field workYellow River — needs field workWaccasassa — needs field workCrescent Lake — needs field workEast Lake Tohopekaliga — needs field workLake Apopka — needs field workLake George — needs field workLake Griffin — needs field workLake Harney — needs field workLake Harris — needs field workLake Istokpoga — needs field workLake Kissimmee — needs field workLake Monroe — needs field workLake Ocklawaha — needs field workLake Okeechobee — needs field workLake Santa Fe — needs field workLake Seminole — needs field workOrange Lake — needs field workTohopekaliga Lake — needs field workTsala Apopka Lake — needs field workLochloosa Lake — needs field workNewnans Lake — needs field workOrange Lake — needs field workAucilla River — verified field dataEconfina River — verified field dataFenholloway River — verified field dataIchetucknee River — verified field dataOchlockonee River — verified field dataSanta Fe River — verified field dataSteinhatchee River — verified field dataSuwannee River — verified field dataWacissa River — verified field dataWithlacoochee River — verified field data
10 verified 96 still to do Rivers © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · lakes Natural Earth · outline US Census Bureau
Systems with verified field data11 — 621 verified of 687 records, 90% within those systems
Systems holding records but unverified9 — 667 records awaiting confirmation
Charted waterways drawn on this map106
Share of the charted map verified9%

6 systems hold records but cannot be drawn here. Of those, 1 carries verified field data and still has no shape on the map: Cedar Key Flats. The other 5 are unverified: Suwannee Sound, Horseshoe Beach, Big Bend Flats, Lake Rousseau, Lake City Lakes. All are coastal flats, sounds and lake clusters with no charted line or polygon, so there is nothing to color. They are counted in the table above and absent from the map. Geometry is needed before any of them can ship.

The map shows 106 charted waterways. The declared scope is every navigable waterway in Florida — rivers, creeks, lakes, springs, the beachfront, the passes and the paddle routes. That total has not been fixed, so this map understates how much remains rather than overstating it.

2. How a region gets authored

Big Bend ran all seven from scratch. Every region after it starts at stage two, because the app already exists — only the data and the local detail change. A region holding several waterways repeats stages one through five per waterway, then builds once. Durations are the founder's own estimates for solo work on a single waterway, taken from the Steinhatchee build. They are planning figures, not guarantees.

  1. 1. Ground truth 1–2 weeks

    The founder walks the ramps, launches the boat, verifies coordinates, photographs points of interest and notes hazards across the region.

    Output: Field notes, GPS traces, photo log

  2. 2. Fishing regulations 1 week

    Species rules pulled from the state wildlife agency — bag limits, size limits, seasons, permits — each carrying its source and the date it was read. Coastal and inland rule sets are handled separately where a region spans both.

    Output: Regulations file, sourced and dated

  3. 3. Hazards catalog 3–5 days

    Shoaling, bars, low-water cautions and weather exposure, drawn from Coast Guard statistics, weather service data, NOAA charts and county contacts.

    Output: Hazards file

  4. 4. Point verification 1 week

    Every ramp, marina, spring and reef checked against a source and phone numbers dialled. Anything that cannot be confirmed is not plotted.

    Output: Verified points, source per record

  5. 5. Courses and coverage 3 days

    GPS traces of the channel centerlines and the region's coverage boundary, drawn from real navigation rather than traced off a basemap.

    Output: Course polylines and coverage polygon

  6. 6. Region build 1–2 weeks

    The region is authored into the state app — data wired in, hazards adjusted, tide stations attached. No new app is created.

    Output: Region ready for testing

  7. 7. Release 5–14 days

    Beta testing, then submission of the app update that carries the new region. The coverage map updates when it is live.

    Output: Region live inside the state app

3. Validation gates

Expansion is earned rather than scheduled. If a gate is missed, the answer is to fix the released region rather than start the next one. A second region built on an unproven first region just multiplies the same problem.

Customers769 paid customers on the released region — the measured break-even
Rating4.3 stars or better across at least 30 organic reviews
Retention60% thirty-day retention
DefectsZero Sev-1 defects open
DataVerified the next region's field data verified and dated
FundingInternal the next build funded without new outside money

4. After Florida

The second state, after Florida. Three water classifications under NCGS 113-129 — inland under the Wildlife Resources Commission, coastal under the Marine Fisheries Commission, and joint where both commissions hold authority.

Not yet started. No field data has been collected and no regulations file has been authored. Any North Carolina imagery elsewhere on this site is an interface mock-up, labeled as such.

Where this page comes from. It is generated from a single canonical record, published at data/build-order.json, which the internal build register also reads. The page is never edited by hand, so the site and the register cannot drift apart. Spot something wrong? support@dfr.guru.