Do You Sailors All Keep Logbooks ?

[Capt Phil]

Maintaining a log was always a requirement when I worked commercial vessels in Canada and was a habit developed of necessity when documenting my time at sea to qualify for a Masters ticket. The habit stuck and I kept a log on deliveries to share with absentee owners to explain delays, deferred maintenance problems, etc. On my own boats over the years it became an indispensable tool for laying out mechanical maintenance plans, logging great fishing holes, great places to hide from weather with good holding ground, sea conditions vs forecasts and other really handy info. One question I do have is in this advanced tech age, has anyone stored this data electronically? There are a lot of really savvy techies out there that are probably using any number of applications to store this info. Cheers, Capt Phil

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by JustThinking

I, on the other hand, am more a "future"-person so what happened in the past doesn't count for much. Just as I believe that "experience" (especially the bragging with it! ) is quite over-rated: At least as far as I am concerned it seems that in all these years I never encountered the exact same situation twice which would have allowed me to fall back on "my experience" and state: "That's the way this has to be handled!".

Don't discount your experience too much. After all those years you are at the fourth stage of knowledge: You don't know what you know.

I'm guessing your experience is absolutely invaluable but you never think about it because it's second-nature now. For a newb like me (first stage of knowledge: I don't know what I don't know) something that you'd do without a second thought might be a new experience or a challenge for me.

[trinescape]

We keep a log book i bought it at my local marine dealer ,every time we put to sea we write it all down, wind ,sea conditions ,persons on board even a short run down as to how the day turned out,if certain things could be improved etc,makes for good reading when you look back on how you were when you first started out !

[shadow]

I'm actually excited and looking forward to maintaining a log book. I'm really trying to get away from computers as much as possible (I know, I'll have GPS, plotter, etc..) but I always assume that the computer will someday not function. I love the idea of going old school and keeping a daily journal of the trips. I want to keep one for the daily life stuff and another book for the actual log books of yacht position, maintenance, motor hours, etc..

I hope to write a book someday and the daily journals will be my ongoing notes... Plus, I need to get my penmanship back into normality, it is absolutely shocking..

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by Herbseesmoore

Great timing,
was just about to ask about logs for our new adventure. I'll be considering the 3 ring binder. Can anyone recommend an economical alternative, no gold leave lettering here. Would like to keep one on the pc as well.

As a very long term cruiser I kept a logbook for the first few years and then became more and more lax until now the logbook is on a computer spreadsheet (Quattro or Excel) and lists date, place, lat/lon, engine hours, genset hours, and misc expenses or maintenance gripes. In essence you might call it a "maintenance log" since keeping track of engine hours for fuel filters, oil changes, and all the other things you need to do periodically is very important.
- - For personal information I find most cruisers use blogs or photo-sharing sites.
- - Underway the navigation computers keep the route/track and waypoint date/time information which can be saved or deleted later.

[barnakiel]

We do not keep anything official, but I do take some notes - weather facts, last position, speed and course, and the funnies.

When we are sailing it works fine, but when I want to recall things later ... so maybe we will have some more extensive form of a log in our future sailings.

b.

[goboatingnow]

Seriously: I have never heard of any authorities REQUIRING me do present a logbook?! The worst I once had to show receipts from buying provisions in the last port I claimed I was at.

Yeap , I was boarded in Biscay by the French ( routine drugs inspection), and they required to see my logbook. its they that mentioned their "unhappiness" at ring bound logbooks.

Dave

[svrodeorm]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Yeap , I was boarded in Biscay by the French ( routine drugs inspection), and they required to see my logbook. its they that mentioned their "unhappiness" at ring bound logbooks.

Dave

reason being that it doesn't show if you tear out a page or two...

[David M]

For recreational boaters strictly inside the US, keeping a log is a good idea for a few reasons. It's mostly a written record of important events that you may one day need to refer back to for your own good. If someone ever wants to use it against you then make it disappear....it's not required in the first place.

[clearsea]

Yup, I do -- keep a log that is.

[Adelie]

If you have paper charts a written log updated hourly or so would be very useful in the event of a number of imaginable electrical or electronic failures. You can start dead reckoning your position from your last logged position. Misc other equip would be needed for you to make fixes without electronics.

If you use a chart plotter, never mind.

[SaucySailoress]

Nope. I kept trying, but never got it!

When I started sailing (yachts), I took great pleasure out of filling in the ship's log. Then, when I did my RYA Day Skipper, I had to rack my memory for dates and distances of passages, and all I could really recall were race series and a passage to Bahrain to put in the History section of my personal log. So for a good six weeks after that, I religiously maintained my logbook.

When we bought our current yacht, I bought a beautiful hard bound book, and religiously ruled out the first twenty pages (using it side on, so we were writing perpendicular to the feint lines). We religiously kept this log for the first half of our first passage to Bahrain. Then I gave up nagging, and the logbook went by the way. We use it now to keep record of crew contributions. There is also a xmas / wish list in the back, which no-one has ever looked at, except me and hubby. There's also a To-do list in there which I make sure hubby looks at every now and then!

At the end of the day, we download our passage plans / records when needed from the GPS.

Same goes for my diving logbook, which after my first Red Sea holiday, quickly descended into a collection of scrawled notes on hotel notepaper which occasionally surface in my rucksack, and if they're lucky get transferred into a ringbinder. When I need evidence of logged dive numbers, out comes my current dive computer!

[Heikki]

I have always kept logbook. I keep it for three majore reasons: to record my whereabouts on open waters, for legal documentation, and to record my journeys just for fun.

When sailing on foreign, international or busy domestic waters, I am more careful and frequent with my markings. Should something go wrong, I will have atleast some kind of proof what has been happening with my vessel.

On open waters I am always prepared to the fact that all four GPS-devices on board would fail - including a waterproof handheld unit independent on boat batteries. I frequently record my exact position, direction and speed.

In terms of recording my journeys, I have written about a half a page minimum since my very first sailing experience with my first dinghy. Not a single trip missed, no matter if it only was a mile or two long. My sailing career is highly unlikely to ever reach on the level that it wound be in the interest of others, however, somehow I really enjoy having it all written down. I also include a lot of pictures. Together the text and pictures really bring the memories back alive.

In the beginning, I wrote everything both to traditional "hard copy" logbook and with more words with computer. Nowadays, I wrote the daily stories directly with my computer, however, I keep a free-form manual log on the side for the above mentioned reasons. Every so often I print out the new pages of my electronic logbook and store the multiple binders including those hundreds of pages of printouts both on board and at home.

[barnakiel]

Anybody here has any automated device that would spit out the basic log data on the passage?

I know some software will write log data to a file. Is there any software that would print a file in time intervals?

b.

[markpierce]

Chapman seems to have omitted a discussion on ship/boat logs. I noticed only a few references to them.