Boat Cards

[sailorboy1]

I'm looking to order some boat cards and wondering what people normally include on them. My thoughts are:

- boat name and port
- my wife's and my name
- email address (the boats gmail account not our personal ones)

other possibles
- mailing address (but I don't really have one yet)
- cell number
- documentation number
- boat model (helps people recognize us but no one else likely to have boats' name)

I'm kind of conflicted about personal contact info items (of course the real crazies can look it up from the boat name).

What do others include on their cards?

[angelfish2]

Here ya go:

Boat Cards

I hope this helps you!

[Macblaze]

Website?
MMSI?

[tdominic_97]

Link to blog

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I'm looking to order some boat cards and wondering what people normally include on them. My thoughts are:

- boat name and port
- my wife's and my name
- email address (the boats gmail account not our personal ones)

other possibles
- mailing address (but I don't really have one yet)
- cell number
- documentation number
- boat model (helps people recognize us but no one else likely to have boats' name)

I'm kind of conflicted about personal contact info items (of course the real crazies can look it up from the boat name).

What do others include on their cards?

Sailorboy,

We went through the same thinking process a year ago when we made new cards.

Our answer is predicated upon the intended recipients [other boaters we choose to stay in contact with...] We also tape them on the inside and outside of checked baggage when we fly (often with multiple checked cargo tubs of boat stuff...)

We have also discussed 2 different boat cards since they are so cheap to print. [We do our own designs...] One will less info...

With that in mind, we included the following info on our current boat card:

Front of card:

• Boat name and USCG documented Home Port [Not USCG Documentation number- even though this is publicly available we feel it is just more text a fellow boater wouldn't need or care about...]
• Our logo [a graphic artist friend gifted us our beautiful logo]
• Boat email address
• Boat blog address
• Our names- each including our personal email address and personal mobile phone number

Back of card:

• Make and model
• Photo of vessel [or a watercolor in our case...]
• MMSI [International version; i.e., FCC issued]
• VHF/Marine SSB call sign
• HAM call sign

Future versions will include:

Face photos of us on back [I don't know about you, but we typically remember the boat name and not always the boaters.... photos would help others remember...]

Note we don't include mailing address info. We figure if a fellow boater wanted/needed to mail us something, they will have to contact us first- which is what we prefer. This is because even though we have an SBI mail service address, sometimes we will arrange for shipping to our current location- bypassing that... This way we can pick and choose.

We also maintain a very detailed "How to contact us" document that we can share with select individuals online, and control who has access. That document includes extreme details including Sat phone contact methods, shipping and mailing, all vessel info for SAR, etc. [That document is now 5 pages long with the first page being the short version of all contact info... It contains extreme detail- a how to document really- for the technically challenged amongst our friends and family...]

In closing, let me mention we received great service from Vista Print online. We designed our own [i.e., we didn't use their fill in the blank templates...] using their online system [and you can use Pantone #s for color of you are geeky...] and had them printed on heavy, waterproof card stock for cheap. [~US$33 for 500 cards + $10 shipping to Alaska...]

Have fun!

Bill

[vjm]

I am big on the ones that have boat name, your names, email address and your pictures only. That's really all I want or need. Anything more tends to just be unused info and looks really cluttery. Make it simple, with the biggest font you can so I have a shot at reading it.