Startup and underway checklist

[No Mast]

To help us not forget any details I created this checklist. The items are listed in the order you encounter them as you enter and go thru the engine room. Its been especially helpful to the admiral.

It's just an excel spreadsheet that we then went to staples had them print double sided in color and laminate with 10mil plastic so its one page nice and thick. You can write on it with dry erase markers.

If anyone would like to copy it and modify for their own use feel free. If you want the original excel file, PM me your email address. TF won't let me attach an excel spreadsheet to a post or a PM.

 

[sea hag]

Great work, thanks. Sent you PM.

 

[nautibeaver]

Thanks, PM sent.

 

[Britannia]

Great list - thanks! I'm putting together the same thing for my new (to me) Krogen 54. Yours has a lot of what I need I suspect.

All the best

Richard

 

[Crusty Chief]

Nice tool, PM sent. Thanks.

 

[sunchaser]

NM

I like it. I will sit down with my wife and update same with her having input.



BTW, things I do that are on our list now

• Is water flowing out exhaust following engine starts
• Do you have stabilizers, I may have missed that check?
• Close inspection of all hoses and zero water in bilge when doing ER checks.
• Carefully look at couplings when cruising
• Good look at after coolers and turbo during ER checks when cruising
• Regularly inspect fuel manifold and fittings
• During ER checks look at fuel flow system from filters to injectors
• Use IR gun in several places -our transmissions get shot. Pan oil runs around 185F
• Monitor PSS shaft logs with IR gun and check for water flow

My ER checks take about 6 minutes when cruising. Obviously ER access can add to or shorten the cruising ER check list items.

 

[caltexflanc]

I like the ER check list, I used to keep that one in my head. Here is a copy of our Dock Departure list, somewhat crude and boat specific, but we used it on charters too. Have it in Excel too. I printed a bunch out and kept them in a binder as an adjunct to the log.

 

[No Mast]

OK, I've emailed the excel file to everyone that's asked for it. If you haven't received it please let me know.

To clarify one point on it, yes we shoot all the temps with an IR thermometer. Think having a good one is a must have.

 

[cardude01]

Good info. Thanks for the email.

 

[Pgitug]

To help us not forget any details I created this checklist. The items are listed in the order you encounter them as you enter and go thru the engine room. Its been especially helpful to the admiral.



It's just an excel spreadsheet that we then went to staples had them print double sided in color and laminate with 10mil plastic so its one page nice and thick. You can write on it with dry erase markers.



If anyone would like to copy it and modify for their own use feel free. If you want the original excel file, PM me your email address. TF won't let me attach an excel spreadsheet to a post or a PM.

Thanks for the list. You can open it in iBooks to have on your iPad.
A list to follow is the only way you will never forget.
More so with each passing year.

 

[FF]

Since fun can happen at O dark 30 when it begins to blow in an anchorage

I prefer to not need anything but the key switch to get the engine on line.

There will be enough excitement , and even a guest can turn a key.

 

[No Mast]

Since fun can happen at O dark 30 when it begins to blow in an anchorage

I prefer to not need anything but the key switch to get the engine on line.

There will be enough excitement , and even a guest can turn a key.

We run through this before departing the dock. Then we use the underway portion. If we anchor out for the night, all we do is turn the key off and on also. We don't go around closing thru hulls or fuel feeds when on the hook. The most we really do before picking up the anchor is to make sure the alternator output is right and the fuel pressure thru the racors is ok.

 

[No Mast]

Thanks for the list. You can open it in iBooks to have on your iPad.
A list to follow is the only way you will never forget.
More so with each passing year.

Never thought of it. Interesting. However for moving around the engine room I'd rather have the plastic page than my iPad. At least till the price differential between them is much closer

 

[Rsysol]

As far as a running log for ER checks, we put a spreadsheet together with each component and the target temp. We can then log the temps as we cruise vs. just checking. This gives us a log of each component and shows if any movement is happening as we cruise. Especially helpful for long passages.

 

[No Mast]

As far as a running log for ER checks, we put a spreadsheet together with each component and the target temp. We can then log the temps as we cruise vs. just checking. This gives us a log of each component and shows if any movement is happening as we cruise. Especially helpful for long passages.

What we do is use a dry erase marker and keep the running log of temps on the form itself, right by the item on the checklist. We do not keep a long term record of this info as we feel as long as we know that its been where it needs to be for the past 2-4 hrs, and can compare it to what it is now, that's all we need to know.

Hope that run on sentence made sense.

 

[MYTraveler]

Your list provided some good ideas for things I will add to my list

My list also includes a detailed close-up-the boat check list -- primarily to assure that unnecessary circuits are off (and more importantly, necessary ones -- for refrigerators, etc., are on), and things like making sure all of the hatches and ports are closed and locked, and since my galley freezer can pop open if the refrigerator (its a combo unit, refrig on top, freezer on the bottom), one of the last things I check is that the freezer is closed (once it was not).

One thing my underway list has that is really important on my boat (and maybe others as well) is to make sure the dinghy is secured (if not, in heavy seas it could easily fall, with potentially fatal consequences, from its chocks on the boat deck). Similarly, my close up list includes making sure that the dinghy's drain plug is out (or it could fill with water in rain -- at least if its cover wasn't 100% effective at keeping rain water out).

 

[Larry M]

...making sure that the dinghy's drain plug is out (or it could fill with water in rain -- at least if its cover wasn't 100% effective at keeping rain water out).

Last spring on a fueling run, I noticed that we were low in the stern. When we got back to the dock and I was putting the FB canvas back on, I lifted the dinghy cover. The plug was still in and was holding a 1,000 plus lbs of water. No wonder we were low.

 

[TDunn]

Seems to me your underway checks are a bit permissive..

I really think you should be continuously aware of everything on you list except fuel consumption and barometer. I know I am, particularly when it comes to the surroundings, engine rpms, engine temp, speed. 15 minutes is a long time and translates to a considerable distance (2 nm at 8 knots).

 

[No Mast]

TDunn: sure, but that doesn't change the fact that we can all be forgetful or make assumptions which is why having the facts written down to cross check against can be helpful.

 

[TDunn]

I wasn't criticizing making the list. My concern was that the underway check list simply wasn't adequate when it comes to awareness. The helmsman needs to be continuously aware of all the things I mentioned. If you need a check list to remind you to be aware of the surroundings, then you shouldn't have the helm unless you are just learning to handle the boat under the close supervision of a competent captain. Just my opinion based on 55 years on the water.

 

[No Mast]

My concern was that the underway check list simply wasn't adequate when it comes to awareness.

Okay, how would you suggest modifying it to make it better?

If you need a check list to remind you to be aware of the surroundings, then you shouldn't have the helm unless you are just learning to handle the boat under the close supervision of a competent captain.

I don't know it's there as much to remind you, as much as it's there as a reference for experienced skippers; and as you point out a learning tool for new crew. It has been demonstrated that people are less likely to make a mistake or forget a task if they have a checklist to cross reference. That's why they are standard practice in any large airplane. I, like any commercial airliner does, have a pre-departure checklist, an engine start checklist, etc, etc, including various emergency procedure checklists for everything from engine failures to smoke in the cabin, etc . It's not that I don't know what the procedures are. However I understand that I will be a safer more consistent pilot if I use them. Same principle applies to the boat. Sure the boats a simpler machine in some ways, but the point is just as valid.

 

[Capt.Bill11]

I really think you should be continuously aware of everything on you list except fuel consumption and barometer. I know I am, particularly when it comes to the surroundings, engine rpms, engine temp, speed. 15 minutes is a long time and translates to a considerable distance (2 nm at 8 knots).

I think it's obvious that he wasn't recommending that you only check those things every 15 minutes on the dot. There are just listed as a reminder with a some what arbitrary time. The verbiage could be changed to reflex that of course.

Any rational person is going to be scanning the gauges and horizon on a more regular or even, as you mentioned, on a continuous basis.

 

[dodo]

Thanks for mailing the Excel-check list

Good job!

Karl

 

[caltexflanc]

I used to log the ER check measurements in the main running log. I didn't have a rigorous schedule for them so it was also good to have a reminder of how much time since last done. Important to relate the measurements to RPM, time since getting underway, etc. . I was more disciplined when blue water cruising than when on the ICW or more protected waters. I had mechanical gauges in each ER which were very accurate, so in addition to the infrared thermometer readings, I'd log those too and compare to the helm gauges. The latter were constantly scanned, but you never know when they could get further out of whack (which a few of them were, slightly).