question: boat cards

For those of you lucky enough to be out there cruising full time, I have a question about boat cards. In your own collection of boat cards, what is the most useful information on the card? For example, does a boat card need a photo of the Admiral and Captain to be really useful to your memory, or is just the name of the boat and an email address all you really need to keep track of your cruising friends?

We find we remember the boat and boat name first, then we can remember who was on board.


So our cards (and most of the full time cruiser cards we have collected), have;


A picture of the boat with the boat name.
Their names (Billy Bob and Susie May Bodreaux)
email address.

dimer2 said:

We find we remember the boat and boat name first, then we can remember who was on board.


So our cards (and most of the full time cruiser cards we have collected), have;


A picture of the boat with the boat name.
Their names (Billy Bob and Susie May Bodreaux)
email address.

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I assume any business card web site that lets you design your own card would be adequate for creating your boat card. Is this correct, or does one site do a better job than most?

When in the military, many were known by their home state since people's names were more difficult to remember. I image the boat name would be easier to recall unless the names went together like John and Jen.

seattleboatguy said:

I assume any business card web site that lets you design your own card would be adequate for creating your boat card. Is this correct, or does one site do a better job than most?

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I used Vista Print. They're an online service. Cheap easy and good quality.

Our boat card has our name's, mailing address, email address, telephone number and a picture of Hobo.

We use a 3 ring binder with clear plastic business card holders for those we collect. Two 2 sided cards and irregular size cards are a PIA.

mbevins said:

I used Vista Print. They're an online service. Cheap easy and good quality.

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I used them as well. Then I had to change my email address so I have 480 useless cards.

In reality, I haven't found the cards to be of much real use. We haven't contacted anyone who gave us a card and nobody we gave a card to has ever contacted us. It's more of a vanity thing, giving out boat cards.

Folks are remembered mostly by the boat name.

One thing I did while traveling and folks came aboard was to have them sign in to the ships log book ,

with the usual info ,,,,,,, PLUS their favorite recipe.

Some were drinks , some were snacks , some real food , but all are great to revisit.

"When in the military, many were known by their home state "

Long time since having seen a chafing dish to collect cards of callers in most homes!

And then it was mostly O-6 and above.

...In reality, I haven't found the cards to be of much real use. We haven't contacted anyone who gave us a card and nobody we gave a card to has ever contacted us. It's more of a vanity thing, giving out boat cards.

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We use boat cards the same way we used business cards when we were working. You meet someone and want to trade information. Instead of asking for an email address or phone number, we hand out a boat card.

Right now we're tied to a couples dock we met in the Bahamas 2 years ago, who live in FL. They said if you're ever passing through we have dock space for you. We looked at the weather and at our anchoring options and said, "lets call". The winds blowing 30 knots out of the NW. It's sure better than being at anchor. I'm glad we traded boat cards.

Larry M said:

Our boat card has our name's, mailing address, email address, telephone number and a picture of Hobo.

We use a 3 ring binder with clear plastic business card holders for those we collect. Two 2 sided cards and irregular size cards are a PIA.

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Ah...nice redactions...reminds me of my military investigation days...

I just go to staples and buy a box of Avery business card blanks...then I go to the Avery website where they have software that lets you make up your own cards. Print a couple dozen...if anything changes or you have a better picture now...update. No changes good to go.

Last card design and print took about 20 minutes.

Just the basics, no people photos.

Larry M said:

Our boat card has our name's, mailing address, email address, telephone number and a picture of Hobo.

We use a 3 ring binder with clear plastic business card holders for those we collect. Two 2 sided cards and irregular size cards are a PIA.

Click to expand...

This is same basic design we did for our cards, left out address as e-mail is most commonly used, the binder really helped. If you are even only a little outgoing, you accumulate friends very quickly. I designed and printed my own with a very basic program.

psneeld said:

.I just go to staples and buy a box of Avery business card blanks...then I go to the Avery website where they have software that lets you make up your own cards. Print a couple dozen...if anything changes or you have a better picture now...update. No changes good to go..

Click to expand...

I used to do that but Vista Print was so easy and inexpensive that I couldn't resist. The cards look better as well.

Home made cards do work though. Unless you have an ink jet printer. The ink runs if it gets wet.

WesK said:

I used to do that but Vista Print was so easy and inexpensive that I couldn't resist. The cards look better as well.

Home made cards do work though. Unless you have an ink jet printer. The ink runs if it gets wet.

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Vista Print is less than $20 for a basic card with picture delivered

I created my own boat cards using MS Word. Picture on the front and info on the back.

My ink doesn't seem to run unless you immerse the card...and sure you can get some fancy ones from the pros but overall it's not like I'm trying to close a billion dollar deal...and finally, never had to throw more than a handful away.


Plus the cards have other uses besides boat cards...whatever you imagination comes up with.


Making your own cards isn't for everyone..just passing along my experiences giving them and receiving them.

We use a 3 ring binder with clear plastic business card holders for those we collect. Two 2 sided cards and irregular size cards are a PIA.

There's a handy little smartphone app called ScanBizCards...describes itself as "the only business card app scanner with cloud backup and sync across multiple devices with access to cards from any browser." Available from iTunes app store (not sure about Android), full featured version is $.99..."lite" version is free. You can scan front and back of 2 sided or any shape cards. When somebody wants to swap cards with you, just grab your phone and scan theirs.

I just go to staples and buy a box of Avery business card blanks...then I go to the Avery website where they have software that lets you make up your own cards

You don't have go to the Avery website to use their templates...If you use any version of MS Office, Avery has an add-on download for it that includes templates for everything that Avery makes paper stock for. It adds an icon to the menu bar in Word. You can add your own photo or artwork or use clip art.

Sam's and Costco have 100 sheet (10 cards/sheet) boxes of card stock for a LOT less than any of the office supply stores. I only print as many as I need--a bunch of my business cards for a boat show or rendezvous gig, only a couple of sheets of my personal card to keep in my purse. Print "test sheets" of any new ones on plain paper so I don't waste card stock if it's not right.

I usta think it was kinda silly.
We've recieved 5 or 10 and they went into our collection of business cards.
I edit my wallet often as it gets fat w all the money I carry around.

Not being in Alaska anymore we may do the card thing as we will meet many more boaters. Soon I think we'll go to the South Sound via Port Townsend to see Steve. Want to go into Lake Washington too. And if we bump into anybody making a sloppy maneurver in port we can just leave a card.

HeadMistress said:

We use a 3 ring binder with clear plastic business card holders for those we collect. Two 2 sided cards and irregular size cards are a PIA.

There's a handy little smartphone app called ScanBizCards...describes itself as "the only business card app scanner with cloud backup and sync across multiple devices with access to cards from any browser." Available from iTunes app store (not sure about Android), full featured version is $.99..."lite" version is free. You can scan front and back of 2 sided or any shape cards. When somebody wants to swap cards with you, just grab your phone and scan theirs.

I just go to staples and buy a box of Avery business card blanks...then I go to the Avery website where they have software that lets you make up your own cards

You don't have go to the Avery website to use their templates...If you use any version of MS Office, Avery has an add-on download for it that includes templates for everything that Avery makes paper stock for. It adds an icon to the menu bar in Word. You can add your own photo or artwork or use clip art.

Sam's and Costco have 100 sheet (10 cards/sheet) boxes of card stock for a LOT less than any of the office supply stores. I only print as many as I need--a bunch of my business cards for a boat show or rendezvous gig, only a couple of sheets of my personal card to keep in my purse. Print "test sheets" of any new ones on plain paper so I don't waste card stock if it's not right.

Click to expand...

Well explained, I love SanBizCards app.

FF said:

...

Long time since having seen a chafing dish to collect cards of callers in most homes!
....

Click to expand...

Not a silver salver?

markpierce said:

Not a silver salver?

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The silver salver is used to present the card to the caller.

It should reference your electronic boat card ID. The cards you make now should last you through 2020 and surely, everyone will be using an electronic boat card by then.

Our electronic boat card ID is aCa. So we'd print our ID on a card as:

eBC/aCa

More info about the ID can be found here:
https://activecaptain.com/newsletters/2016-01-20.php

You guys inspired me to tackle this item on my rountuit list. I've been sitting on the card stock for 3 years. Today I downloaded the template from Avery and printed 50 cards on my Epson printer.

It took me a couple hours of download/format/print/ reformat/reprint. I wanted to make sure it was easily readable since we trawlermen aren't getting any younger! I needed to resize the font and reformat the text 'cause I'm a one-sided card kind of guy.

FlyWright said:

You guys inspired me to tackle this item on my rountuit list. I've been sitting on the card stock for 3 years. Today I downloaded the template from Avery and printed 50 cards on my Epson printer.....

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C`mon Al, post the "large print" version so we can all see it.

BruceK said:

C`mon Al, post the "large print" version so we can all see it.

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I would but it's basically just my avatar artwork with my contact info in the corners.

Yes...but I love the redacted photos.....there's just something intriguing about "secret" info.

It may give some here something to do...guess the redacted info....track down your marina and post a Google Earth pic of your boat. If they really Pink Panther it...no telling what they can post about us...

Just like the Internet, it's best to not put anything on your boat card that you don't want anyone to know.

WesK said:

Just like the Internet, it's best to not put anything on your boat card that you don't want anyone to know.

Click to expand...

For this reason we have two sets of cards, one we use at home where we have our phone numbers and home address, the other just email addresses.

Larry M said:

Our boat card has our name's, mailing address, email address, telephone number and a picture of Hobo.

We use a 3 ring binder with clear plastic business card holders for those we collect. Two 2 sided cards and irregular size cards are a PIA.

Click to expand...

That is true, as are the ones that are designed to be viewed vertically. I don't mind the two sided a lot. On the back or front of cards I'll write such pertinent information as pup's name, couple's name, and where spotted.

Mine go into a business card binder and are stored as I receive them. I can look up people via the context of time. I prefer boat pictures and boat names first. Then people. That's how I remember folks.

WesK said:

I used them as well. Then I had to change my email address so I have 480 useless cards.

In reality, I haven't found the cards to be of much real use. We haven't contacted anyone who gave us a card and nobody we gave a card to has ever contacted us. It's more of a vanity thing, giving out boat cards.

Click to expand...

There's this thing called a magic marker. Line out the wrong address and either stamp in the correct or ignore it entirely.

I do not consider my boat cards a "vanity" thing. The cards are a way to remember folks who have entered and left my life on the water. I expect no one to contact me though if they honored me by remembering our encounter, that's pretty spiffy.

HeadMistress said:

There's a handy little smartphone app called ScanBizCards...describes itself as "the only business card app scanner with cloud backup and sync across multiple devices with access to cards from any browser." Available from iTunes app store (not sure about Android), full featured version is $.99..."lite" version is free. You can scan front and back of 2 sided or any shape cards. When somebody wants to swap cards with you, just grab your phone and scan theirs.

(snipped)
Print "test sheets" of any new ones on plain paper so I don't waste card stock if it's not right.

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Personally I'm uncomfortable with items stored in the cloud. The information is only as secure as the host and every one of those is subject to intrusion.

Electronic boat cards are fine I suppose for some -- just not for me. If I want you to have my card I'll hand you one, if I have any that is!

Like Peggie I have printed my boat cards on plain paper. I use the test sheets -- just cut them to the proper size and call it good.

Bay Pelican said:

For this reason we have two sets of cards, one we use at home where we have our phone numbers and home address, the other just email addresses.

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That's a good idea Bay Pelican. I'm going to take off Kidlet's address from my cards. I have no mailing address per se so there's no reason why I should include hers on the card. I'll switch over to strictly website and email with the next batch.

Thanks for the idea. You're right -- having a house address for me is crazy. I've not been in Pensacola for 3+ years.

Janice wrote:

Personally I'm uncomfortable with items stored in the cloud. The information is only as secure as the host and every one of those is subject to intrusion.

That's also true of our computers! And external hard drives have a much higher failure rate than cloud servers.

However, you can store your card file on your computer or a thumb drive if you want to...thumb drives don't take up nearly the space that 3 ring binders do. I have another business card scan program (interestingly enough named "CardScan" connected to my office computer. I can move any that I've scanned with my phone to it and I periodically back up that file to a documents file...as I do my iphone contact list.

I've been a Carbonite subscriber on my office computer for about 5 years...only necessary to install it, then it continuously backs up everything you save on your computer to their "cloud" server without you needing to do another thing, not even pay attention. I wouldn't be without it...it's saved my tail more than once when I've forgotten to save.

Electronic boat cards are fine I suppose for some -- just not for me. If I want you to have my card I'll hand you one, if I have any that is!

No reason you can't have it both ways.

Electronic boat cards are fine I suppose for some -- just not for me. If I want you to have my card I'll hand you one, if I have any that is!

Click to expand...

An electronic boat card is an option. But just like most things that move from the physical/paper world into the electronic one, there is much gained:

- Your paper boat card will never show your friends where you are right now. Or where you've moving to. Or even where you're going next season, all depending on what information you want to share.

- Paper boat cards become impossible to organize and find once you have a few hundred of them. Last count, we had just over 700. If I needed to flip through them when I saw a boat coming into a harbor that I thought I knew, I'd never find the card by the time they were waving hello. Now I often know they're coming before I can see the boat and am reminded of their name, their dog's name, and that they like sushi.

- An electronic boat card can be made available to marinas or especially used to unlock fueling intentions. The potential for using that to save hundreds (thousands?) of dollars is coming. Paper cards only cost money to produce and don't usually have a mechanism of saving you money. There is a lot coming in this money-saving capability.

- Changes to an electronic boat card happen instantly and flow through to everyone who has your card.

- Your batch of friends' cards is as close as any device like your phone. Not too many people carry around their binders filled with cards so you only have access to the paper cards when you're in the same place as the binder.


I could go on and on but you probably get the picture.

Every move into the digital world takes some time and is often rejected early by many who are used to the older ways. That's OK and completely natural. This is one of those things that has so many advantages - there's nothing going to stop it.