Keeping A Log

Who keeps a "proper" boat log religiously?

Not talking maintenance log, but a trip log.

I used to, including starting point, miles traveled, ending point, fuel used, engine hours, and a summary of the trip.

Then I started to feel that it was becoming a chore, required to be completed at the end of each day, and I was not enjoying it, so I stopped.

Now I simply maintain a photo blog, updating it whenever I have a spare hour or two and often after multiple days on a trip.

I tried to keep one going with my sailboat. I stopped after a few entries

There are 3 log books on my current boat, 1 for each of the previous owners that I have records for...the first owner had about a years worth of entries for the first year, there is nothing for the remaining 10 or so years he owned the boat...second owner had about 6 entries for his first year...the owner I bought it from managed to buy a log book and write the boats name into it :lol:


...I'm not going to bother, to be honest.

I keep a spiral notebook at the helm.

99 percent is just underway and arrival places and times. When anchored, I included the position.

If foggy, I note times of lights and sound signals.

If anorher boat violates COLREGs or general safety to the point where it might become an issue latter, I make a few basic notes.

Its not fancy or at a professional level, but its probably more than what I need ti defend myself if things start going sideways. No weather unless pertinent, miles are just for fun and not necessary, no social stuff but I will add passenger names if underway the few times I have passengers.....

It only takes a few seconds to make the entries when they happen so its not really a chore for me and it could pay huge dividends for the effort.

I also keep a daily log of maintenance and fuel right on my nav computer. Its actually more of a chore than the binder but I fill it out as I motor along. Its isnt that big of a PIA and actually a pleasant distraction from those droning along moments.

I keep a boat log, or better stated a boat diary.

It is just a summary of where we go and what we do, and how many nights aboard. Nothing extensive or detailed, just a paragraph about each trip to the boat.

The log is a actual log book, and was started in 2001 when we bought first cabin cruiser. This logbook goes with me when I trade boats. I have a separate maintenance log book that stays with the boat.

It’s not a chore, at this point it’s part of the experience.

I keep a log. In fact it was passed on from the PO! Mostly summary of where, times and fuel usage. Good info.
Had to start a new maintenance log though. Would have been nice to have one of those from the PO!

Frac departure time, starting and ending engine hours, fuel purchased, sea conditions and temperature and wind speed. And then we add any significant observations, of which there are usually none. Oh, and of course starting point and destination. We do not keep a radio log at all.

Mostly I do it to track my fuel usage under various conditions. Because as we all know with gas engines I burn a lot of fuel. ;-)

One thing to consider, if you ever want to get your capt license they will accept log entries as time at sea.

I started one when we got our first 'cruising' boat. I stopped when I realize that I never referred to it. There is no point in recording data when the data isn't used. I stopped and don't miss it. Plus a logbook is a horrible data analysis tool. Any single days entry doesn't reveal much. It's hard to glean patterns and averages by looking at individual data points. Only in a DB, does this information really become queryable, and only when queries are run are the results easily analyzed.

I will play devil's advocate and ask. What do you plan on doing with the data?

I keep a basic one.

Who's on board.
Engine hours at start & end of day.
Destination/location.
Notable animal encounters.
Maintenance/upgrades.
Fuel purchases.

To keep photographs organized I write the days date and destination in a notebook, then photograph the page...this way I know where the following photos were taken. If I take what I think will be an important photo enroute, I'll take a quick photo of the Navionics display or notes written in the notebook. Photos and notes can't be separated

I bought a log book with good intentions but only put in a few entries and quit.

Most of the above, at some time.
Presently, I still keep up a maintenance log. It states the date, hours on engines, what was done.
I tried keeping a computer log of places visited, including travel speeds, fuel burned, tides, currents, anchoring conditions, social items, etc, but when a computer crash wiped out all of the stored data I gave up the idea. Especially since my old school maitenance log survived the crash.
I suppose, as computers no longer crash, so I could start again....maybe think about that one for a while.

Started experimenting with one of the electronic versions with my last boat. It was pretty nice just pushing the "START" button on the app when we pulled away, and the pressing "STOP" when we arrived. I did nothing else, and the free app/cloud produces this:

BoatLogger - Drifter

You can check and uncheck trips/segments on the map. I am not (necessarily) advocating boatlogger.com, it is just the one I played around with. There are lots of others out there. It does do what I wanted, however.

Fuel usage, hours, maintenance, etc. are typically paid add-ons - I just wanted to start with the mapping stuff.

Pretty neat to have for as easy as it is to just tap and app button once in a while.

I keep one, and have for all my boats. As listed above, I keep track of start and stop times, engine hours, and distance covered for each day of travel. I also list wildlife spotted, fish caught (including lure color), passengers, and depth and rode out once anchored. I like to look back through the entries while underway. I can check where we were and what time of year it was, which helps to plan future outings. Naturally, it also has sections for maintenance and fuel.

It only takes a few minutes, and the record is good forever. As I leave the logbook onboard, I photo the pages on my Ipad, so I can refer to them when I'm away from the boat. I should mention that I am a bit of a data nerd.

Cheers, Bill

I kept a yellow pad in the pilothouse. Wrote "things"..when we left, where we went, what we saw, who was there. Good things, bad things and problems and remedies. Also contact info of those encountered we wanted to remember (helpful problem solvers)



Every few days I would try and transcribe it to a file on the computer where it was more easily searchable.

I try to keep a log, or boat diary. I like to be able to look back at the trips we have taken, but I often forget to do it.

We keep a very detailed electronic log and before we had it, kept it manually. We also keep a journal or diary in that we keep records of what we did on each day. Sights we saw, restaurants, and activities. That we don't always do immediately and sometimes have to remember and go back and detail. Associated with that we also note things we didn't see or do but hope to next time we're there.

I keep a detailed log. The entries shows places we have been and what happens to you and the boat. Not required by any regulations I know of. The State of Washington demanded my logs trying to establish taxes.

“Pulled anchor at 0800 bla bla bla ......

Got tired of that after a few years.
Over the years we’ve never looked up anything or used it in a similar way. And usually we got tied up or anchored then some time later we’d be questioning eachother as to what time it was that we’d arrived. My camera may be a better log.

My wife has done most of the logging while I’m at the helm. But my $.02 worth is not hard to find.

Speaking of other logs I’ve thought for some time a maint. log would really be worth doing but that hasn’t gone very far either.

I’ve come to the conclusion that logs are most useful when selling your boat. My boat is (in most all respects) in excellent condition but my lack of logs will not reflect that. Too late for me but many others here could benefit from upping their game in the log book.

My first larger boat about 40 years ago I kept a very detailed log: mechanical, file, distance traveled, Fuel used, people met, Anchorage of Marina we stayed with notes. Now, since my memory is shot I still keep a mechanical log and Fuel log. The other stuff is more fun to try to remember, the stories get better, the seas rougher and the people more fun. LOL

On my sailboat I kept a very detailed log, including detailed weather notes, barometer, etc., running fixes, blah blah blah.

On Kingfisher I have a little book at the helm that gets the basics as most have described: where, when, how much.

I keep an informal log and record multi-day trips, any mechanical issues, fuel usage, hours run, description of anchorages, and unusual weather or sea states.
In the maintenance section, besides recording general maintenance, I jot down notes for projects such as measurements, materials needed, part numbers, or anything else that may escape my memory. There's more, but I can't remember what.

I keep a manual log book. After every cruise I log the date, hours, fuel, oil level (out and return figures). I also note crew, destination, anything noteworthy, like, RPM's, turbo pressure, & speed at WOT. In this log I also notes fueling and maintenance details, highlighting the fuel notes in blue and the maintenance notes in yellow.

I keep a small notebook at helm where I jot down anything pertinent or noteworthy. Some of these notes are transferred to the prime log later.

I wish there was a good on-line program that would provide better access. If I were better at Xcel spreadsheets I create my own, but this suffices until something better is learned. Probably will learn a better log on this thread!

Thanks!

A traditional log has periodic piloting entries for position, speed, change of course etc. No one has mentioned it but I save the GPS track, which has all of this stuff in great detail. I do keep a log book, but it has only the other stuff: anchoring conditions, weather conditions, maintenance related things like fuel, water and battery levels. I wish the MFDs would log weather conditions in the XML GPS track as well, but none seem to.

I keep a maintenance log, including any updates/adds (new AC, etc). Also keep a fishing log. Location, catch, bait, etc.

I would counter a previous post that a maintenance log is useful when selling the boat.... the major details log is most useful in court....


Without one, you may need the maintenance log for the quick and needed sale if the judgement doesn't go your way..... .....

When we bought our boat...no logs were available....maintenance or trips. So far so good, regardless.

To me, as a buyer, at the time, I would have appreciated where she had been and what the work history was.

I keep a basic “on board” paper log respecting hours, trips and fuel/maintenance etc

I also keep a word document log on my lap top with more data respecting trip details, mechanical issues, receipts, folks on board etc.

I enjoy doing it and would hope any prospective purchaser down the road would get value from it. At some point I will attach photos and gussy it up but for now that is it...

For me the log serves many functions. As mentioned by others miles traveled, fuel burned a blog of interesting (be they good or bad) points, maintenance and such. Most importantly a navigation tool.

The amount of navigation detail varies with my local knowledge and the conditions. When on my 'home waters' a note of the time I passed a good landmark is all I need. When on unfamiliar waters or in poor conditions I will keep a notebook by the helm and note:

• GPS lat / long
• Auto pilot course to steer
• Next way point
• SOG
• Engine RPM (which gives me the flat water speed)

When on unfamiliar waters for my final bit of redundancy or if you prefer paranoia I have an old Garmin Handheld with tracking turned on. When all the fancy stuff quits the Garmin tells me where I am and where I've been.

The idea is to almost instantly have some idea where I am when the magic gizmos quit. It hasn't happened often, but when it does it never happens at a good time / place.

I respect people keeping detailed logs for the reasons noted but I gave it up a few years ago. I obsess about so many other things related to the boat, Figured it’s one less thing to do. However, I do create a personal user manual where I am constantly adding information related to the boats systems, anchor spot notes, etc.

A detailed maintenance log will very likely add resale value, or at the very least make the sale quicker. Unless it talks a lot about the seized engine loosened with Marvel Mystery oil. I weighed this heavily when buying recently.

I guess a buyer could get all this from my blog!!

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