We use something like what you describe. Its a page with preset entries for departure and arrival points and times, distance traveled, engine hours run, avg speed, weather & wind followed by half a page for an anecdotal description of the day. It ends with space to list guest and a running count of days, overnights and laydays for the calendar year.

It's an adaption of a logbook we used for several seasons - "Boater's Log & Journal". http://www.whitecap.ca/books/boaters-log-book-journal We also have separate pages for upgrades, maintenance and other items which we print and add as needed.

In addition we're trying to keep up with photo collages for each year or cruise.

I scanned a page: This what you had in mind?

 

My logbook now is a Microsoft Word document that I just make free form daily entries:

Feb 4, 2009
Bought 3 fenders at WM; $37

Or:

June 11, 2010
Temp: 70; Wind: SSW 10-12; Sunny w/ clouds after 17:00
Zippy the Wonder Pooch and I got out on the lake for 3 hours...

I like the idea of pre-printed forms to fill out, but what I've got is working for me. I can got back through it and get the info I might want (when did I buy that? Where did I go that day?) I should create a 'blank entry' for a day sail that has entries for all the data (from wind speed to engine hours) that will prompt me to record all the info. I've never logged engine hours (because I've always wanted my engine to die in the fiery pits of Hell) but I should start. Also battery voltage is something I should be tracking. (With the 18 it only powered the stereo; the 25 uses it to start the engine, so battery health is more important.)

The first page of the document is all the data for my boat, from serial number to air draft. The next two pages are basic setup/breakdown steps and the storage locations of most of my gear.

 

I use a regular inexpensive composition book for both the deck log and the maintenance log. The blank page allows me to free-form and include drawings if I want. Information I include in the deck log:

Date
Departure location
Destination
Amount of fuel at departure and arrival
Crew on board
Time of departure and arrival
Weather
Sea state using the Beaufort scale
Any mechanical issues (cross referenced with maintenance log)
Any other observances

If we're on a long trip every couple of hours I add an entry with the la and lo and any relevant information (weather changes, sea state changes, change of course, etc).

Also, with the new engine I'll start keeping track of engine hours and stuff.

Logs are not required on small recreational boats but they are nice to have for my personal reminiscence. Also, when we sell the boat a maintenance log is a plus for potential sales. In the event that I get into an accident, I want the log to be in the required format so that it can potentially be admissible as evidence, i.e., it can't be kept in a format in which it can be altered so it has to be in a notebook with bound sheets where you can't insert pages.

 

I really like the idea. Numerical entries are particularly subject to massive errors. When you plot the barometric pressure on a graph the errors become obvious and trends require no imagination at all. I could see all of the weather data recorded on one big chart. The abscissa would be date/time; the ordinate would be broken into parameter sections and values. There could be a barometer section with millibar subdivision, below that might be wind intensity, below that direction but entered with arrows and not numerical degrees. This whole paradigm could continue with other parameters such as drinking water levels, fuel levels, and so forth.

This would require some experimenting, but I think it will be much more useful and useable than just letters and numbers found in traditional logs.

Congratulations!

 

I use a journal book from office supply, and write few numbers. Only on long cruises are detailed reports made at change of watch. Mostly I write the weather and general course. The log is to remember sailing days, so I try to write my impressions and feelings. If I go ashore I make notes of that. If I see interesting vessels or wildlife, that too.

 

I bought a blank hard bound book. It's small, like 4x6. Pages are lined. Neat little expanding pocket on inside back cover. Elastic band keeps it closed.

My entries are more like diary entries. Comments about the sail, weather, how I'm feeling, what I did, what I need to do:

31Mar12 - No sailing today, winds too light. Motored all over the lake, putting 4 more "break in" hours on the new Tohatsu SailPro. Installed Tiller Clutch; what a great mod! I can leave the tiller for 15 minutes at a time now. Hoping for wind tomorrow. Sunny, 83.

I'm not a cruiser, just a weekend lake sailor, so I don't track in detail engine stuff, gas consumption, barometric pressure....things that would be important to someone living aboard and crossing large expanses of open ocean.

 

I have a hard bound calender that includes the little pictures of the sun , clouds, rain with temp. A page per day works great, As an addendum to daily and weekly, monthly maintenance I circle the date of the month at a glance for what has been done.
red circle is engine , blue circle is head/water system, green is any electronic item, black is rigging items, then i refer to the day page to see what I actually did to that section.
I also can pre plan a multi leg trip with waypoints in the journal and headings as backup.
Works for me, simple and effective.

 

The VITAL importance of a 'ships log' is for 'legal' issues such as if ever called into admiralty court its a WRITTEN document that validates your claims and can establish your degree of guilt or innocence! ... Quite different from a 'travel log'.

I use sewn-bound 'writing book' and all entries are in 'ink'. A WRITTEN log is your contemporaneous and valid WITNESS if ever called into court. We also keep a 'travel log'.

 

Thanks for all the input so far. I'm definitely going to experiment with this.

One comment that struck me was the need for a bound log so that pages could not be added. I can see how one would think that would make it more attractive as a legal document (and indeed it might) but on the other hand medical charts can easily have papers added and removed from them and they end up in court all the time. I've never heard of this being questioned before. I'll have to think about that aspect as having them bound would add some cost to an otherwise simple project.....

Faster, your log is partly what I had in mind. Some data is not amenable to graphs and pictures and for that data I would use fill in the blanks, but most of it I'd like to plot on the graphs. The graph makes referencing it in the future faster and quicker to enter more data while sailing.

What I really had in mind though is recording more of the data like the anesthesia record. On Faster's log there is a line for wind and speed. Imagine having an X and Y axis where you could put dots and arrows like the anesthesia record. Dots for boat speed, arrows for wind speed both plotted at 15/30/60min intervals over an X-axis of time. Notice on the record at 8:45 that the arrows start to dip down AND the dots start to rise? The arrows are systolic and diastolic BP and the dots are pulse. Being able to see that trend means the anesthesiologist knows that the patient is leaking too much and needs some fluids added (low BP and high pulse = less blood volume).

Imagine if you could see wind speed increasing on your graph, along with boat speed, followed by more increased wind speed and a DECREASE in boat speed. You might then free-hand on the graph that a reef was put in and you would see the wind speed stay the same but the boat speed increase 15min after the reef. You would have just demonstrated for yourself that reefing at THAT particular wind speed on YOUR boat caused you to gain speed. Might be useful info....

You can also have several different points of data on the Y axis with time on the X like the record above. At the bottom he has drawings for patient positioning for example and above the vitals he has things like how many liters of oxygen he is giving and a spot to put what drugs were given. This way as he changes the oxygen level he can see a trend in vitals. A drug (atropine) might be given (and notated on the graph at the correct time above) and you see a corresponding pulse increase.

You could have lots of fun info on the Y axis like "sailing angle to the wind", engine RPM for when you're motoring, barometer readings. Having it all on the SAME X-axis will reveal a lot about your trip I think. I'll try another example:

You're sailing along hard on the wind in very light air with main and jib but no mizzen (why I don't know, but you are. Maybe you're new to ketches...). You note boat speed and wind speed over time. You notate at the top left (in one of the blank spots)"mizzen hoisted" and on that line you put an "X" at 8:45. Now the wind arrows are staying the same over time but boat speed dots are increasing. You just learned that the mizzen helps you to weather. "strange I thought sloops were better to weather"

Above wind and boat speed you're writing in every 15min your angle to the wind 35deg, 35deg, 38deg. You think that maybe you're pinching (it is a ketch after all) and try 45deg. Since it's light air it takes a while to see the trend but after a couple more data points you see that your speed has increased at 45deg. You WERE pinching. Got a GPS? Plot VMG also.

Finally you get tired of going slow and fire up the engine but keep the rpm low to be fuel efficient. Rpms are noted at the top on the same graph and you continue to plot boat speed. You know that in 8kts of wind, at 45deg off the wind, you can achieve the same boat speed as motoring at 1500rpm (lets say 4 knots).

In the future when you're motoring on a windless day you see cats paws and note that the wind is now 8knots coming from the direction of your destination. From your prior experiment you can make an informed decision as to when to cut the engine and hoist the sails knowing that on your boat, with 8kts of wind you can expect to be able to sail at 4knots, 45deg off the wind.

I also think an outline of your hull with dots for masts drawn without booms would be helpful. Simmilar to the outline of the person on the triage card where you would draw on the wounds. On the boat outline you would be drawing a visual of anything different you did. You could quickly sketch 2 lines for how far out you have your two booms and draw camber in the sails for how much outhaul you have. If you do something goofy like rig a barberhauler you could quickly sketch it.

I would also have 2 pictures of engine gauges with a fill in blank for engine hours next to each. Draw a line on the gauge picture where the gauge needle is at the beginning of the day (and note hours) and draw a line where the gauge reads at the end of the day (and note the hours). Having the line drawn on the gauge with hours next to is will allow you to go back and see that needle really starts to plummet (for the same number of hours) on the bottom half of the tank. Good to know, since you have a "V" shaped tank that there are 30hrs at cruise between 1/2 and "F" but only 10hrs between 1/2 and "E".

Is this making sense? I know, a picture really would have helped the above description....

MedSailor

 

Thanks for all the input so far. I'm definitely going to experiment with this.

One comment that struck me was the need for a bound log so that pages could not be added. I can see how one would think that would make it more attractive as a legal document (and indeed it might) but on the other hand medical charts can easily have papers added and removed from them and they end up in court all the time. I've never heard of this being questioned before. I'll have to think about that aspect as having them bound would add some cost to an otherwise simple project.....

MedSailor

Doesn't have to be expensive unless you make it expensive. As I mentioned, a log is not required for recreational boats. However, if you do want to keep a log such that it could potentially be a legal record, it should be kept in a bound notebook and entries should not be altered, or if a mistake is made, crossed out with a single line rather than erased. A $2.50 composition book fits the bill.

 

If you Google, there are some interesting historical ship's logs online. Some are fascinating reading. Apparently it's a tradition in the US Navy to start the first log entry of the new year with a poem.

 

Are there digital logs available? Such as a downloadable template for excel or word?

 

Google brings up plenty both for sale and by other boaters who are sharing their own.

 

I use a hand-written log, using a spiral bound notebook. The contents vary, depending on what's important at the time. Destinations and departure/arrival times, people on board, fuel consumption, sea conditions, irregular occurrences that may be significant, etc. It's more like a narrative than a list. I also print out charts from plotter software that I make a LOT of notes on. These are very useful later for collecting data about currents, etc. for the next time I go there. I don't record barometer unless out of radio range of a reliable weather source. If I see cloud cover or a sea condition indicating a change in weather I watch the barometer but uselessly recording it because it's on a list seems a waste of time.

 

I'm not arguing at all. I thought we were having a discussion.

And yes, there is such a thing as Admiralty law and according to the explanation by Cornell University Law school "Although admiralty shares much in common with the civil law, it is separate from it. Common law does not act as binding precedent on admiralty courts, but it and other law may be used when no law on point is available."

 

I'm not arguing at all. I thought we were having a discussion.

And yes, there is such a thing as Admiralty law and according to the explanation by Cornell University Law school "Although admiralty shares much in common with the civil law, it is separate from it. Common law does not act as binding precedent on admiralty courts, but it and other law may be used when no law on point is available."

Right, but there is no separate court, they just use different jury instructions for Admiralty law. Since it is a federal court, the standards of admission of evidence will be the same as anywhere else. That was my (long winded) point.

MedSailor

 

If the objective is to document for legal purposes such as evidence submitted after collisions, etc., I would think that log entries would usually have nothing to do with it. Things like photos, descriptions of the occurrence on an accident report, and witnesses would be most important. As far as proving location, fuel receipts and actual evidence would probably hold more sway than writing in a log book. I see the log as a reference and record mainly for my own use.

Regarding radio/distress calls, I will record times and data of distress calls because it could conceivably help in an emergency, especially if I am the only one to receive the message and relay. Actually. it would probably be a good idea to have a pre-printed sheet handy to the radios to record emergency messages and to be sure I ask the right questions and get the right information. Does anyone here have such a checklist?

 

Regarding radio/distress calls, I will record times and data of distress calls because it could conceivably help in an emergency, especially if I am the only one to receive the message and relay. Actually. it would probably be a good idea to have a pre-printed sheet handy to the radios to record emergency messages and to be sure I ask the right questions and get the right information. Does anyone here have such a checklist?

Check with your local Power Squadron or CG Aux. The CG, at least, has small stickers they give out to post near your radio. It gives you the wording for a distress call.

The basic information you want is the number of people on board (so if it turns into a SAR case, they know how many people they should be looking for), location of the boat (land characteristics if you don't know lat and long), nature of the distress, injuries, description of the boat (hopefully beyond "white hull with white sails") and if everyone has life jackets. I think I remembered everything. I've given out all my stickers.

 

To MedSailor, You have started a lot of people thinking about logs. I really like the idea of graphing certain entires to give a quick visual of conditions. It might be helpful if you could post any working designs just as you did for the like the medical forms. Some sailors do not even keep much of a log on passages, but I have found that making hourly entires in a log makes the night watches pass quickly, not that I always want them to, as night watches are my favorite watches.

 

I'm glad that some folks are liking my latest hair brained idea. I've got a design that is coming along quite nicely on some graph paper. I can't post it in it's current form because I do have the handwriting that comes with my profession and worse than that, when I brainstorm, it gets REALLY sloppy.

What I have now is much like the anesthesia record. Horizontal axis is time over 12 hours as most of my trips take less time than that, and for multi-day passages it would be easy to use 2 pages per day and see the trend on both pages of the open book. There are several vertical axis scales, one has speed with three symbols: one for VMG, one for SOG and one for speed over water. Another scale is wind speed and angle of boat heel. I've also figured out a way to add events such as fog and log them on the time axis.

Sometimes Tuesdays are short days for me, it all depends on how many cardiac stress tests are scheduled. I'll try and post a prototype on Tuesday.

MedSailor

 

I like the idea's of a hand written log and the graph logs, both have merits, although I use a netbook 99.99% of the time, so mine will mostly be simple stuff and the netbook will get the most of it

 

I've found that some of the most useful (and entertaining) entries in my log are the end-of-day narratives I write, usually after getting anchored and winding down a bit. Reflecting on the day's occurrences often leads to valuable ideas and insights.

 

I've found that some of the most useful (and entertaining) entries in my log are the end-of-day narratives I write, usually after getting anchored and winding down a bit...

I agree; at least half the reason my log exists is because I like to write.

"winding down" is that what we're calling it now?

 

There is nothing to stop you from graphing the written data from your logbook.

The biggest thing from a written log from a legal standpoint is, to be considered it has to be consistent, written at the time of the incident, and easy to prove it was unaltered. It is basically the Captains word that the log is a true and correct account of the voyage.

It is usually bound, because it is easy to prove a bound book isn't missing pages, or was altered. Mine is spiral bound, but has numbered pages.

As it would be difficult to have a multi day graph on a daily log page, a seperate page in the front or the back would serve the purpose, and not interfere with daily observations.

I personally like graphs, they show a lot of information in a small space.

 

Is anyone familiar with this software:Ship's Log V4 Nautical Software?
Does it work as advertised? Is it a pita?

 

Being somewhat naive, I was not aware that there were so many law suits and prosecutions against yacht owners and skippers that it is more important to maintain a ship's log for legal purposes than for seamanship purposes. (This is really not sarcasm, it is a confession of ignorance.)

But if preparing for court is a compelling issue, isn't good seamanship the best defense? Wouldn't a ship's log, no matter how much it breaks with tradition, that contains all the data needed for good seamanship be just as valid as one hand written with a goose quill on a parchment codex? ;-)

No doubt a skilled lawyer, doing his or her job, would ridicule an innovative log as not being a 'real log' because it did not look like a sample found in a Coast Guard or Navy training manual. Surely the defendant's attorney would be better able to make the case if the ship's log, no matter how unconventional, presented the historical data in a clear, transparent format.

I just cannot think of a compelling reason not to work with the most useable form of ship's log, no matter how much it breaks with tradition. If we can borrow proven practices from the medical profession, we should do it

 

Being somewhat naive, I was not aware that there were so many law suits and prosecutions against yacht owners and skippers that it is more important to maintain a ship's log for legal purposes than for seamanship purposes. (This is really not sarcasm, it is a confession of ignorance.)

But if preparing for court is a compelling issue, isn't good seamanship the best defense? Wouldn't a ship's log, no matter how much it breaks with tradition, that contains all the data needed for good seamanship be just as valid as one hand written with a goose quill on a parchment codex? ;-)

No doubt a skilled lawyer, doing his or her job, would ridicule an innovative log as not being a 'real log' because it did not look like a sample found in a Coast Guard or Navy training manual. Surely the defendant's attorney would be better able to make the case if the ship's log, no matter how unconventional, presented the historical data in a clear, transparent format.

I just cannot think of a compelling reason not to work with the most useable form of ship's log, no matter how much it breaks with tradition. If we can borrow proven practices from the medical profession, we should do it

I have no reason to believe that yachtsmen get sued with any real regularity. We do live in a country though that constantly FEARS being sued and that fear often alters our behavior.

I would expect insurance disputes (who anchored too close to whom) might be more common than real lawsuits.

MedSailor

 

MedSailor - Thanks for the idea. I am new to cruising and have been looking for a log/journal system that is more "visual". Funny that I hit the "speech" tab on my Macbook and it spoke your ideas from reading the post. If you get some graphical ideas going, please share them with us.. Good Idea!

 

Being new to sailing, but not necessarily to life nor the legal system (from the jury and expert witness side, thank ye gads), I'd bet that 98%(+/-2%) of sailors never need to produce the log as evidence in a court of law. Silly conversation, IMHO.

A quick and efficient way of recording hard data under sail with room to record our other observations, bon mots, and deeper insights for the penning of later sailing memoirs that younger generations are clamoring for would be great. I have seen some electronic iterations that favor the former but not the later; but personally, I didn't choose sailing as a hobby because I wanted more electronic crap in my life. Putting pen to paper while under sail or while reflecting on the day's sail is a cathartic experience.

My wife bought me a hardbound copy Adler Coles Nautical Logbook for Christmas. It has blanks for many of the data bits that Med is proposing, without the graphs but is lacking in maintenance logs in my opinion. Even though the port of departure and arrival remain the same in every entry, I do I love recording my lake sails in such a classical fashion.

 

Looks like my day starts at 5:30 am and we have a record number of cardiac tests to do. It'll probably be the weekend before I can put up anything in the way of a prototype for viewing. I'll try and spend some time on it this weekend and put something worth looking at up for comment.

Just a thought but if there is enough interest I could see about getting some bound up and sell them through sailnet....

MedSailor

 

Yup. It seems to me that litigaphobia drives the American psyche. I live in Hungary and mainly sail the Adriatic. When it comes to safety, I wish the Croatians were a little more frightened of being sued.

Keep up the good work. I am most interested in seeing your logbook when you get it going.

 

I have a flexible one inch ring binder with everything from the ships log, to maintenance logs, supply lists, squawks and my winterization checklist. I am redoing the ships log, which I will get to in a second.

First, there must be over 90% of my time on the water that has never been logged. As a kid, it never even ocurred to me. It wasn't until I was much older with kids of my own that I ever considered it.

I have zero concern over recording a legal document, as much as I'm sure there is an argument for it. I keep the log for two reasons. 1. On long passages, I would like a recent record of position and heading in the event of navigation failure. 2. It is fun to flip those pages and recall past trips. I coincidentally did so the other day and stumbled on the exact date, time and position of our whale sighting last year. Nice memory.

I have changed the format this year. Previously, I had preprinted home made forms made with Excell that would allow for two trips per page. The top section contained the date, crew and comments. Below that were several blank rows for recording time, speed, heading, wind, waves, position, baro, etc, etc.

On many short trips, entries would be very abbreviated and done after the fact. No position reports or exact times. With only having two trips per page, one having three of four position recordings and the other having none, I was wasting a lot of paper.

I changed it this year to each page having ten, 3 line sections. The top line has titles for date, time, speed, etc, etc. the next line has boxes below those titles to hand write the data. The third line has two long boxes to identify crew and comments.

If an abbreviated, after the fact entry, it will only take one three line section. For passages, I will start on departure, identifying departure in comments and following each successive 3-line section with position reports, until one records arrival.

BTW, I always record last fueling and the hours meter in the log. Best way to confirm fuel remaining.

I would post it here, but the spreadsheet is not on my iPad.