Boating log book

[P-Dogg]

In my really expensive hobby, I am required by the FAA to keep a log of hours spent piloting (at least the hours that are required to show compliance with currency regs). No such log requirement exists for those casual captains cruising at 0 MSL. Nevertheless, this is my first full season having my own boat, and while the maintenance log is already packed with details from changing the o-ring on the fuel fill (my first repair) to rebuilding my underwater exhaust (post coming soon Aaron, I promise), I have not started a cruising log. I bought the boat to force my kids to spend time with me not more than 36' away, at least that's what they'll tell you. I actually bought it to spend time with the kids while they still were kids. I figured that this season I'd start a cruising log. I was curious if any other folks have a cruising log and what goes in it. I presume it is separate from the maintenance log, so that it can be reviewed selectively without all of the things mentioned NOT mentioned in the warm and fuzzy boating movie interfering with remembering the good times on your boat. Anyway, I'm looking for ideas on how to get the most out of this new compliation of boating memories.

[prowlersfish]

A lot of people keep Logs some keep maintenance logs some cruising and some do both many do both in one log . Amount on detail varies on the person . I keep a very lose log not much detail . the boat behind me he keeps track of every drop of fuel , oil screw etc. and every mile . mine is something like this April replace w/ pumps & after coolers ( 5K) June repair hull damage 10k ? tides trip 12O miles rt . , Aug 120 +to n.miles h harbor 150 gal fuel ( was not full when left ) 26 n mile st mikes 12 mile up the Wye etc . Just short notes Some time I forget LOL .

A log can be as much or as little as you want. Depending how much you use the boat you may want 2 logs . If I had to guess Your most likely going to be like the guy behind me .

[ready123]

You might find these kinds of details worthwhile:
Date
From
To
Trip log mileage start
Trip log mileage end
Engine hrs start
Engine hours end
Avg speed
avg rpm
Space for comments

Of course you can buy detailed logbooks or make your own in a binder.

It's a matter of what information interests you.

[RWS]

Here's mine

never mind

the Forum system won't allow a pdf

anyway, after some years go by, the 3 ring binders fill up with pages of entries.

this year i began a simple excel spreadsheet with one line per entry and saved all the info that way

boat info, hours, etc but mnost importantly the guests aboard, for the who, what, where and when.

the last column is very large and covers the details of the adventure

save this it's very important

that boat is a bucket of memories to be preserved

RWS

[ready123]

Here's mine
never mind
the Forum system won't allow a pdf
RWS

Screen capture it, convert to jpg and then post.
Or send it to me and I'll do it for ya

[RWS]

let's try this....

I print these as needed and then as the book fills up, post them into an excel file.

The number of entries is astounding and it's a really nice book of memories.

Now if there was a "way" to tie the photos in with it all, you'd really have something.

Hope this benefits someone.

RWS

Ships_Log_v05.jpg (202.04 KiB) Viewed 4777 times

[ready123]

Now that is a comprehensive log.....
That has me thinking .....I have trip data apart from the maintenance info like oil change due, fuel consumption data as I can only estimate that on tank fills.
I do track oil top ups under comments on the trip log so I can more easily see oil burn.

[georgepet]

I'd only add three things - weather, notes on anything significant seen and things you might want to remember i.e. details of an anchorage
On significant things I'm kinda conditioned from our operations logs as all to often, reconstructing an event inevitably came from notes in logs

G

[Freddy]

My good friend, who actually introduced me to Trojans with his 1976 F26 kept a mini legal pad in the "everything" drawer. We refer to this book as the captians' log. We would record stuff like the dates, where we went, weather conditions, seas, where the fish were, what we used for bait, any repairs/maintanence, how much beer we brought along, locations of any mermaid sightings.
I'd have to say I like the idea of the 3 ring binder and fill in the blank spreadsheets.