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Thread: Logbook

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Discovery Bay, CA
    Posts
    496

    Default Logbook

    What do people use for a logbook aboard? I like writing on paper and currently have a nice leather bound log book. Its getting kinda full and they are sort of expensive so I was wondering what others use. Not interested in anything electrical.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    296

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    I've filled several volumes of this over the years:

    https://www.westmarine.com/buy/everg...07?recordNum=1

    Tabbed sections for Cruising Log, Fuel Log, Maintenance, etc., are useful. The cruising pages are set up for single day excursions, but I just hand write "Day X of __" at the top of each page for multi-day trips.
    Lee
    s/v Morning Star
    Valiant 32

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Montara, CA
    Posts
    803

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    I use a write-in-the-rain notebook for hourly log postings, which is probably a bit of overkill because most of the time, it stays inside the cabin. Someone on one of the forums sent me the attached document that has a TON of useful info and the requisite forms. I've yet to print it out because I bought something similar to what Lee is referring to, but I will one of these days.

    Vessel Logbook - Generic.pdf

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    3,485

    Default

    $1 (one dollar) at Office Depot, and pretty, too!
    Attached Images Attached Images   

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    San Francisco Bay Area
    Posts
    2,095

    Default

    I don't keep a local log, but I do when I'm outside the Gate. I have the traditional black and white version of Jackies flowery, girly logbook. However, my log is intended for reading, later and I write all kinds of junk in there...course, speed (at regular and random intervals), whether I saw dolphins, poetry, what song is running through my head at the time, and so on.

    When I had the Santana 3030, I logged hours, cumulatively, on the diesel.
    1968 Selmer Series 9 B-flat and A clarinets
    1962 Buesher "Aristocrat" tenor saxophone
    Piper One Design 24, Hull #35; "Alpha"

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Posts
    296

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    Quote Originally Posted by mike cunningham View Post
    I like writing on paper . . . . Not interested in anything electrical.
    I'd be curious if anyone has something electronic for log keeping. I would consider keeping a log as a standard MS Word document, if there was a way insert date/time/position into the document easily at the outset of each discrete entry. By 'easily' I mean with a key stroke or two, not manually typing it in each time. The lap top runs Airmail, the email client software for SailMail. That program can automatically include a footer in each outgoing email with date/time/position captured from the GPS feed that would otherwise be going to OpenCPN. It seems to me that there ought to be a way for Word to capture that same data, but I have no idea how to go about that. Perhaps someone has written (or could write) an add on for Word that could do that. Thoughts?
    Last edited by AZ Sailor; 10-18-2017 at 04:17 PM.
    Lee
    s/v Morning Star
    Valiant 32

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Berkeley Marina
    Posts
    154

    Default

    I used the Evergreen log book, briefly, years ago when I was doing a real cruise. And I tried again using this Yacht Log, a classier version of the Evergreen that I picked up somewhere along the line, when I first got my Tuna in 2011. But after a few entries it became clear just how bad my handwriting is no matter how hard I try, and how much I loathe it. Typing, on the other hand, no prob.
    So I've been editing the same Google Doc for the last few years with intentions to move it to a website. And another Google doc covering projects and maintenance. I write whatever I can remember at the end of the weekend, usually more bloggish than loggish: what went right or wrong, what I grilled, how much smoke was in the air, the fish I didn't catch, where I need to be for the best Blue Angels view next year, etc. I do find that all the prose is fun to read in retrospect and memories come flooding back more so than if I just wrote a terse "Angel Island. Sunny. 10-12kts. 1000-1730", which is probably what I would do more often than not. Not much of navigational interest worth archiving when you're just doing laps around the Bay.

    But after seeing your logs and reading Sled's reminder that real logs must be in ink, I'm going to try it again. I forget stuff after any cruise longer than an overnight, and plus I'd like to track my fuel usage more closely. Ditto alcohol for the stove. Seem to go through more of it than I'd expect.
    Paper, pen, patience.
    Last edited by Lanikai; 10-18-2017 at 09:07 PM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Posts
    163

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    I keep what I call a Story Log. I use a little notebook of regular paper. When it is full I start another one. I write a few observations about who sailed in the boat, where we went, what we did. I encourage guests to write the day's entry. I especially encourage children to write or draw. My Story Log is not intended as a legal document, it is a method to help remember the joy of sailing. SDK

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Montara, CA
    Posts
    803

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    Quote Originally Posted by skatzman View Post
    I keep what I call a Story Log. I use a little notebook of regular paper. When it is full I start another one. I write a few observations about who sailed in the boat, where we went, what we did. I encourage guests to write the day's entry. I especially encourage children to write or draw. My Story Log is not intended as a legal document, it is a method to help remember the joy of sailing. SDK
    Mine is called "the diary" hence the need for the second notebook with "just the facts." I love it when guests write whatever they want about our sail. Great memories that the dry, but legal, facts miss

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles)
    Posts
    31

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    Moleskin. Small format for carry-around lists and notes, large format for logbook. Worth the extra money because we keep these invaluable personal records for a lifetime.
    Thelonious II, Ericson 38 (formerly Thelonious, E32-3)
    Los Angeles
    Table of Contents Thelonious Blog

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