Log Books

[Grace and Favour]

I've pm'd you koukouvagia

[KevMc]

Very similar but I use a page a day diary.

 

Good idea

[Colin North]

I keep an A5 hardback book. Each day I record the trivia of the day plus the engine run time for the day and the total engine run time since the last oil change. Am currently on the 3rd A5 logbook.

At the back of the first A5 log book I have left many pages free/partially used. These contain:

Information about the boat - build details/ some purchase records etc.

Plus:

1 what all the fuses are for

2 when the oil changes & diesel filters were changed

3 when the gas bottles were changed

4 details of fuel purchases

5 details of Boat safety Checks and changes since the last one was done (the BSC inspector likes that...)

6 other moderately significant things, like when the ignition switch was changed, when the solar panels were fitted, the inverter, the generator etc.

 

It works for me, it allows me to quickly access all the information I need and the books stay on the boat.

 

I also write a blog, mainly for friends and family and sometimes for me to show others a little of 'what canal boating is all about'.

 

Colin

[hvdb]

We keep a log of the engine hours, all purchases for the boat, such as fuel, filters etc, and dates of things like blacking, oil and filter changes,

 

On our trips, every day I write down where we've been and what happened, and what we've seen. And for some reason I've forgotten, what we've had for dinner. I also log where we started and finished on that particular day, how long it took us and the number of lockmiles. It's all writen down in in a little notebook in short notes, when we are back home I work out the notes and make them into a readable story. We have these logs for all our trips, neatly printed on A5 paper for home use and in digital form on the OneDrive for when we are on the boat.

 

As to gauges: the one for the pump-out tank has a light that is on most of the time, saying the tank is 3/4 full, even when the tank is empty. If that light goes out and then after a couple of days the one saying the tank is full comes on, we know that we have about three days before the tank is full. Not accurate, but it works for us

 

Helen

[Ray T]

In the past, whenever I was skipper / navigator on trips offshore I always filled in a log. In modern yachts I feel it is a necessity in case the GPS packs up. This has happened to me when a crew member sat against the receiver (which was on the pushpit) and pushed it upside down.

 

When I migrated to the canals it just seemed the natural thing to do.

 

Scholar Gipsy, thanks for the link, looks a useful little program.

[Dalesman]

I keep a daily log and use the Navigator's Log Book from Imray Laurie, you can have refills for the hard back cover which are about £2.75 and last me a few years.