Best / favourite logook ?

B

Boo2

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 Jan 2010
Messages
8,603
Visit site
Hi,

Wondered what the panel's take is on (sailing) ship's logbooks ? I know the RYA do one but up to now I've used a lined notebook. Was thinking of getting something else for this year though, anyone have a preferred make / format ? Not looking at printing stuff off on the PC for a loose-leaf format as I'd much prefer something with a binding.

Boo2
 
I buy a nice leather bound notebook. I do not like the pre-made log books as they feel like paperwork and are full of pointless stuff. I need more for the narrative than for all the stats.
 
I was just musing on this myself over last couple of days . we bought a 'gimmicky' colour one last year, when we got our current boat (cheap in a a book sale, I hasten to add), but we are not into detail hour by hour logs, we want more of a narrative style with a few key bits of data. This one does not really 'hit the spot' with me, although I have already started to adapt it. Still lots of wasted space.

SWMBO bought a simple lined leather bound book at Christmas with this is in mind, but it may serve as more of a 'journal' than a log.

I quite like the idea of doing one online, given seem to find wi if in every marina now, where you can post pictures, share with family ashore, etc etc ..obviously a blog would do the job too, but I was wondering whether anyone had found an app or site where it was already set up..or is it so easy just to set up your own web log anyway?
 
Last edited:
I bought a spiral bound notebook (A4 on offer at asda), opend up the spiral binding, stuck the pages in my pc printer and then printed off my own pages as I like 'em. I added in usefull pages like one with dates for filters changed & serial numbers for techy bits. a weather chart downloaded from RYA site showing forecast areas etc. Printed off about thirty daysail log pages and about thirty "passage" log book pages. At the back was a mayday card with my mmsi/callsign filled in. I left one side of each sheet blank for working out pilotage and passage planning. when all printed, just closed up the spiral winding and stuck a line drawing of a Nic 26 on the front (so I know which way up i it is) and tied a couple of marker ribbons to the spiral binding to mark the pages.

Plus side is it's pretty much how I like it - minus, not at all weather proof.
I also keep a plastic leaf recipe folder and use chanagraph pencils for wet days, so I can have nav/tide info and keep a log on deck if needed. Just copy it up over the gin&it at the close of play.

Never found a premade one I liked.
 
We use a page to a day diary, A4 size. SWMBO uses it as a journal, so records our activities on a daily basis. On the days when we sail, we keep a simple hourly log of position, course and distance so that we can pick up the pieces if the electronics die. We found that cheap diaries fall to bits before the end of the year, so pay a little more for decently bound ones, although we did splash out one year in a leather bound one from Aspinals.......
 
Bathdave said:
I quite like the idea of doing one online, given seem to find wi if in every marina now, where you can post pictures, share with family ashore, etc etc ..obviously a blog would do the job too, but I was wondering whether anyone had found an app or site where it was already set up..or is it so easy just to set up your own web log anyway?
Click to expand...

+1

In a word "Blogger".. mine's in my closing sig but there are other/better ones around.. easy enough to copy off the content and hard bind if you want to..
 
A4 lined hardback notebook for the normal narrative journal. For a passage it gets a line down the middle, narrative on the left, details on the right. I've got 35 years worth on the shelf above the computer, occasionally spend an hour reminiscing.
 
I keep a narrative log in a lined book, and a separate sailing log for offshore details. This is just of the ordinary ones picked up somewhere, with the usual headings that I don't use, such a fuel stores and times of HW here and there.
 
Boo2 said:
Hi,

Wondered what the panel's take is on (sailing) ship's logbooks ? I know the RYA do one but up to now I've used a lined notebook. Was thinking of getting something else for this year though, anyone have a preferred make / format ? Not looking at printing stuff off on the PC for a loose-leaf format as I'd much prefer something with a binding.

Boo2
Click to expand...

I always like the Souwester ones and I believe Force 4 took these over when Souwester closed down. I used that one for the official ship's log but also made my own printed sheets for a 'deck' log for rough 'of the moment' notes, then transposed that into the bound one neatly when I was stiting comfy in the warm and dry. Also had a 'journal' type log ruled up in a blue hardback covered exercise book, used to keep one page of each pair for pictures etc and the other for narriative with a wide margin added to note fuel added info, date, time cost, eng hours, log reading gas cylinder changed etc., I have a similar bought logbook in the USA plus a spiral bound one for the journal narrative, one that allows extra pages to be added ( a Staples special line over here) Sadly I can no longer print off my deck log because Mr Microsoft, using Excel from 'Office' will not open my Microsoft 'Works' ,(xls files) spreadsheet of old documents, there's progress for you! Just thought however, I might try opening it in 'open Office' because it was useful as were other spreadsheets Micrfreakinsoft improvementswon't let me open now.
 
Last edited:
Robin said:
Sadly I can no longer print off my deck log because Mr Microsoft, using Excel from 'Office' will not open my Microsoft 'Works' ,(xls files) spreadsheet of old documents, there's progress for you! Just thought however, I might try opening it in 'open Office' because it was useful as were other spreadsheets Micrfreakinsoft improvementswon't let me open now.
Click to expand...

Have you tried some of the other file type options under Open in Excel?? Microsoft always make their software backwards compatible so you should find the right one..
 
W H Smiths do plastic-covered, ring-bound, lined notebooks. I use A5 ones for passage-planning notes and pilotage diagrams and A6 ones for my logs.

The beauty of the A6 one is that it can fit into my oilskin pocket, pop into a side cockpit hatch in fine weather, else live on the bino-shelf just inside the companionway entrance. A ball-point pen with a pocket-clip lives inside the spiral, and a rubber-band holds it open on its current page.

Every passage starts on a new page with the following info:
DATE / FROM-TO / CREW
TIDAL INFO
WEATHER FORECAST

Below this are just four columns:
TIME / LOG / ENG / POSN-REMARKS

Everything else of navigational relevance goes into the last column, which is the widest. Depending on whether its just a day-sail in the Solent or an offshore passage, this can include:

Position / Fix / Lat-Long / Depth
Course / COG
Boat speed / SOG
Observed wind / sea-state
Sail-plan / reefs
Baro
Weather-update (these use whole page width)
Ship bearings (crossing shipping lanes)
Observed activity (eg some yacht aground)
Crew info (on passage)
Berthing info / anchor transits
Fuel/water info
Neighbouring boats/crews (if friendly!)
Etc
 
Fantasie 19 said:
Have you tried some of the other file type options under Open in Excel?? Microsoft always make their software backwards compatible so you should find the right one..
Click to expand...

In this case they didn't and my files are not .xls like I first said but .wps The problem is well discussed on the MS fora with no real solution other than a suggstion that win 8 might runMS 'works' in compatibility mode IF you still have the original MS works discs to load which I don't. I had forgotten that I had got to open some files using Open Office, converted them in that to .xls and opened them in Excel, but only from within Excel not just by clicking on a file. The conversion is not perfect as the formatting changed but I was able to print off a page that is useable. I really pees me off that MS should haveeffectually forced me to buy ' Office' because works would not run on Vista after I bought a new machine, then that my many previously created 'Works' files would not open in 'Office', spreadsheets and database files especially. It is like a MS revenge punishment for not initially buying their expensive 'Office' and opting for the cut down, home user 'Works' option instead. I found Works to be intuitive and more than adequate to run my business needs for many years, Office, even WORD I Find user unfriendly by comparison and bloated with so much stuff seemingly intended for writing a novel, not a simple letter or report I would never need let alone know how to use. OPen Office is OK ( and free) but also non intuitive as it mimics Office.

Sorry about the thread drift!
 
Last edited:
Robin said:
...Sadly I can no longer print off my deck log because Mr Microsoft, using Excel from 'Office' will not open my Microsoft 'Works' ,(xls files) spreadsheet of old documents, there's progress for you! Just thought however, I might try opening it in 'open Office' because it was useful as were other spreadsheets Micrfreakinsoft improvementswon't let me open now.
Click to expand...

Robin said:
In this case they didn't and my files are not .xls like I first said but .wps The problem is well discussed on the MS fora with no real solution other than a suggstion that win 8 might runMS 'works' in compatibility mode IF you still have the original MS works discs to load which I don't...
Click to expand...

If they really are .wps files try opening them in MSWord as they are word processing files not spreadsheet files.
 
I have The Norton's boaters log... Wife keeps a dairy where as the Norton is used for little boat info....
 
FistralG said:
If they really are .wps files try opening them in MSWord as they are word processing files not spreadsheet files.
Click to expand...

originals were .xlr but multiple muckings about and 'save as' using open Office has them in various forms now none of which MS office wants to know,

Thanks For the suggestion, I'll hunt out another old works one and try pasting it in Word as that might get a printable page I can use, I forgot you can do that, insert a spreadsheet in a word doc

Thanks again

Robin
 
There are clearly many people who enjoy and take pride in keeping a log-book.

For better or worse I am not one of them .... my log (if a passage even warrants one) is likely to be a series of post-it notes stuck above the chart table.

Am I alone?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top