Boat Maintenance Website

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yachtorion

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I'm pondering putting together a simple website for boat maintenance, something that would let me store receipts and photos, make job lists, setup reminders for things that need to be checked in the future.

Does anyone know of any sites like this that already exist before I bother? It's mainly just to keep my hand in on the dev side, don't expect to ever make any cash from it, but if something already exists I might as well choose another project.

Would anyone else use such at thing (assuming they didn't have to pay for it)?
 
I think it's an interesting idea. I'm not sure *I* would be organised enough to use it properly, but an online maintenance log and schedule could definitely be useful for some people if done well.

One obvious concern that might hold other people back is long-term availability. Would I scrap my paper engine logbook and put everything into an online service run for free by some anonymous guy on the Internet? What happens when I've built up ten years of data and then the site suddenly disappears? If you want others to use it (and maybe you don't) then you need to allay this concern - the easiest way might be to offer an export facility to, say, PDF or csv or some other reuseable format.

Pete
 
pvb said:
Fairly - if using it on the boat, there may not be an internet connection.
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Indeed.

I was going to say that most of us do our maintenance in places where there is perfectly good 3G signal. But of course it's not just about the writing - you may need to read the maintenance log at any time. For example when our engine started dying on the way back from Alderney, and flipping back through the engine logbook I realised that the secondary filter hadn't been changed the previous winter (because of other work the engine service was spread over several months and the filter change had slipped through the gaps). If the engine maintenance records had been online I wouldn't have been able to do that.

A solution would be a smartphone / tablet app combined with a website, where the app stores a local copy of the data and synchs it when a connection is available. In a sense this is how my existing jobs list works, it's just a simple list on two pages of the Apple Notes app. But developing a three-platform service (iOS, Android, Web) is probably well outside the scope of what the OP has in mind.

Pete
 
I had thought about it and posted on here about a similar idea. I was thinking more of an integrated solution on the boat similar to what some cars have. It would keep track of service schedule, engine hours, filter condition etc and give appropriate prompts to maintain things. It could also keep an inventory of spares and their use by dates. I did, however, have this as only one part of a larger system which would also haddle things like temperature controls, fuel level indications and managment, water tank levels, media centre, nmea data, wifi hub, security etc etc. The way I look at it is that some of these things are necessary and some of them nice to have. If I make a system for one then it makes sense to tag on a few of the others. I was thinking raspberry pie and arduino. It would also be web connected and be able to give alerts to an iphone etc.
 
I think you are talking of an App rather than a website and there are a few apps about that seem to support the basic functions you require. If you extend your App search to car/automotive apps then there are a lot of apps that track maintenance/ expenses etc.
 
yachtailsa said:
I'm pondering putting together a simple website for boat maintenance, something that would let me store receipts and photos, make job lists, setup reminders for things that need to be checked in the future.

Does anyone know of any sites like this that already exist before I bother? It's mainly just to keep my hand in on the dev side, don't expect to ever make any cash from it, but if something already exists I might as well choose another project.

Would anyone else use such at thing (assuming they didn't have to pay for it)?
Click to expand...

Evernote.

Incredibly powerful for something so simple. Take photo of a spare showing the relevant module number, set an alarm for when you should get another , download page from a website doing mail order and join with the same note. Masses of uses, search facility is fantastic, will even search text inside photos and pdfs. Take photos of marina pontoon heights, or handy chartlets in marina offices. It really is incredibly powerful, the Web page saver is wonderful, save entire threads from forums like this. Same data is then available on the Web, apple and android devices. Saved in what they call notebooks with as many tags as you want.

Downside might be it's 35 quid a year to go premium so you can save the data offline and get at I away from the Web.

https://evernote.com
 
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Wherever I find a pdf of a manual for the things that I have on the boat it goes straight into my Kindle Paperwhite. Same for other things that may be useful. Other information that relates specifically to what I have done or need to do on my boat goes onto a spreadsheet.
 
Thanks all - I think I can take from this that there is no need or desire for such a thing, so I'll direct my energy elsewhere!
 
Tam Lin said:
I find my paper notebook from Tesco at 99p does the job!
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It does but it can only be in one place at any one time and a frequent problem I have is that stuff gets left in boat/home which are separated by 325 miles.

So I would be interested in an app along the lines suggested by the o/p (subject to the points made by prv above). Also like the idea of having it on phone so that the camera can be used to incorporate reference pics. (have to be free though :)).
 
Storyline said:
It does but it can only be in one place at any one time and a frequent problem I have is that stuff gets left in boat/home which are separated by 325 miles.

So I would be interested in an app along the lines suggested by the o/p (subject to the points made by prv above). Also like the idea of having it on phone so that the camera can be used to incorporate reference pics. (have to be free though :)).
Click to expand...

Good points, even though I only live 25 mins from the boat I sometimes need my notebook and it is at home then I take to using my iphone for making notes. I find myself taking more and more photos to keep a record of things that I move or take apart. I even photographed someone's sailing qualifications the other day instead of writing down the details so in some ways I am using the ideas for this proposed program already!
I can see advantages over my notebook and could even see myself using the program. The only reservation I have is if you have to be connected to the net as it is hard to get even decent phone coverage at the club!
 
Smartsheet is very good for this sort of thing.

It's basically a cloud-based spreadsheet product, but you can set rules and alarms, attach documents, images, and notes, and you can also share it with others.
 
Tam Lin said:
..... I find myself taking more and more photos to keep a record of things that I move or take apart. I even photographed someone's sailing qualifications the other day instead of writing down the details so in some ways I
.....
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Same here :) - sometimes I think my phone is more like a photocopier than a communications device !
 
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