Do you need a personal/boat logbook to do RYA/DOT Exams/Certificates???

Keeping an (unnecessary) logbook

snowleopard said:
Anybody keep entering passages in their log book after passing the YM? I couldn't be bothered but sometimes thought it might have been nice to have done so for the record.
Click to expand...

Rather sadly, I do still keep a logbook - for the reasons stated previously as a quick glance now and again does bring back many happy memories.

Additionally, I keep a more comprehensive log on the boat with details
of people that I have met and pubs that I have drunk in (when I can remember them hic!!!)

My sailing log does record sailing on other yachts and chartering abroad though...
 
snowleopard said:
Anybody keep entering passages in their log book after passing the YM? I couldn't be bothered but sometimes thought it might have been nice to have done so for the record.
Click to expand...

After passing my coastal exam & buying a boat, I log races & Significant Voyages (on other people's boats*) in my logbook (for the miles) - there are some token "30 miles in the Solent" mainly from my first couple of seasons on our boat, and I'll chuck in the 100 miles or so from the family summer cruise.

The 60M as skipper overnight passages ain't going to happen on my boat with my crew in the foreseeable, so I'll worry about that when earlier miles drop off (assuming I still aim for YMO).

OTOH, our boat log is kept up to date by SWMBO for trips, miles, fuel & maintenance, and we've had to buy /another/ _Logbook For Children_ for midshipman #2.

(The appearance of the Stavros S on Sunday led to an entry of "Spotted pirate ship off St Helen's Road" in midshipman #1's logbook ;-)

*I'm polite to other skippers, and ask them to sign for anything from a foxcub 18 to a maxi 80 - I'm quite proud of my log 'cos it lists progression from CC, DS, CS to CS exam, interspersed with charters abroad, longer cruises, races and first family trips and my first solo.
 
A log book is so Twentieth Century :D I keep a record of my trips on a spreadsheet.
It is backed up by a (Twentieth Century) Filofax log which admittedly has now become quite scanty due to the advent of the Chart Plotter.
It would be nice be able to extract the log from the CP, but mine doesn't do it.
 
mcframe said:
(The appearance of the Stavros S on Sunday led to an entry of "Spotted pirate ship off St Helen's Road" in midshipman #1's logbook ;-)
Click to expand...

We saw her leaving Cherbourg Saturday afternoon.

imgp0001__16_.jpg
 
Of course you can forge them or put down an exaggerated record, (I had to sign my own log as skipper when I got my first boat, SWMBO as first and only mate used to enjoy asking if skipper would kindly fill in her log and sign it too, please).

It does however become very obvious whether your experience and capabilities match what you have said. SWMBO & I had been sailing for perhaps 2 seasons when we offered to take a couple from the sailing club on one of the rallies and SWMBO started chatting to the bloke of the pair and it quickly became something akin to the Spanish inquisition as she started to get very suspicious over what he said he had done and what he actually knew and could do. (Also he was totally obnoxious which hadn't helped.) Mrs bloke on the other hand was charming, nervous but prepared to learn and was a pleasure to have aboard. So even comparatively novice sailors can suss out someone who's (dare I cliche it) swinging the lead.
 
Mark-1 said:
On another forum people were discussing the need for a completed logbook to do RYA/DOT Exams/Certificates. I must admit I'd always assumed the people who didn't keep log books could just write out a sailing CV or even just chat to the examiner about their sailing "career" and still do the exam/course.

Is there an RYA examiner on YBW who can tell me what, if anything, is acceptable in lieu of a formal personal/boat logbook?

Completely academic, just interested.
Click to expand...

Get an RYA log book. Use your imagination - there is no practical way of checking.

I do keep a ships log book but thats a different thing. Its both interesting and useful to look back through at times.
 
We've got personal log books too .. have yet to fill one in though!
We also have a ships log that gets transferred to a spreadsheet - it also records who was on board but not the detailed bits like course steered, sails in use or engine on/off - just distance and engine hours.

I'm in two minds about having a log book signed by the skipper .. I had this service offered to me once - but tbh I didn't feel like I had contributed much for it to count as a trip ... however, a longer trip which would've included some night hours would have been recorded
 
galadriel said:
If you keep telling yourself you have done the passages, then eventually you might even begin to believe it yourself.
Click to expand...

<I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg><I have sailed to Cherbourg>
<I have sailed to Cherbourg> ... because I've got the empty bottles to prove it!! ;)
 
fireball said:
<I have sailed to Cherbourg> ... because I've got the empty bottles to prove it!! ;)
Click to expand...

Cherbourg? The concerns about log book accuracy raised in this thread may have some foundation - the post card I sent SWMBO from the Scuttlebutt Cruise reads "Greetings From Cape Horn.". :eek:
 
Mark-1 said:
Cherbourg? The concerns about log book accuracy raised in this thread may have some foundation - the post card I sent SWMBO from the Scuttlebutt Cruise reads "Greetings From Cape Horn.". :eek:
Click to expand...

which also brings up the vexing issue of not logging things you 'didn't do'......... surely I'm not the only one for whom the discussions I might have with an RYA examiner and SWMBO might differ?

hugely amused forumites when I took a call from SWMBO as we were leaving Chichester about 2300h bound for C'bourg on a S'butt Cruise some years back - 'where are you?' - 'on a boat' - 'what the hell are you doing on a boat?' - 'heading for Cherbourg' - phone goes dead at other end....
 
duncan said:
which also brings up the vexing issue of not logging things you 'didn't do'......... surely I'm not the only one for whom the discussions I might have with an RYA examiner and SWMBO might differ?

hugely amused forumites when I took a call from SWMBO as we were leaving Chichester about 2300h bound for C'bourg on a S'butt Cruise some years back - 'where are you?' - 'on a boat' - 'what the hell are you doing on a boat?' - 'heading for Cherbourg' - phone goes dead at other end....
Click to expand...

Love it, a false accounting system. A completely blank virgin notebook to show the Missus to prove you were (quietly) decorating the spare room all weekend, and a filled in one hidden in the shed to stir up happy memories when you're in the nursing home waiting to die!
 
I've read this thread with interest. I am just compiling my logbook, and wondered if anyone could enlighten me as to what a 'Day' is when referring to 'Days onboard'
Does racing around the Solent count as a 'Day'?
 
I doubt that i will ever take an RYA exam or have the right skills to pass one, but I have always kept them
The presence of a logbook aboard a boat might come in handy when a French customs man comes aboard & starts to get awkward or a Belgian official starts asking about where you bought your red diesel & how much motoring you have done since
I suppose the question of ships log might also come up in the event of an inquiry about an accident

i keep a log & have them going back to my early twenties for posterity & when i am too old to sail. it is quite interesting to scan through years later
It is also handy when in Treburden etc to remind me where the supermarket is, or on a trip to Ramsgate to remind me where the end of the wind farm lines up with my crossing over the Sunk sands. I have quite a few sketches of various bits of passage even though I might never return that way again.
I also make notes in them when i undertake a repair or replacement of a part
 
Last edited:
Camelia said:
True, but a good question. Does my six hours and 25 nm on Sunday count as a day?
Click to expand...
Mixed view on that.
I would say add the 25 miles to the milage total, but not add a day.
Really the experience requirements are more of a suggestion of a level of experience someone of YM offshore standard should have.
I would suggest the most important area is skippering experience. The is being in charge of a boat on passage with no one of greater experience on board.
Even in the zero to Hero, fast track courses the students make passages without an instructor on board.
Making THE decision whether to sail or not due to weather etc with responsibilities for a boat and crew is what being a YM Offshore is about.
An examiner will often ask questions to them selves about a candidate.
Would I allow this person to take my family of loved ones across the English channel?
or maybe
could this candidate enter a unknown harbour by night?
People often say they had a hard time during the 8/12 hour YM Offshore exam.
Well it's easy to pass someone who is good. Where experience or skills are in question the examiner will have to work hard to create situations that are more testing.
A person can't just be failed, they need to be given a reason.

If a candidate has say 5 seasons as skipper of their own cruising yacht around the English Channel, say a couple of weeks each summer plus days and weekends then they will usually sail through the exam. Nerves and mistakes are acceptable if the examiner considers the person to be a safe rounded skipper. There is no set 'RYA' way of skippering.

I'm not an examiner. I am a Yachtmaster Instructor who has prepared hundreds of candidates for exam. I can spot the passes and failure within a few hours it's those in the middle that examiners have to work hard with. Some will pass with marginal skills and experience due to luck factors such as the weather on the day.
And no you don't need a log book. Makes a simple outline of your experience and passages and expect to be questioned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top