Log Book

B

Billyo

Well-Known Member
Joined
6 Nov 2016
Messages
219
Location
Swanage
Visit site
Hi all

Hope everyone had a good festive season!

I'm away on my CC course next week and looking for a basic log book app for an android phone. Boat Book seems to be the most readily available but reviews have said that it regularly crashes. Does any one have experience with using it, or have an alternative recommendation?

Ta!
 
There are several different kinds of log. The main two are the vessel's log and the RYA-style personal log. In the vessel's official log, navigation entries are made on a regular (often hourly) basis and other significant events when they occur; a page per day would be normal. The personal log records your sailing experience, mostly for the purposes of courses and qualifications, and on paper would typically condense a week's sailing onto one line.

Which kind are you seeking, and for what purpose?

Pete
 
Thanks Pete

Im looking for a personal log to keep track of experience gained. I assumed that I would update it daily whenever Im sailing to show distance/times, locations etc, but if its normally kept weekly then it simplifies things.
 
Billyo said:
Thanks Pete

Im looking for a personal log to keep track of experience gained. I assumed that I would update it daily whenever Im sailing to show distance/times, locations etc, but if its normally kept weekly then it simplifies things.
Click to expand...

Spreadsheet on Google drive? Or just a text document.
 
I just use a spreadsheet, but...

For RYA purposes you should get the skipper's signature for each bit of experience. That said, when you get further along the road and are actually sitting exams, the examiner will explore what your experience is rather than rely on the signature, so it's maybe not that essential.

You usually just record one line per trip. e.g. 5 days on a comp crew course going from A to B to C to D to E and back to A is one line. You'd quickly eat up the space in an RYA logbook if you used one line per day.

Ship's (Boat's) log is different as you need a record of where you are, or where you were x minutes ago, in case things start to go wrong.
 
Last edited:
lpdsn said:
I just use a spreadsheet, but...

For RYA purposes you should get the skipper's signature for each bit of experience. That said, when you get further along the road and are actually sitting exams, the examiner will explore what your experience is rather than rely on the signature, so it's maybe not that essential.
Click to expand...
That has not been my experience. A spreadsheet will do, an examiner will know within a nanosecond if you are pulling the wool.
 
People interested in working up the RYA system generally get the RYA "logbook" - it's about equal parts syllabus, experience log, and folder of certificates (it has a box that you can glue each one into). I have one of 1998 vintage, but I assume the current ones are more or less the same. I've long since stopped recording all my sailing in it, but if you're doing the courses then it is useful to do that in order to tot up the miles sailed, night hours, etc. Not compulsory, though - as others have said, any format should be acceptable for demonstrating minimum experience, it's not a big deal because an instructor can quickly spot someone who's seriously bluffing (and if he can't, does it matter?)

(I don't know of a dedicated app for logging personal sailing experience, though one may exist and generally logging apps almost certainly do)

Pete
 
prv said:
People interested in working up the RYA system generally get the RYA "logbook" - it's about equal parts syllabus, experience log, and folder of certificates (it has a box that you can glue each one into). I have one of 1998 vintage, but I assume the current ones are more or less the same. I've long since stopped recording all my sailing in it, but if you're doing the courses then it is useful to do that in order to tot up the miles sailed, night hours, etc. Not compulsory, though - as others have said, any format should be acceptable for demonstrating minimum experience, it's not a big deal because an instructor can quickly spot someone who's seriously bluffing (and if he can't, does it matter?)

(I don't know of a dedicated app for logging personal sailing experience, though one may exist and generally logging apps almost certainly do)

Pete
Click to expand...

Looks like the up to date one is this?

I expect you will be able to buy one at the start of your course.
 
A Cell phone is I suppose the modern way.
One of the problems with cell phones is I eventually, loose, drop, break or otherwise kill them. which is annoying particularly since my most recent loss had all sorts of nice pictures. fortunately I down loaded them but some of the other stuff is lost with it.
To some extent I regret not having kept a personal log book. I do have a CYA log in a box somewhere with my sailing certificates in it. Its in a Safe place, Just might take me a while to locate the particular safe :)
My current record is just my faulty memory for much of my sailing and my current ships log. I'm going to have t get a new one its almost full.
 
Uricanejack said:
One of the problems with cell phones is I eventually, loose, drop, break or otherwise kill them. which is annoying particularly since my most recent loss had all sorts of nice pictures.
Click to expand...

The general theme with modern stuff is to keep the content in the cloud and the app is just a way of interacting with it. Probably with a local cache, so that it works without signal and without wasting all your data allowance continually re-downloading the same stuff, but nothing is lost if the phone itself goes away.

The last two times I upgraded my phone, I wiped the old one to resell without copying anything off it. When I logged into the new one, my stuff was there ready for me.

Pete
 
prv said:
The general theme with modern stuff is to keep the content in the cloud and the app is just a way of interacting with it. Probably with a local cache, so that it works without signal and without wasting all your data allowance continually re-downloading the same stuff, but nothing is lost if the phone itself goes away.

The last two times I upgraded my phone, I wiped the old one to resell without copying anything off it. When I logged into the new one, my stuff was there ready for me.

Pete
Click to expand...

Cloud? I have head of it but still mystified.:)
 
Thank you for all the responses, the Wave Trax app is more what I was looking for, but its only available on apple and not android. I think I'll set up a spread sheet on google drive and go from there. I can't be using paper because I can barely read my own writing so I can't expect an assessor to be able to do it!
 
Billyo said:
Thank you for all the responses, the Wave Trax app is more what I was looking for, but its only available on apple and not android. I think I'll set up a spread sheet on google drive and go from there. I can't be using paper because I can barely read my own writing so I can't expect an assessor to be able to do it!
Click to expand...

I find Access much better than Excel for this sort of thing. One can make a page for entering data and then nice reports. Easy to store in the cloud too. It would not take very long to reproduce the information in the RYA logbook

TS
 
Not really answering the question but..

I rarely put more than a line in the logbook now - everything goes in the logbook plugin on opencpn running on a raspberry pi these days, with an auto update set to every half hour if it' actually turned on.
 
Giblets said:
WaveTrax App may fit the bill. It primarily track the trip but can also log the personal mileage, etc, and can be digitally signed by the instructor/skipper.

http://www.wavetrax.com/sail-fb/
Click to expand...

Wavetrax seems to have been removed from the App Store. Shame as it looked ok. No indication on the web site as to what happend apart from the fact the company was taken over and existing users are not affected.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top