T&T: Logbooks

[Candy Chapman and Gary Bell]

List junkies, lurkers and all,

I offer a quick summary, two new suggestions and a cheap trick.

In summary, we have uncovered no legal requirement for a recreational 
boater to have any sort of logbook.
Many of us seem driven to have some sort of logbook(s).
Logbooks of various kinds are useful to the boater.
If they can appear to be objective and truthful they can be useful in 
legal proceedings, insurance investigations, etc..
Bound books with numbered pages are much better than other forms where 
alterations are harder to detect, when used in legal proceedings etc..
There is no standard for, nor any apparent limit to the sort of 
information folks might want recorded.

I suggest a cute bound guest log book aboard, with lots of space for 
guests to record impressions, staple boatcards, etc.. 
I suggest a separate bound maintenance notebook for each engine/tranny 
and genset, recording all maintenance with dates and initials for each 
entry.  I
I suggest a bound navigation notebook with all important travel info 
noted (departures and arrivals, times and positions, use of waypoints, 
bearings to objects, passings of objects, sightings, hourmeter readouts, 
etc.) with similar dates and initials or signatures for entries. 
I suggest the use of float plans, filed with a responsible friend, 
family member or harbormaster perhaps, describing the boat, it's 
passengers/crew, estimated departures, routes and arrivals and contact 
information (radio and cellphone). 

For the first new suggestion I suggest a one or two gallon Zip Lock bag 
aboard where ALL the receipts, notes, tags, brochures, a copy of the 
float plan and anything else whatever are stored for each cruise.   I 
further suggest that the maintenance notebook and a Zip-Lock bag to 
contain ALL the receipts, oil analysis reports, etc. be kept near each 
engine and genset.

The second suggestion is that a computer report is the handiest way to 
study and analyze all the boat data because it is all in one place.  
Instead of curling up with several logbooks (that should be left aboard 
anyway), a bag of receipts, loose notes and a computer full of track 
records and maintenance logs -- enter it all in a spreadsheet or word 
processor document, and print out whatever is useful as you need it.  
Print your own cruise books with charts, photos, etc..   Append notes to 
your navigation charts (electronic or paper) based on your computer 
records.  The computer log is NOT a credible legal record, by itself, 
but the following is:

And for the cheap trick:  At the end of EVERY cruise, the Zip-Lock bag's 
contents (with the Float Plan copy) are emptied and sorted.  A printout 
of the cruise's track recording from the chartplotter program should be 
added.  Likewise a scanned or xeroxed copy of the pertinent Navigation 
Log entries would be helpful.  Additional notes are written by hand, 
signed and dated, so that as complete a collection of documents is 
available to completely describe the cruise. 

The entire collection of original receipts and signed/dated contemporary 
notes is scanned or xeroxed to provide study material for a computer 
log/blog.
The originals are placed in a large envelope, tamper resisting seals 
applied (maybe sign across the joints and flaps in the envelope, or use 
permanent adhesive stickers), and mailed to yourself.  When the envelope 
is returned, (now postmarked) store it UNOPENED as long as you imagine 
you might be in need of presentable proof.  When needed you have 
credible proof of what/where/when/with whom, and an excellent indication 
that the records are not altered.   Signed, dated, bound logbooks don't 
offer this level of confidence that no alterations were made.  
Maintenance log pages and the relevant receipts and oil analysis reports 
and such can be similarly copied, with the originals sealed and mailed 
back to yourself. 

The cost is the copying, envelope and postage. 

I suppose a notary seal would increase the credibility of the deal, at 
small cost.


End of captain's log for today, gotta do a little work.

Gary Bell