How to Reconstruct Your Logbook
When You Have Never Kept One Before
At first thought, you might think that entering all your sailing history is too daunting of a task. But it’s not – we’ve made the interface easy and very quick.
FACT: Yacht Charter companies want to see a resume of your boating, NOT a certification. In the Mediterranean, they want to see a Resume AND a License. Acceptable Licenses are the SLC, the ICC, and in some cases, the IPC is accepted. For the yacht charter company to allow you to charter as skipper, the resume needs to show an acceptable amount of experience as skipper of the vessel, as well as time on vessels of similar size, and any theory and practical courses you have taken. Note that a 7-day zero-to-hero program will NOT work as sufficient experience.
The resume helps the charter company decide if you will bring their boat back in one or two pieces. Note that two pieces is bad.
To build your resume with the NauticEd platform, you simply need to provide insight into your previous experience using our logbook tool. We realise that most people have never kept a logbook of their time on the water. Don’t worry, our platform here will help you reconstruct that and it will also incorporate your theory courses and practical sign-offs of on-water assessments by our EDU-4 Instructor/Assessor. This gives you an evergreen system for future chartering.
How to do 100 entries in 20 minutes
0
But I Can’t Remember
Exact Dates Don’t Matter: The NauticEd software will build a picture of your experience in a table showing your boating in the last 2-years, 5-years, 10-years, and all time, as well as how much time you were master of the vessel (in charge of all decisions) or crew on the boat, and what size and types of boats. In this manner, the exact date, month, or year does not matter. If you could put your right hand up in court and say “Judge, I never kept records but this is the best I could do – I did not make any exaggerations”, then that is good enough.
START WITH THE MOST RECENT TIMES AND WORK BACKWARD IN TIME
1
Set up Your Favorite Vessels
If you own or owned a boat, or go out on a friend’s boat, then set that boat up under the Vessels tab.
Screenshot
Don’t stress on exact details if you don’t know them, such as exact tonnage or registration number. Notice we have pre-set up some generic vessels, such as common charter type boats. Use these for charter vessels or one-off experiences.
2
Make Your First Entry
Select the approximate date of the most recent time you went out boating. Select the vessel and select if you were master or crew. Optionally, you can enter the other information further below, or you can click Quick Add Entry.
3
The Next Entry is Already Queued Up
Notice that the next entry is ready, the boat is already selected all you have to do is change the approximate date. Continue to work backward in time. Change vessels to a different vessel if needed. We repeat – don’t stress on dates, months, or even exact years.
4
Multi-day Entries
If you were out on a multiday adventure e.g. a 7 day yacht charter, then select the multiday check box and one of the generic boats. Note that you should set the nights to zero if you were anchored each night. You can add up to a 30-day in a row adventure. If you went sailing for a year then make 12 entries and for each month enter the number of days you were actually sailing not just hanging at the marina. e.g. 10 days in one month and 25 days in the following month and perhaps 5 in the following.
If you are still struggling, watch this video: How to make a logbook entry into your FREE NauticEd Online Sailor’s Logbook. Note that this video was done before we added the multi-day function.
The NauticEd logbook is maintained for you for free in the cloud and is always accessible by you and anyone you specifically designate with permissions. Additionally, it is easy to edit and update. You can do this either online or via our iOS NauticEd App. In the App you can make an instant entry when you get off the boat at the end of the day.
Another important feature of an experience logbook is authentication. We created a CrewMate Authentication (TM) system whereby your logbook entries get reported as authenticated. Read about CrewMate Authentication here. So you want to be setting up CrewMates in your logbook area so that your CrewMates can auto-authenticate your entries as you make them (optional but it gives credibility to your logbook).
You can also add to your logbook automatically using our partnership GPS tracking App called SailTies. SailTies will record and store your daily tracks for you. At the end of the outing, the track is uploaded to your logbook and you can see your tracks at any time in the future. Plus the track stores your miles for you AND this also creates an authenticated entry into your logbook. AND if you add a crewmate to the entry, your crewmate can also see the track forever after.
GPS Sailing Track entered into your logbook.
Oh and another REALLY cool feature. Anytime you book a charter with NauticEd sailing vacations, the logbook entry is made automatically for you AND the weeklong charter entry is authenticated by NauticEd giving your resume ultra credibility. Super cool.
