Entry & progression
The third approved training area. Logs, records and the running of the ship. The unglamorous half of command, and the half that is examined.
The official log
The official log book is a legal document. It records the events the law requires to be recorded, and it is evidence. Entries are made at the time, in ink, in sequence, and errors are struck through with a single line, initialled and dated — never erased, never overwritten, never pages removed.
The instinct to "tidy up" a log is the instinct that ends careers. A messy, honest, contemporaneous log is a defence. A clean, retrospective one is an allegation waiting to be made.
The record set a yacht actually keeps
- Official log — statutory entries, births, deaths, musters, drills, disciplinary matters, inspections.
- Deck log — courses, positions, weather, traffic, engine movements, everything the watch did.
- Engine room log — machinery, running hours, bunkers, alarms.
- Oil record book — every transfer, every discharge, every disposal (MARPOL Annex I).
- Garbage record book and garbage management plan (Annex V).
- Radio log / GMDSS records.
- Hours of rest records — for every crew member, every day.
- Drill and training records — what was drilled, when, who attended, what was learned.
- Maintenance and planned maintenance records — the ISM Code requires them.
- Non-conformity, near-miss, accident and incident reports — with the corrective action closed out.
Non-conformities and near misses
The ISM Code requires the SMS to include procedures for reporting non-conformities, accidents and hazardous occurrences, and for analysing them and implementing corrective action. A yacht that reports nothing is not a safe yacht — it is a yacht where nobody is reporting.
TIP — A zero near-miss report is a red flag, not a gold star Auditors know this. So do experienced DPAs. If the near-miss log has been empty for a year on a vessel that has done two Atlantic crossings and forty charters, the honest conclusion is not that nothing happened. Encourage reporting, never punish it, and close out every item you open — an open corrective action that has been open for eight months is worse than no report at all.
Handover
You will one day take a vessel over from another master, and one day hand one on. Do it in writing. Certificates and their expiry dates, outstanding defects, outstanding non-conformities, condition of the SMS, crew certification status, bunkers, cash, keys, safes, the state of the maintenance system, anything you have been told and anything you suspect.
Sign it. Have the outgoing master sign it. The day you take command, everything aboard becomes yours — including everything you did not check.