Logbook

The digital logbook from Logbook Suite

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For iPad as well as for the Mac Logbook is the only dig­i­tal logbook on the mar­ket which meets the offi­cial require­ments of a logbook. But Logbook is very pop­u­lar with Win­dows users too.

Logbook is just per­fect for skip­pers who have used printed log­books so far, but want to make use of the advan­tages of a dig­i­tal logbook. This is, apart from the optional auto­matic record­ing of nav­i­ga­tion data, the auto­matic analy­sis of the nau­ti­cal data, for exam­ple. Using the trips and the overview Logbook auto­mat­i­cally cal­cu­lates totals for rel­e­vant data as well as aver­age values—both for each day, for a whole trip and for all entries in the logbook. Of course your Logbook can be printed. This is a nice gift for every crew mem­ber to keep the trip in good memory.

Dur­ing the jour­ney you can enter the nau­ti­cal data into Logbook just like in the tra­di­tional logbook on paper. It is up to you how often and how detailed you type in your infor­ma­tion. Logbook pro­vides for each day a page with sev­eral tabs for the nau­ti­cal infor­ma­tion, weather infor­ma­tion, tech­ni­cal notes and for your per­sonal diary with pho­tos. Besides, Logbook offers a spe­cial view where you can put in detailed infor­ma­tion on your yacht. This makes it eas­ier to find all impor­tant infor­ma­tion when needed.

Logbook can be con­fig­ured to suit both sea and inland water­way travel.

Logbook Suite, Logbook Navigation
The tab Nav­i­ga­tion shows an overview with the nav­i­ga­tion data of the whole day.

To eas­ily enter the nav­i­ga­tion data even under very bad con­di­tions Logbook pro­vides a spe­cial view with large fields for data entry while crusing.

If Logbook is con­nected to a GPS or NMEA data source, you can let Logbook make the entries auto­mat­i­cally using the Auto NMEA func­tion.

Logbook Suite, Logbook Dialog Dataentry
For enter­ing the nav­i­ga­tion data while trav­el­ling Logbook pro­vides a clear input dia­log with large fields. The num­ber of entries in not limited. 

Using Logbook with NMEA connection

Logbook offers func­tions to cap­ture nav­i­ga­tion data from GPS/NMEA data sources and enter them in your logbook—either by press­ing a but­ton or fully automatically.

When­ever you want to make an entry in your logbook, you can cap­ture the cur­rent GPS/NMEA data and have it entered in the logbook. All infor­ma­tion that is not pro­vided by your GPS/NMEA data source can to be entered manually.

Or you acti­vate the Auto-NMEA func­tion and let Logbook make your entries auto­mat­i­cally. Pos­si­ble are hourly entries (at the full hour) or every half hour, entries at a course change larger than the set angle or at under- or over­run of pre­set speeds.

 

Set­tings for NMEA con­nec­tion and for auto­matic entries

On the PC Logbook sup­ports NMEA0183 data sources con­nected via USB, Blue­tooth or WiFi. Pure NMEA2000 data sources are not yet sup­ported, but most mul­ti­plex­ers pro­vide NMEA0183 data anyway.

On the iPad, Logbook sup­ports both NMEA0183 and NMEA2000 data sources con­nected to the iPad via WiFi, Blue­tooth or cable adapters. The con­nec­tion between Logbook and the data source is estab­lished via our iPad app LogbookNMEA con­nect, which can be down­loaded free of charge from the Apple App Store. On our Sup­port site we pro­vide a list of the hard­ware for which there are ready-made set­ting sets (get there by click­ing on the bot­tom but­ton in the right col­umn or on Smart­phone at the bot­tom of this page). Please con­tact our sup­port if you want to use hard­ware that is not listed here.

Depend­ing on the type of data source, the fol­low­ing data can be entered auto­mat­i­cally into your logbook from data source (NMEA0183 or NMEA2000):

  • board time and time in UTC
  • posi­tion
  • course over ground (COG )
  • speed over ground ( SOG)
  • wind direc­tion and wind speed
  • LOG or TRIP
  • engine speed (for 1 or 2 engines)
  • air pres­sure, tem­per­a­ture and humidity
  • on the tab Weather: water temperature

If your iPad is con­nected to a NMEA2000 net­work it can also read the engine oper­at­ing hours (if avail­able in the net­work). Please note that GPS mice or the inter­nal GPS of the iPad does not pro­vide wind data.

On the iPad, the NMEA func­tion can also read data from the inte­grated GPS and from the inte­grated barom­e­ter. LogbookNMEA con­nect then cal­cu­lates course and speed over ground from the iPad GPS data.

In demo mode (if there are less than 5 days in the logbook) you can also test the NMEA func­tion and the auto­matic data entry in you logbook. As soon as more than 5 days have been cre­ated, the NMEA func­tion is only avail­able if a ser­ial num­ber for the appro­pri­ate NMEA license (PC or iPad) has been entered.

Screenshots and Printouts

The screen­shots and exam­ples for print­outs will give you a taste of Logbook—but con­vince your­self and load your free trial version!

Logbook Suite, Logbook Titlepage
The decorative cover sheet
In the view Ship's data you can enter all information about your ship
In the view Ship's data you can enter all information about your ship
Logbook Suite, Logbook Engine
On the tab Engine you can record for up to 2 engines the operating times and distances traveled.
Logbook Suite, Logbook Technical Batteries
The sheet Batteries is useful for monitoring your batteries.
Logbook Suite, Logbook Journal
The tab Journal is for your personal diary and up to 4 photos per day.
Logbook Suite, Logbook Image show
The slide show provides a lager displaying of your photos stored in Logbook.
Logbook Suite, Logbook Tracking
Creation of a Google track from the positions recorded using the Auto-NMEA function
Logbook Suite, Logbook Trips, Daily analyses
The view Trips shows a summary for each day.
Logbook Suite, Logbook Trips Graph Distances
Graphic showing the total distances as well as the distances under sail or engine during a trip.
Logbook Suite, Logbook Fuel Calculator
The enhanced Fuel Calculator now calculates the consumption per hour and per unit of distance.
Logbook Suite, Logbook Printout Trips
Printed page showing one trip
Logbook Suite, Logbook Printout Navigation
Printed page with the navigation data of one day

The Logbook as evidence

We hope that this case will never hap­pen, but unfor­tu­nately there might be a sit­u­a­tion where you have to use your logbook as evi­dence.
In some forums you can read about this topic: “Throw your logbook over­board if you are involved in an acci­dent. Then no one can prove any­thing against you.” But that is the worst thing you can do. Because that dis­qual­i­fies you as a skip­per and puts you on a worse foot­ing from the start.

A well-kept logbook is con­sid­ered proof of good sea­man­ship – and this is one of the basic require­ments for a skip­per. The more you have noted in your logbook dur­ing the voy­age, the better.

In the Inter­na­tional Reg­u­la­tions for Pre­vent­ing Col­li­sions at Sea there are only vague state­ments about how exactly a logbook for recre­ational boat­ing has to look like and what has to be recorded in it. There is still no men­tion of dig­i­tal log­books, although these are declared as allowed in other places.

The key require­ments are that it must be a bound book­let or book. Loose sheets are not per­mis­si­ble. Pages may not be torn out. Fur­ther­more, it must be rec­og­niz­able if entries have been changed sub­se­quently. The logbook must not be writ­ten with erasable pens.

Logbook has inte­grated numer­ous func­tions that trans­fer these require­ments to the dig­i­tal world, ensur­ing that your logbook is evi­den­tial: Dele­tion of days, trips and nav­i­ga­tion entries is not pos­si­ble, sev­eral inde­pen­dent time stamps show where entries have been changed sub­se­quently. Auto­mat­i­cally cre­ated nav­i­ga­tion entries are marked with a color. The time stamp then shows whether the entries were added directly by the per­son respon­si­ble (e.g. the sail posi­tion) or whether they were edited later. With his sig­na­ture, the skip­per con­firms the cor­rect­ness of the entries.

Our license system for Logbook

Depend­ing on which fea­tures of Logbook you want to use and on which devices you use Logbook, we offer dif­fer­ent licenses.

The full versions

As a new Logbook cus­tomer you start with a full ver­sion. First you decide with which range of func­tions you want to use Logbook:

  • Basic: unlim­ited use of Logbook, only man­ual data entry
  • NMEA: unlim­ited use of Logbook, trans­fer of NMEA data from a GPS/NMEA device or from the inte­grated GPS

Then you choose on which device type Logbook should be used. You can choose between: iPad, Mac or Win­dows, iPad and Mac or iPad and Win­dows.

The upgrades

If you already own a license for Logbook, you can upgrade it at any time — both the range of func­tions and the sup­ported device types. For this we offer:

  • Upgrade to NMEA license: Select the device type for which you want to upgrade an exist­ing Basic license to NMEA support
  • Upgrade for sec­ond device: With this upgrade you can extend your Logbook license for use on an addi­tional device type. As with the full ver­sions, you can choose between Basic and NMEA func­tion­al­ity for your sec­ond device.

Logbook Auto-NMEA

With this license you acti­vate the auto­matic record­ing of NMEA data and the func­tion for auto­matic Logbook entries. The Auto-NMEA license requires a NMEA license. It is valid for all your devices, for which you also have a NMEA license. So you don’t have to acti­vate the func­tion for each device type separately.

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Logbook license
Topics of this page
LogbookNMEA connect

List of devices supported by
NMEA function for iPad