How to Log Sailing in 2024: App or Logbook?
As sailors we often need to prove our experience: to charter a boat, find crewing opportunities and purchase insurance. Traditionally this has required adding up entries from paper logbooks, if you remember to update them and can still find them!
At Topsail we are excited by a new, modern alternative - the SailTies logbook app. We are so impressed, that it is now our preferred method for customers to provide their experience when purchasing a policy with us.
10 Reasons to Use SailTies Over a Paper Logbook:
1. Easy to Record Each Voyage
It only takes one tap to start recording and another to stop recording. You will then have an accurate record of your trip. Key details such as duration, distance and speed are stored automatically.
2. Capture the Full Voyage Experience
After each trip, you can add the vessel along with photos, videos and notes, to preserve a rich memory of your sail. This is much more enjoyable to share and look back on in the future.
3. Store Qualifications Safely
A digital wallet for all your sailing qualifications is hugely beneficial- no more panicking when you can’t find your ICC the night before a holiday! It takes less than a minute to add each qualification with the app’s scanner.
4. Add Past History Quickly
There are multiple ways to add past sailing voyages - GPX import, manually drawing on a map or a quick bulk entry form. Even better, past trips benefit from all the other advanced features too!
5. Sailor CV Created Automatically
A beautiful summary CV is created from your experience and will always be kept up to date. This is enhanced with unique sailor-stats, such as vessel list, tidal water % and oceans sailed.Open an example SailTies CV to see why Topsail prefers SailTies CVs.
6. Verifiable Experience
This point is particularly important to us! Unlike a scribble in a paper logbook, SailTies voyages are verified by GPS data and social confirmation by fellow crew members. You can also open a sailor’s past voyages to see the route, photos and logs for more details.
7. Easily Shareable
This is an obvious one - it’s much easier (and far more interesting!) to share your SailTies profile, CV or voyages digitally, than from a page from a logbook.
8. Connect with the Sailing Community
There are thousands of sailors and hundreds of groups (such as yacht clubs and boat owners’ associations) on SailTies already. You can get inspired by other people’s sailing and share your trips with those who matter to you.
9. Securely Backed Up
SailTies voyages are stored securely in the cloud, so if you lose or change phone, your sailing experience is safe. Unlike losing a logbook, which is a major problem.
10. Forward Thinking Team
Chris & Tom, the sailors behind SailTies, are passionate about solving this problem for the sailing world, to make it easier for people to log their experience. The app is continuously improving and is supported by a team of investors from Apple, Monzo, Natwest and British Marine.
BONUS - It’s FREE!
If all these reasons weren’t enough, SailTies is free! There is an optional ‘SailTies Plus’ subscription to unlock even more features, such as historic weather data on voyages.
We recommend downloading the SailTies app, creating a free account and trying it for yourself. SailTies users get 10% off Topsail policies, because it helps us when sailors share their experience using the app.
