1. First Steps
After installation, YachtLog walks you into the app in three steps: permissions, safety notice, create your yacht. Then you land on the dashboard – the command centre for everything else.
Permissions
YachtLog needs access to your location – for log entries with position, automatic tracking, anchor alarm and MOB. Important: grant location access with “Always”, not just “While Using”. Only then can the app record your passage while the device is locked in your pocket or another app is in the foreground. You can change this anytime under iOS Settings → YachtLog → Location.
Your first yacht
No yacht, no logbook: on first launch you create your yacht with name, type, skipper and the technical data. Everything can be changed later at any time under Base Data.
2. Yacht & Base Data
Under Base Data (quick access on the dashboard) you manage your yacht: name, type, flag, home port, MMSI, year built, length, beam and draft – plus the three calculation values:
- Tank capacity (litres): the basis for range and reserve calculations.
- Engine consumption (litres/hour): your average consumption at cruising speed.
- Cruising speed (knots): your typical passage speed – ETA and planned engine hours are derived from it.
You can create several yachts and switch between them – handy for charter, deliveries or a club fleet. Switching yachts resets the current trip planning so no data from the previous yacht slips into the new trip.
The current fuel level carries over between trips: what the last trip consumed (by calculation) is missing on the next one – until you log a refuelling stop.
3. Crew
Enter your crew with name, licence and experience (sea miles). The skipper named on the yacht is added to the crew automatically – no need to enter them twice.
When the crew changes (e.g. crew change in port), the New Trip assistant helps: when you start a new trip it asks whether the crew is changing and then clears all person-related assignments (roles, watch plan) – the skipper is kept.
4. Trip Planning & Fuel
Trip planning is the heart of your preparation. It guides you through passage profile, distance and fuel calculation:
Passage profile
Choose motor or sailing yacht and the passage type coastal or offshore. The passage type drives the reserve calculation (see below).
Route
Enter departure and destination port – the search knows more than 11,000 ports worldwide and, via online search, also finds towns without a port entry. Lying at anchor or at a private jetty? Tap the location arrow in the departure field: your current GPS position becomes the starting point. The direct distance is calculated automatically; once you refine the route in the route editor, YachtLog uses the actual route distance.
Sailing share
On sailing yachts you state how many miles you plan to sail – the rest counts as engine distance. Leave the field empty and YachtLog calculates conservatively with the full distance under engine (worst case). The “Adopt sailing distance” button suggests a typical value.
Fuel advice
From distance, consumption and speed the app builds the calculation in four boxes: range (full tank), planned engine distance, required fuel and recommended reserve.
- Coastal: fixed reserve of 40 litres. If the engine distance exceeds your range, the app reminds you to plan fuel stops.
- Offshore: the app checks whether your tank covers demand + 30% safety margin. The reserve recommendation is exactly the amount you are short – if everything fits in the tank it reads “reserve covered”. If demand exceeds the tank, the app recommends auxiliary tanks or jerry cans.
Saving charts offline
Before departure you can cache the sea chart offline along your route – coverage at sea is rare. The green tick always refers to the currently planned route: change ports or waypoints and it resets, so you cache again.
5. The Route Editor
In the route editor you shape the direct line into your real route – around the cape, through the shipping lane, into the bay:
- Add a waypoint: press and hold the map where you want it – the new point sticks to your finger and can be placed in the same movement.
- Move a waypoint: tap the point (select), then drag – the pin follows your finger exactly.
- Delete a waypoint: select the point and tap the bin icon.
- Undo: the undo arrow takes back every step – as often as you like.
- Search & position: add named ports via search; “My position” sets the start to your current location.
Between waypoints the map shows the leg distances in nautical miles; total distance and ETA (based on your cruising speed) run along below. The route's start and end points are automatically adopted as departure and destination port in trip planning.
Export the finished route as GPX or KML – for plotters, iSailor, Google Earth and other navigation apps.
6. Weather & Tides
The weather forecast fetches professional marine data (ECMWF/Open-Meteo) for your route: wind, gusts, wave height and the trend over the coming days. On the weather map your planned route lies right in the wind field – you see at a glance what awaits you on which leg. Tide data comes from WorldTides.
During the trip YachtLog monitors the weather at your position and warns automatically when strong wind is building.
7. Briefing: Roles, Watch Plan, Safety Briefing
Before departure, the briefing section brings order on board:
Role assignment
Assign the on-board roles – cook, deckhand, safety, tidiness – to your crew. The roles appear in the watch plan and are stored with the trip when it starts.
Watch plan
The watch plan distributes watches automatically and fairly: 4-hour watches by day, 2-hour watches at night, with rotating assignment and standby (the next person steps in). The skipper is exempt from the graveyard watch (01:00–04:00) – as standby he naturally remains available. Per person you set the watch profile (full watch, day only, no watch) and optionally a preferred time of day. Individual watches can be swapped by dragging, roles assigned right in the table. Export the finished plan as a PDF for the pinboard in the cockpit.
Safety briefing & provisions
The guided safety briefing ticks off all points with the crew – life jackets, fire extinguishers, seacocks, radio, MOB manoeuvre. The provisions list calculates by crew size and trip duration. All briefing documents can be printed or shared as PDF in one go.
8. The Trip: Keeping the Logbook
Starting a trip
The New Trip assistant asks five short yes/no questions (crew change? adopt the plan? …) and takes you to the right places. The log entry “Departed” starts the trip: from now on YachtLog records, and your trip planning – ports, route, roles, watch plan – is stored with the trip.
Log entries
In the logbook you capture status entries with one tap: departed, sails set, motorsailing, anchoring, moored and more – each with position, course, speed and an optional note. For every entry the app automatically fetches the current weather (wind, direction, waves) and the place name. Enter fuel stops as refuelling – keeping the fuel calculation up to date.
Automatic tracking
Between your entries YachtLog records the passage by itself: adaptive track points (the faster, the denser) and automatic course-change entries whenever your course changes by more than 20° for good at 3 knots or more. In port or at anchor, berth mode mutes the tracking – no GPS zigzag in the marina, and the battery is spared.
Ending a trip
“End trip” closes the logbook. The trip name is already pre-filled – from your planned departure and destination ports (“Cherbourg → La Coruña”) or, failing that, the date – and can be changed freely. Afterwards you can review the logbook, add notes and confirm it as skipper: the trip receives your signature and counts as signed off.
9. Safety: MOB, Anchor Alarm, Emergency
Man overboard (MOB)
The red MOB button is always within reach during the trip. One tap instantly marks the position, opens the recovery view with bearing and distance to the casualty and writes the entry into the logbook. After recovery you document the outcome with a second tap.
Anchor alarm
At anchor you set a swinging radius around your position. If the yacht drifts out of the circle, the app sounds a loud alarm – even at night with the device locked.
Emergency view
The emergency view bundles everything for the worst case: your current position in radio-ready spelling, the template for a PAN-PAN/MAYDAY radio call with all yacht data (name, MMSI, position, people on board) and the watch plan with the assigned crew.
10. iCloud & Multiple Devices
With the same iCloud account on iPhone and iPad, YachtLog becomes a team:
- Logbook data (yachts, trips, entries, crew) syncs automatically – and survives a device change.
- The current trip planning – ports, route, roles, watch plan – travels along live: plan on the iPad in the evening, cast off with the iPhone in the morning.
- Automatic recording runs only on the device that started the trip. Other devices show everything and can make manual entries – no duplicate track points.
- Entries recorded offline sync as soon as the internet is back.
- Per device: app settings and offline sea charts – download the latter on every device that needs them.
Requirement: iCloud is enabled for YachtLog (iOS Settings → Apple Account → iCloud).
11. Archive & Review
Every finished trip lives in the archive – with everything that belongs to it:
- Trip detail: key figures (sailing/engine miles, consumption, average), the planned passage (“Cherbourg → La Coruña”), all log entries incl. weather, plus the trip's watch plan and role assignment.
- Course history: the track sailed on the map – with the planned route as an orange dashed line underneath: plan versus reality at a glance.
- Statistics: distances, times, speeds and fuel at a glance.
- Exports: the track as GPX/KML (optionally with speed markers), the complete logbook as PDF – cleanly formatted, with the skipper's confirmation.
12. Settings & Help
In settings you choose the language (German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French), switch on night mode for the red-light cockpit and find the quick guide right in the app. Reset data empties the app completely – careful, this deletes all trips.
Questions, wishes, found a bug? The support page with FAQ (German) answers the most common questions – for everything else reach us at with the subject “YachtLog Support”.