The mileage record for your crew
Whether you want it as a memento of the trip or as proof of miles towards your next certificate, the record does both. It holds the distance you have sailed, and it is always signed off by the skipper of the trip.
Every mileage record in 5 minutes
Sailing area, dates, route, distance, vessel, owner. Identical for the entire crew. Only the name and the role change. By hand you copy the same six lines over and over. In Skipper Connect you enter them once.
- The trip is already there. Dates, sailing area, route, boat and owner have been part of the trip since you planned it, and they are carried over.
- The miles come from the logbook. The app adds up the distance between the entries. You can correct it at any time.
- Sign once. You draw your signature with a finger, and after that every further record is a single tap.
- They build up in the recipient's profile. Every record sits there, across all their trips, and can be downloaded as a PDF.
What a signed mileage record looks like
There is no single official form for a mileage record. What matters is that the content is right. Here is an example of the record we issue in Skipper Connect.
Create your mileage records in minutes
In Skipper Connect you enter the details once and send them to the whole crew, personalised, with a single tap.
What goes into a mileage record?
Three blocks matter for proof of miles. Who sailed? What route? What boat? Here is what belongs in each of them.
Name and role on board decide what the miles count for
The name of the crew member is obvious. The role on board matters just as much. For entry-level certificates the plain mile count is usually enough, however you sailed. For higher certificates, and for the commercially recognised ones, part of the miles normally has to be sailed as watch leader or deputy watch leader.
So anyone who might go for a higher certificate later should have the role entered correctly from the start. Adding it afterwards means tracking down the skipper from that trip and asking them to change a document they signed long ago.
In Skipper Connect the role is already in the crew list of the trip. It is carried over when the record is issued, and the skipper can adjust it before the document goes out.
Dates, sailing area, route and distance
This block is the heart of the mileage record. The sailing area shows where the miles were covered, and that matters: inland waters do not count towards most certificates. The dates let the entry be checked, the route makes it plausible.
Distance means the distance actually sailed, not the straight line between the first and the last harbour. Anyone beating to windward covers considerably more than the route on the chart suggests.
In Skipper Connect the distance comes from the logbook: the app adds up the miles between the entries and fills in the total. Dates, sailing area and route are already part of the trip. The skipper can adjust the mileage by hand as well, in case an entry was forgotten. That way no mile is lost.
Which boat did the miles come from?
Boat name, type and owner. The type shows that this was a yacht and not a dinghy, another condition that has to be met before the miles are recognised. On a charter yacht the owner is usually the charter company, and that is who can confirm it if anyone asks.
Below that is the skipper's signature. With it, they vouch that the details are correct. Without it the record is a sheet of paper with numbers on it.
In Skipper Connect the vessel details are taken from the trip automatically when it is set up. The skipper draws the signature once with a finger on the phone. It then applies to every record of that trip.
Fill it in once, for the whole crew
The trip is already in the app. You pick who gets a record.
Questions that come up on the last evening
The crew usually thinks of the mileage record on the last evening. That is a good moment to know the answers.
Does the skipper need a particular certificate to sign it?
Not as a rule. Since chartering and skippering a yacht already requires a certificate, the person in charge of the boat is normally in a position to sign the miles off as well. What some examining bodies do look at is whether the skipper actually sailed the trip.
Do miles under engine count?
What counts is the distance covered on a yacht at sea. Most schemes do not separate sail from engine; the distance sailed is what matters. How much of it was done under sail follows from the logbook anyway, where the status of the boat is recorded with every entry.
What if I only need it in two years' time?
Collect it now anyway. Tracking down a skipper from a past trip and asking them to sign off miles they barely remember is hard work. That is why records in Skipper Connect build up in your profile, across all your trips, including trips with different skippers.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official form for a mileage record?
There is no single standard form. In most countries the record can be issued informally, as long as the content meets the usual requirements. The rules differ from country to country and between examining bodies, so it is worth checking what applies to the certificate you are working towards.
How many miles do I need?
That depends entirely on the certificate. Entry-level qualifications tend to ask for a few hundred miles at sea; the higher ones run into four figures and usually require part of them as watch leader. Check the current requirements with the body that issues your certificate, since they are revised from time to time.
Is a digitally created record accepted?
Since no particular form is required, it makes little difference whether the record is handwritten, printed on a template or supplied as a PDF. What counts is the content and the skipper's signature. Whether a record is accepted in an individual case is decided by the examining body.
Does the total from the logbook count as proof?
No. The formal proof is the signed record from the skipper. The logbook is the basis the distance comes from. That is why Skipper Connect suggests the logbook total in the distance field and lets you correct it at any time.
Can a skipper sign off their own miles?
In principle yes, if they sailed the trip as skipper themselves. Some examining bodies take a stricter view. Keeping the logbook and the charter contract costs nothing and ends the discussion.
Is there a template to print out?
Why fill in an empty form when the finished record takes a few taps? That is exactly what the Skipper Connect app is for: it produces a completed PDF for every crew member. You can print that whenever you like.
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