2026 Captain’s Edition
Watchkeeping Roster & Night Passage Log PDF
Competence by the Clock, Rotation & the Night Watch
- 26 Pages / 210 Register Lines A4 and US Letter included.
- 1,108 Live Fields Interactive and 100% offline.
- 6 Calculation Models W1 through W6.
- Instant Digital Access Download links the moment you pay.
A roster where the only two people who can put a reef in are both asleep between 0200 and 0600 works perfectly — until the night it does not.
On a conventional watch bill that hole is invisible. Everyone can divide twenty-four hours by four. What almost nobody does on paper is ask which competences are actually awake at three in the morning — and what happens to the rotation when one person has been seasick since day seven.
Part III maps every competence against every slot in your roster. The gap becomes something you can see ashore, while there is still time to teach somebody.
What you receive
A seven-part document for the hours nobody else is awake
- 24 standing rules — when the skipper is called, what may be done alone after dark, who may wake whom — each with a column for where the rule came from
- 12 slots you define across 24 hours, rotated over 14 days, with night slots marked separately
- A 16-competence matrix by person, then the same competences mapped against every slot — the page this product exists for
- A 12-line gaps and teaching plan for what the matrix found and what you intend to do about it
- A 14-line handover checklist, read aloud with both people awake before the outgoing watch goes below
- A 16-entry night log, a 14-contact bearing register and a 10-line record of every call — including the ones that turned out to be nothing
Why there is no watch system printed in it
Three-on-three-off, four hours with dog watches, the Swedish system, the shorthanded twenty-minute cycle. Every crew that has crossed an ocean has an opinion, most of them are right for the boat they were formed on, and the correct answer depends on how many stand watch, how experienced they are and how long the passage is.
So this document publishes none of them. You write yours, and the models make its consequences visible: load per person, rest between watches, and the night hours each person is actually carrying.
Night hours, counted separately
Every crew knows who ends up with the graveyard watch, and almost none of them have counted it. A rotation that looks even on paper often is not once the dark hours are separated out. Model W5 settles it arithmetically — which is worth considerably more on day twelve than it sounds on day one.
The first honest number in any roster
Model W1 divides the hours to cover by the people standing watch — not the people aboard. A crew of six with two who do not stand watch is a crew of four, and a roster built on the headcount rather than the watch count fails on the second night. Count the cook, the navigator and the seasick separately.
Record the calls that turned out to be nothing
The commonest failure at night is not a wrong decision — it is a decision delayed by somebody reluctant to wake a tired skipper for something that might be nothing. The incident register has a column for the outcome precisely so that calling early stays comfortable.
How it differs from the Offshore Passage Workbook
The offshore workbook records fatigue after the fact, across a passage: what was stood, what was slept, how far the crew drifted. This one builds the roster before it — who stands with whom, how the pairs rotate, and where the competence holes are. One is a measurement, the other is a design tool. They complement each other and neither replaces the other.
Who it is for
- Skippers taking a mixed-experience crew offshore for the first time
- Delivery skippers who rebuild a roster for every new crew
- Shorthanded couples who want to know honestly which tasks depend on one person
- Sailing schools and clubs who want a consistent handover across a fleet
Technical specification
| Product ID | AML-PASS-2026-03 |
| Extent | 26 pages · 7 parts · 6 calculation models |
| Register lines | 210 across rules, roster, competence, handover, night log and contacts |
| Interactivity | 1,108 live PDF form fields — 38 tick boxes and 1,070 entry fields |
| Formats included | A4 and US Letter, both fillable and print-ready, 26 pages each |
| Crews | Up to 6 people in the matrix, any watch system, any passage length |
| Offline | No app, no account, no connection required once downloaded |
What it is not
This document publishes no watch system, no watch length and no rest period. It teaches no navigation, no collision avoidance and no rules of the road.
Model W6 is an approximation for a contact holding a steady course and speed — a sanity check on what your instruments show you, never a substitute for a proper plot, for AIS, or for the judgement of a trained watchkeeper. Keeping a proper lookout by all available means is a legal obligation that no form can discharge.
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2026 Captain's Edition · Revision 1.0 · AML-PASS-2026-03. Apex Marine Labs designs the organisational process behind good seamanship. Our documents record and organise; they do not replace training, a qualified instructor, or the judgement of the person in charge of the vessel.