What is Nautis?
Nautis is a free sailing logbook app that records your RYA sea time as you sail.
If it isn't in your logbook, you can't show it.
At your Yachtmaster exam you show the examiner your logbook, and they question you on your passages in detail.
Most sea time gets written down later, from memory: the miles from a chart, the night hours from a sunset table. The paper logbook stays on someone else's boat, or gets wet. Then it all has to be added up and split into tidal and non-tidal before your next course or exam.
Nautis writes it down while you sail.
The rules that decide your sea time.
Straight from the RYA. Each one is easy to get wrong in a paper logbook.
-
A short day sail isn't a day.
The RYA counts a day on board as 8 consecutive hours living aboard, most of it at sea.
Nautis counts your days on board by that rule, and you can correct it.
-
Night hours are their own number.
Yachtmaster Coastal asks for 12. Unlike days and miles, a Coastal Skipper certificate doesn't reduce them.
Nautis works out your night hours from the track and the hours of daylight.
-
The Med counts for half, at most.
The exam form splits days, miles and night hours into tidal and non-tidal, and non-tidal seas like the Med or the Baltic can be half of it at most.
Nautis suggests tidal or non-tidal from where you sailed, and its Yachtmaster tally checks the half.
-
Helming doesn't make you skipper.
A day as skipper means you were the one nominated to plan and run the passage.
Nautis records your role on each trip and counts your days as skipper.
-
Offshore counts passages, not only miles.
Yachtmaster Offshore needs 5 passages over 60 miles, 2 of them overnight and 2 as skipper.
Nautis counts your passages over 60 miles, the overnight ones and the ones you skippered.
-
Old sea time runs out.
Your qualifying sea time has to fall within the 10 years before your exam.
The Nautis Yachtmaster tally counts only the last 10 years.
Rules from the RYA's qualifying passages, Yachtmaster Coastal and Yachtmaster Offshore pages, and the exam application form. Our guide has every figure: RYA sea time requirements.
One passage, start to finish.
You slip lines in St Peter Port at six in the morning and press Start. Nautis records the track as you go and, at the interval you set, your speed, course and pressure.
When something happens, you add a log entry: the wind, the sea state, the sails you're under and a note in your own words. You don't need signal.
You tie up in Hamble just before one the next morning. The trip already knows the miles, the night hours and the days on board.
Then it goes in your logbook.
Export the trip as a Voyage Record in RYA G73 format, as a PDF or a CSV. Print it, and the skipper signs it.
Your Personal Logbook adds up every trip, season by season, and shows how far you are from Yachtmaster Coastal and Offshore. This one counts towards Offshore as a passage over 60 miles and an overnight one. You were crew, so it isn't one of your passages as skipper.
- Passage over 60 NM
- Overnight
- As skipper
The questions students ask.
Is Nautis for someone at my stage?
Nautis is built for sailors working through the RYA scheme, from Competent Crew to Yachtmaster. It logs every trip the same way, whether you're crew or skipper.
Will my instructor or examiner accept it?
You show your logbook to the examiner at the exam. Nautis exports your trips in RYA Personal Logbook (G73) format, as a PDF to print and have the skipper sign, or as a CSV. If you're not sure what your training centre wants to see, ask them before your course.
I crew on other people's boats. Does it still work?
Yes. Nautis runs on your phone, whoever owns the boat. Each trip records your role on board and the skipper's name.
Does it need signal at sea?
No. Everything is stored on your phone and syncs when you're back in signal.
Who signs it?
The skipper, as with a paper logbook. Each Voyage Record PDF ends with a line for their signature.
What about the sea time already in my paper logbook?
Keep it. Nautis logs the passages you sail from now on, and older ones can't be added, so take your paper logbook along with your Nautis export. The Yachtmaster tally in Nautis counts the trips in Nautis.
Who can see my trips?
You choose for each trip: Everyone, Friends or Only me. New accounts start on Friends.
Can I get my data out?
Yes. Export any trip, or your whole logbook, as a PDF or a CSV whenever you like.
What does it cost, and when can I get it?
It's free. Nautis is in testing on iOS and Android now. Leave your email and we'll tell you the day it's out.
Built for one RYA student first.
Louis Levy, a software developer, built Nautis for his father.
His dad spent two years working through his RYA courses and qualifications, keeping his sea time on paper. Nautis is the logbook Louis built for him, and for everyone keeping the same record.
The name is Latin: nautis, for the sailors.
Be ready for your next passage.
Nautis is free on iOS and Android, and almost here. Leave your email and we'll tell you the day it's out.
See everything it does