Hobbies & Makers · Mobile
HullLog: the boat maintenance log app that runs on engine hours
Your boat's whole service history, kept by engine hours and worth money at survey.
HullLog is a boat maintenance log app for owners of trailerable and small cruising boats. It records work against engine hours instead of dates, so the impeller, the zincs, and the lower unit oil come due when the boat has actually run.
Waitlist Not built yet Updated 5 September 2026
What problem does HullLog solve?
The notebook lives in the boat. That is the whole trouble with it. It sits in a locker under the helm seat, damp at the corners, and it only gets written in when you happen to have a pen. Between one season and the next you replace an impeller at the ramp, top up the lower unit at home, and swap two zincs on a mooring. None of those three moments happen near the notebook. Then a broker asks what the engine hours were at the last water pump change, and you cannot answer. A buyer's surveyor asks when the through-hulls were last exercised, and the honest reply costs you money. Meanwhile the engine manual counts in hours and the calendar counts in months, so a boat that ran forty hours last summer gets serviced on the same schedule as one that ran two hundred. You end up doing work early, or worse, late.
Boat maintenance log
A printable sheet for logging work by engine hours, with parts, cost, and the hours the next service is due.
| Date | Engine hours | System | Work done | Parts and cost | Next due |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Free to use. No account. Nothing you type here is stored.
What would HullLog do?
HullLog would keep the record on your phone, where you already are when the work happens. Every entry starts with the hour meter reading, and dates come along for the ride. You log by system: engine, drive, electrical, ground tackle, trailer, hull and deck. Reminders fire on hours rather than months, so a service falls due after you have actually run the boat, and each one carries the interval you copied from your own engine manual. Photographs of a part number, a receipt, or a corroded anode attach to the entry that explains them. When you sell, you export the whole history as a dated document with hours, parts, and cost per job, which is the thing a surveyor and a serious buyer both ask for.
How would it work?
- 1Read the hour meter, then log the job against those hours with parts, cost, and a photo.
- 2Copy the intervals from your engine and drive manuals once, so reminders come from the maker.
- 3Get a nudge when the hours are close, not when a calendar month rolls over.
- 4Export the full history with hours and receipts when the boat goes on the market.
Who is it for?
- Owners of trailerable outboard boats who launch, run, and flush the motor at home.
- Cruising sailors keeping a diesel, a saildrive, and a long list of through-hulls honest.
- Anyone selling a boat who wants the service history to answer the surveyor's questions.
How do you build a boat maintenance schedule from the engine manual and a notebook?
Start with the manual, not the notebook. Find the scheduled maintenance table in your engine and drive manuals and copy it out by hand, one line per item, with the hour figure the maker gives beside it. Do the same for the gearcase, the trailer bearings, and anything else with a printed interval. The manual is the authority here, and copying it is the only way your log knows what due means. Keep the notebook at home. A damp locker is where records go to die, so use a hardback book that lives on the shelf next to the manuals and never sails. Take the hour meter reading with your phone camera every time you finish a session, then write the entry up when you are back and dry. The photo is the timestamp, and it stops you inventing numbers later. Write each job on one line: hours, date, system, what you did, the part number, and what it cost. Part numbers matter more than anything else you will write. Two seasons on, the impeller kit you want is the one you fitted last time, and the number saves you a phone call to a dealer. Put a running page at the front for the things that come due, with the hours you last did them and the hours the manual asks for. That page is your whole schedule. Add a photograph habit alongside: the anodes before and after, the raw water strainer, the state of the belt. A photo answers the question a line of writing cannot. Keep every receipt in one envelope filed by year, and staple the small ones to a sheet so they stop falling out. When you sell, the notebook and the envelope together are the difference between a story and a record.
What do people use today?
| Option | Good at | The gap |
|---|---|---|
| A notebook kept in the boat | Free, instant, and right there when you notice the strainer is full of weed. | It gets damp, it stays aboard, and half the work you do happens at home or at a dealer. |
| A spreadsheet on a laptop | Sortable, printable, and easy to shape around your own systems and intervals. | Nobody opens a laptop on a wet transom, so entries are written from memory days later, if at all. |
| The dealer's own service records | Authoritative for engine work, with hours and part numbers recorded properly. | Covers only what the dealer did; your oil changes, anodes, and trailer work stay invisible. |
| Photos in your phone's camera roll | Captures part numbers, wiring, and corrosion better than any written note. | Unsearchable a year later, with no hours attached and nothing that reads as a history. |
| General vehicle maintenance apps | Reminders, receipts, and a service history in a tidy timeline. | Built around odometer miles and road cars, so hour meters, anodes, and haul-outs do not fit. |
What would it cost?
Free
$0
- One boat
- Unlimited log entries
- Printable log sheet
Skipper
$4.99/mo
- Unlimited boats and trailers
- Hour-based reminders from your own manual
- Photo and receipt attachments
- Resale history export
Prices are proposed. Founding members lock in the lowest price if we build HullLog.
Questions people ask
What is a boat maintenance log app?
A boat maintenance log app records the work done on a boat, the parts fitted, and the cost, keyed to engine hours as well as dates. It replaces the damp notebook in the locker and produces the service history a surveyor or a buyer asks to see.
Why log by engine hours instead of dates?
Engines wear by running, not by waiting. A boat that ran a handful of weekends is not due the same work as one that crossed a lake every day. Hours also let you compare your usage with the interval printed in your own engine manual.
Does HullLog tell me when to change the impeller?
No. Service intervals belong to your engine and drive manufacturer, and they differ by model, fuel, and use. You copy the intervals from your manual once, and HullLog counts hours against them. The figures stay yours, and you correct them whenever the manual says otherwise.
Will it work at a mooring with no signal?
Yes. Entries are written on the device and sync later. Logging usually happens with the engine hatch open and a phone in one hand, which is rarely a place with good coverage.
What does the export look like when I sell the boat?
The export is a dated document listing every job by system, with the hour meter reading, parts, and cost. Receipts and photographs attach as an appendix. A broker can hand it to a buyer, and a surveyor can check it against what the boat shows.
Does it cover the trailer as well as the boat?
Yes. Bearings, brakes, lights, and tires sit in their own system alongside the engine and hull, because the trailer is the part most likely to strand you. Trailer items are logged by date and miles rather than engine hours.
When will HullLog launch?
There is no date. HullLog gets built only if enough boat owners join this waitlist and say they would pay for it. Joining costs nothing, and the printable log sheet on this page is free whatever happens.
Where does this stand?
HullLog is a proposal, not a product. This page collects demand from search and answer engines. Askwright builds it only if enough people join the waitlist and say they would pay. Read how this works.