10 Ways Evernote Can Organize & Streamline Your Boating

Evernote is a platform to capture everything you would ever want to make a note of; from handwritten notes, e-mails, pages out of books, checklists, pictures, webpages, documents, audio notes, and pretty much anything else you can snap, write, or record. Capture anything from your life, and it will all stay in sync across all your devices. So what on earth could we do with this on the boat?

If you try to track and organize anything for your boat, you know how quickly those efforts get outdated, disorganized, and unmaintainable.  Do you have a drawer that is overflowing with this stuff, or if your keen you have it all put in large binders that has little bits of paper sticking out around it? Leave all that behind with Evernote.

1. Scan or take a picture of all work orders, and work progress. Need engine work or fiberglass work done? Take a snapshot of the work order, snap the before picture, the in progress pictures and then the state of the work when finished. A virtual, historical, pictorial record of all your jobs in one spot.
2. E-mail notes to your Evernote account. E-mail your Evernote account tasks, pictures, or text notes as you think of them on the go.
3. Inventory all serviceable items. Snap pictures of oil filters, fuel filters, batteries, flares, hoses, clamps, impellers, etc, along with noting the date serviced, and possibly the next service date. Also use text notes, or audio notes do describe what you need, and web clippings of replacement parts with prices for comparison.
4. Pictures of all of your boating services business cards and letterheads. Whenever you get service done, or foresee the use of someone, snap a shot of the business card, letterhead, magazine ad, or signage, along with a note on what you used them for or will use them for.
5. Track all your fuel usage and expenses. At the fuel dock? Take a snapshot of the receipt, throw it away, then save it to Evernote with more pics or text of the volume on the fuel meter, and the hours on the engines.
6. Save trip logs with pictures. Out on the weekend or on an extended vacation? Log your trips to Evernote with the trip specifics and snapshots of the trip. Record your engine hours along with it.
7. Winterization/Spring Checklists. Create checklists for all your winterization tasks for each part of your boat. The checklist feature even has an actual checkbox to check when the item is complete. What I have done in my winterization checklist is I have taken pictures of the off season storage procedure pages right out of my manuals for my A/C, engines, genny, etc. I have also attached web clippings from web sites and forum threads that have useful information and things to keep in mind when doing my winterization.
8. Catalog your next boat purchase research. Thinking of upgrading the boat? I know you are, you're a boater. Whether you or online and saving web clippings or pages to Evernote of the boats you like, or you are out and about looking around the boat yard and snapping pictures and taking notes, you have all that information in one place and easily accessible.  Saving audio notes is a great feature in this scenario. Save an audio note of your conversation with a broker (without him knowing of course), or record yourself doing a walk around of a boat while you talk about likes and dislikes.
9. Catalog service recall information. Every boat, engine and parts can have a series of recalls, service procedure adjustments, and different parts for those recalls. Keep these items in one place, noting what has been done one your boat, attach service bulletin pdfs along with it, and you will have your complete recall history online for your reference or for a potential buyer to look at to see how well you maintain your vessel.
10. Text searching on everything. Above and beyond the benefit of going paperless, there is the added benefit of having a searchable archive of all your notes. That's right, not only text notes, but Evernote will even index text in images, PDFs, or other documents. Imagine searching for all notes with the name of your marina, then it will quickly show you all the images or scans of work orders or receipts with your marina's name in it. That's pretty sweet if you ask me.

Whether on or off the boat, remember everything.

www.evernote.com

Replacing Boat Carpet with Synthetic Decking

When we purchased the C-Shel back in 2008, we knew there would be many items in need of updating, and upon first look we knew that the carpet in the staterooms and the head would be right at the top of the that list.

The previous owners did a fantastic job picking modern neutral boat carpet for the salon when they replaced the original carpet. However their new installation stopped at the bottom of the companionway stairs. The master and guest staterooms along with the head (that's a washroom for you landlubbers) was still covered in Grey 20 year old carpet. Why a boat builder would put carpet in a head area I will never know. Our goal was to find a replacement and have it installed before the beginning of the next season, spring 2009.

We of course wanted Teak and Holly for the upscale traditional boat look. However, I wasn't keen on the maintenance of real Teak and Holly, I really wanted a synthetic solution that didn't look fake like most laminate and vinyl flooring I have seen.

During the winter we attended the Montreal Boat Show with some good friends. We were hoping to see some floor samples but didn't have high expectations. During our exploration of the show we ran across the NuTeak display. We seen samples of exterior and interior synthetic flooring. We noticed Teak and Holly flooring in the display and asked if it was real. It wasn't. This floor looked so good, so durable, we were sold on the spot. The floor in the NuTeak line is called Seafloor I believe, and I later found out that this product is probably the exact same product as the Amtico interior synthetic decking they use on some cruise ships and high end motor yachts like Hatteras.

In the spring we ordered enough product to cover the square footage of the lower floors of the C-Shel, along with the adhesive, and the adhesive gun. We started to pull the old carpet up at the beginning of March. That's right, I attempted to install this stuff plank by plank with my Father-In-Law. I like to think I'm handy, but those who really know me will tell you that I'm somewhat green. However, I was determined to do this ourselves and save a load of cash in the process, so with the confidence builder my Father-In-Law is, we started.

 Head removed, and the old carpet quickly thrown in the dumpster, the next thing we hit was the unforeseen need to level the floor. For added strength, the plywood floor was tabbed with fiberglass to the hull sides. Any texture in the floor, or uneven surfaces would be felt under foot with this 1/8” thick seafloor. We spent one and a half weekends alone, troweling epoxy filler and sanding to make the floor even around the areas of tabbing.

Next stop was to pre-cut all the pieces to fit to the floor before any adhesive could be laid. We nailed a piece of strapping to the plywood floor to mark the center and to use as a straight edge to butt the pieces to, working from the center out. Once one side was fitted with pieces, we moved the center strapping board to the other side of the center line and continued to work from center out on the other side. Though this flooring is fairly easy to work with, it was tedious and long work. It took us many many weekends to complete the cuts.

This stuff comes in strips like hardwood flooring about 3 inches wide and 3 feet long, including the thin holly strips. Straight edges would be cut with a mitre saw, curves and shapes would have to be done with a pair of tin snips, which took a bit of getting use to.

The adhesive part of the installation was the easiest. Lifting big sections of the flooring product off the floor and spreading adhesive then relaying it. All in all it took from the beginning of March to the beginning of May to complete the work, working on the weekends only. I would venture to say I saved thousands of dollars in labor doing this work ourselves, and I have the satisfaction of saying that this unhandy fellow got a little bit handier.

I have no reservations in recommending the NuTeak Seafloor interior synthetic Teak and Holly. It is a wonderful, real looking, durable product, that I am sure I will be pleased with for many years to come. In my opinion, the floors of the C-Shel look much better than even when she first rolled off the assembly line 20+ years ago, and maybe even adds a little value to our Tollycraft 34 Sport Sedan.

Innovation Awards at the International Boat Exhibition IBEX

Every year I follow the IBEX show, wondering what new and innovative products I may be interested in and to become familiar with the technologies we are going to be seeing on the next generation of boats.

One product in particular caught my eye, and it won the innovation award in the safety category. The product is Azure by PlasDECK. It is a synthetic teak exterior decking solution where the caulk lines will glow in the dark because of a phosphorescent blend. Not only will this make things safer walking around the deck in low light conditions, it has a major cool factor as well.

Check it out on PlasDECK

 Will this product find its way onto the decks of the C-Shel? Well I can certainly see the safety and cosmetic value of the product.  I can see it now, taking a late evening cruise, or overnighting at anchor, a set of underwater LED lights turned on and the soft blue glow of the flooring strips. Very nice.

Interested in the other awarded products at IBEX? See BoatingBusiness.ca.