How to Keep a Ship's Log: What to Record on Every Leg (and Why)
A ship's log isn't ceremony — it's the maintenance record, fuel history, and memory of your boat in one place. Here's what belongs in each column, and how to make the habit survive contact with a busy helm.
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How Much Does It Cost to Fuel a Boat? Cost per Hour, per Mile, and per Trip
Marina fuel is expensive, but the pump price isn't what decides your bill — your burn rate and your throttle do, and both are numbers you can pin down.
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The Most Fuel-Efficient Speed for a Boat: Finding Your Hull's Sweet Spot
Every hull has a cruise speed that covers more miles per gallon than any other — here's where the sweet spot sits on planing, displacement, and semi-displacement boats, and how to find yours with a morning of steady-throttle runs.
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NMEA 2000 Fuel Flow Explained: What Live Engine Data Can and Can't Tell You
A fuel gauge guesses; a flow sensor measures — here's how live GPH gets from your engine onto the NMEA 2000 bus and your phone, and the three ways it can still lie to you.
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The Boat Fuel Pre-Departure Checklist: Seven Checks Before You Untie
Most out-of-fuel calls trace back to a check that got skipped at the dock — these are the seven fuel checks worth running every time, and none takes more than a few minutes.
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Why Boat Fuel Gauges Are Inaccurate (and What to Trust Instead)
Your fuel gauge isn't broken — it was never a measuring instrument, and the fix isn't a better gauge; it's a short habit of honest arithmetic.
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Five Ways to Plan Boat Fuel, Compared Honestly — From Rule of Thumb to App
From a gallons-a-day figure in your head to a dedicated planning app, each fuel-planning method catches a failure mode the one below it misses — and every one of them can be used badly.
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How Much Fuel Does a Boat Use? A Practical Guide to Boat Fuel Consumption
There's no single number for how much fuel a boat burns — but there is a reliable way to figure out yours and plan around it.
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How to Plan Fuel for a Boat Trip (and How Much Reserve to Carry)
Knowing your range is half the job — the other half is proving that this specific run, out and back with a reserve, actually fits in your tank.
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How to Calculate Your Boat's Cruising Range
Cruising range isn't your tank size times your mileage — it's the usable fuel you can safely burn, minus the reserve that gets you home.
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What Is a Float Plan? How to Make One (With a Free Template)
A float plan is the simplest safety habit in boating — a short note left with someone ashore so they know when to worry and where to send help, and here's exactly what to put in one.
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