A true example of the possible consequences
of poor maintenance logging:

On a 4 day trip from the Virgin Islands to Florida, a 100ft motor yacht had a catastrophic main engine failure.

During the 4-5 months (and $100,000) that it took to rebuild the 8 cylinder Gardner, it was determined that :

• a faulty fuel injector was hosing (injecting liquid) fuel
• this washed away the lube oil film on the cylinder wall
• the piston overheated and started seizing
• the cylinder dry liner was pulled down by the piston and smashed
• the piston shattered after running up and down inside the wet liner for a while
• on the following down-stroke the connecting rod fell sideways!
• on the next up-stroke the connecting rod went through the side of the engine block, damaging the fuel injection pump and bending the crankshaft (the connecting rod made a 190 degree bend without breaking)
• at the same time a severed lube oil line caused the alarm to sound and the engine to stop

Almost all fuel injectors were found to be faulty and overdue for servicing. There had been some crew changes, and each engineer had used a different maintenance logbook with a different method. One recent logbook was even written in another language. There was no practical way of finding out when the last fuel injector service had been done.

Lessons:

• always log maintenance, changes, failures and repairs
• keep logs for the life of the vessel
• make the logging method consistent, easy and quick
• make searching for past entries easy
• keep a record of "normal instrument readings"
• the typical "daily engine room log" is not sufficient on it's own
• proper maintenance and logging can save money and lost time
• good records can increase the resale value of a vessel

Diary style daily logbooks are almost impossible to search through. Generic logbooks with preformatted entries usually provide columns for items you don't use and leave out some that you need.

A 3dYM custom-made engineering logbook is unique in its layout aimed at resolving most of these issues, provided the owner or captain request that their crew be meticulous and consistent in record keeping.