The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

11 Tips For A Good Watch System

I long ago lost count of the number of watches I have stood over the last 50-some years, but it’s certainly in the thousands.

The most important thing I learned over that time is that watchstanding day and night does not come naturally to us human beings. Rather, it’s a skill like any other.

While I have done quite a bit of fully crewed offshore sailing in my day (mainly racing), this two-part series will be focused on shorthanded crews, and particularly doublehanding, since that’s by far the most challenging (other than single handing, which is a different article).

Don’t underestimate how challenging. To the uninitiated it would seem easy for two people to get enough rest in 24 hours. After all, that’s 12 hours of rest each…not true.

By the time we hand over watches, prepare food, eat it, fix stuff that breaks, figure out the weather, and change sails when required, it is all too easy to get overtired, particularly on a multi-day voyage when the rest deficits can add up to make the crew dangerous zombies.

Here are some things I have learned over the years, many of them the hard way, to avoid that, and tips on how to set a watch system that works.


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Stanley H Blakey

Great coverage of the topic. I am glad you got to the non-dogged bit. I looked around for any research when studying for a Sail Canada course. The only thing I found was this from the US Navy.
A Sea Change in Standing Watch | Proceedings – January 2013 Vol. 139/1/1,319

Of course for a full crew on a naval vessel the options are different. But the problems of rest, sleep and circadian rhythm are the same.

Their finding agreed that keeping the same schedule helps.

Another item they aim for is a one common awake time. For a small crew of 3-4 a common evening or afternoon meal offers a time to sync up and only one noisy time with a lot of galley activity.

I am lucky that I am a morning person and my wife an evening person. So I can sleep/rest in the cockpit on her first watch to keep her company and still happily stay awake from 3am on (as long as I get daytime sleep). We have not tried this with only 2 of us yet though.

Stan

Ben Logsdon

During my time in the US Navy, most of the crew had a 6 on 12 off schedule resulting in an 18-hour long day. There would be 6 hours on watch with meals before and after, an hour of post-watch cleaning, and the balance would be availalbe for maintenance, training, socializing, etc. Generally the officers stayed on a 24-hour day, as did the cooks. So you’d end up with a rotating “breakfast” each “day” you woke up. There was not much opportunity for a circadian rhythm for anyone since this was aboard a submarine with only fluorescent lighting. It’s hard to comment on how effective it was since I was in my late teens and early twenties; you’re incredibly tollerant of terrible conditions at that age. But I do remember it was important to get on a schedule with regular excercise during the off watch time. Of course all this was during a mission. It all went out the window during training runs when they would run the crew ragged with fire, flooding, and steam line rupture drills. Sleeping defensively was the rule. Probably not unlike ocean racing crew!

Dave Anderson

Don’t undersell “just showing up.” Having to dig someone out of their bunk so you can eventually go off watch does not make for a jovial atmosphere.

Tom and Deb Jarecki

We only have structured watches overnight – 5 hours each, then loosely arranged during daylight hours where we hand over watch duties every few hours. We have our big meal together around local sunset, after which our formal watch system starts at 20:00. We each have our preferred time and we don’t change from day to day. This system works for us and we typically finish passages as rested as we started. Only being woken once per night is a nice feature of our system and one we’d be loathe to give up. However, we haven’t sailed in really cold waters yet and expect that we’ll consider shorter watches overnight then.

Regarding Scopolamine, you have your opinion and we have ours – it is a life enhancer when it works. My wife suffers from chronic seasickness and the patch enables her to enjoy our passaging and keep her appetite, without any stupefying side effects.

Brian Russell

Ditto Tom and Deb’s watch arrangement for Helen and me on Helacious. Scopalomine is not my favorite-we tend towards Stugeron for the first 2 days out.

George L

Great summary, thx

yes and yes and yes ….

I think having the same night hours is much easier in the long run and using 3 hour night watches makes this quite possible

I found that starting w 1/2 of Stugeron beginning 12 hrs before start under the tongue and then going to 1/4 every 3 hours keeps seasickness away even on the first go of the season in the Channel. That’s 2 a day total and I am ok with it without getting tired. My wife is lucky, she can be bounced around like a yoyo under deck in washing-mashine conditions doing nav all night and all you get from her is an impish smile. To my knowledge, she has never taken any of that stuff.

On shorter passages, when we get going, as soon as we are properly underway (this is with a crew of 3 or 4 when I am not the skipper) I go below for a long and comfortable sleep and then when everyone else is tired, late evening, I am quite happy to take over pretty much for the whole night. Not nearly as good as a proper watch system but reliably delivers on a 12 to 15 hr leg.

Bob Hodges

My wife and I have done three overnight crossings of the upper Gulf of Mexico (200-300 mile legs) and we need this timely set of articles to help us develop more discipline and structure to our watch keeping.

One of my biggest pet peeves that will probably get covered in Part 2 is that everyone on the boat agrees that being on watch means being on watch at all times and not sharing attention with something like a book, iPad/iPhone, Kindle, etc. especially in a scenario like motoring on a calm day. There’s too many images these days of people on passage in cockpits engaged with personal electronic devices that can lead to this unsafe habit.

My own personal issue for being offwatch is that it’s hard for me to sleep because I am a control freak especially when it’s just me and my wife. We do have specific rules for her to wake me up but I don’t think I have slept more 45-60 minutes at night when I have gone below. We’ve used ear plugs and even a set of noise cancelling headphones to lower the noise for the person offwatch trying to sleep especially if sailing in higher wind with a sea state. Not sure what others feel about this. I look forward to implementing more of John’s suggestions in Part 1.

Jean-Louis Alixant

Hi Bob,
It can be concerning, or even annoying and worrying to see crew getting distracted when you expect them to be focused on sailing. Mostly, people are just enjoying, don’t realize fully the requirements o f sailing and just need to be told.
To manage both expectations and help seamanship and fun to coexist in a pleasant atmosphere, we have adopted simple vocabulary.
First, on watch, as you suggest, means that you have a full-time job to focus on. You know it. Those that are not on watch know it.
For the rest of the crew, there’s “chill” time and “pro” time. When we declare it is “pro” time, we all know what to do – electronic gadgets, books, tableware etc. disappear. The sailing crew is ready for action.
I picked that up from one of my instructors who explained how it could be difficult to train people that were expecting a holiday, and have found it to work very well for us.

Tola Marts

What do you think of the dog watch system for a four (or multiples of four) crew, where you split the 4-8pm and one half cooks and the other half cleans up?

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Arne Mogstad

A quick side note, I have generally found it best that the cook cleans after themselves (does not just apply for sailing…), because some people are very messy, and this leads to frustration when someone cooks in a clean way and others in a messy way, making extra cleaning-work for the clean cook. Just a thought. I do however mostly sail solo, so I have rarely sailed with crew, but these things I find to be much the same in other settings I have more experience with other team-members like expeditions, or working in small teams on duty together for days (like firefighting and ambulance teams).

Dick Stevenson

Hi John,
I had just written the following for another venue:
Watch schedules:
Watch schedules (for a couple) are a varied lot and if you find one that works for you, embrace it. And by works, I mean fending off fatigue. Getting enough sleep is a safety issue. Many a first few passages are riddled with anxiety for skipper and crew and become marred, even dangerous, by fatigue.*
Many advocate the 3-on 3-off watch schedule. For me, getting to sleep quickly was not easy as I was too anxious and wired up. So, it took 20-30 minutes to fall asleep and then awakened 10 minutes before my next watch meant that I only had about 2 ½+ hours of sleep and little of it was the deep refreshing sleep I needed. I quickly was overly fatigued.
I found I needed a 5-hour block of sleep augmented by a couple of naps. Ginger goes to sleep more easily and she would do 2000 to 0100 watch and I would do 0100 to 0600. Then it was Ginger on from 0600 t0 1000 and I on from 1000 to 1400. The afternoon was undesignated watches: whatever made sense according to fatigue, chores, etc.
So, we had one 5-hour period for sleep, a 4-hour period for a long nap and usually at least one nap in the afternoon. We were never fatigued. We often came to landfall feeling just fine while others took days to get their feet under them once again.
We always had dinner together and often lunch.
A reliable auto-pilot or windvane made the above possible.
Flexibility is key as the weather and boat needs could always dictate changes.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
*Fatigue is a valid reason to heave-to for a few hours and get some good sleep, a hot meal, and even take a shower. A good hot shower can transform someone who is feeling pretty beaten up and discouraged into an enthusiastic human being once again. 

Jean-Louis Alixant

Hi Dick,
Good piece, thank you.

The autopilot is often considered to be an extra crew; in fact, it has a name on most sailing vessels. I agree with you that being able to trust the autopilot in whatever condition you are expecting is an important requirement for successful short-handed passages especially. That is the part that took me the most time to sort out. With lots of work and recent software updates, I am finally nearing the point I could consider solo crossings.

On sleep, we’ve had the same experience as you: when sticking rigorously to schedule, we generally arrived in great shape: not only rested, but very relaxed, having thoroughly enjoyed our sea time.

Hot shower: needs to make it near the top of tips for successful passages!

Michael Corboy

Another good article that backs up a lot of my thought on this matter. We were planning our first trip from NZ to Tonga. I was the most experienced crew and this was to be my wife’s first offshore trip. We had done a number of overnight trips to “practice” sometimes in not the best weather for a coastal cruise. So for this voyage we took along two extras. Both were boaties but not off shore skilled. This also added to some piece of mind to help alleviate some of my wife’s doubts.
We ran two watches of four hours each on. The two watches were staggered by two hours. I worked on the theory that every two hours a new crew member was fresh and provided new company to the mix.
On the trip we were tasked by NZRCC to “shadow” another vessel taking on water with possible abandon action whilst a storm front was passing. In the end this system worked well for ten days.

Arne Mogstad

Hi John, great article.

This is slightly outside of the scope of this article, and I think you omit them for a reason, but I would very much appreciate some numbers and specifics to standing orders etc. Like, how many miles from land, closest CPA/TCPA etc. Of course this is situation dependent and so on, but some way of “calibrating” my own thoughts on the subject would be very good.

Also, maybe it’s on your list already, or you don’t want to make it, but a similar type of article for solo sailing would also be highly appreciated.

Kindly, Arne

Rob Hellier

Great advice from all corners about watchkeeping.

I come from the commercial shipping side which universally employs 4 hr watches. But you’re dealing with crews numbering in the high teens and low 20s, with very distinct roles, so I’ve never felt it would work well when managing recreational vessels and crews.

For my sailing (and life) partner, I’ve noticed in our 25 yrs together that she needs more sleep than I do, to function well. She also has a heck of a time staying awake in the early morning hours. Has anyone every factored differing sleep rhythms/needs into their watchkeeping planning? I was thinking of implementing a system where I would take on a greater share of watchkeeping. This is not a form of chauvinism, just observation over many years of sailing and living life as a couple.

Flipping the tables for a moment, while she needs more rest, she can also spend hours inside the cabin, cooking, and doing whatever in rough weather, whereas I cannot remain there very long without getting nauseous. Again, these differences between us, make me think that we’d be better off with a watchkeeping system where I’m doing more of the above deck watchkeeping and giving her a bit more “downtime”, especially in the wee hours.

We’re also foodies and very committed to sharing our meals and the social aspect of all that. However, we also find that 2 meals per day while underway is sufficient. Three prepared meals require too much time prepping and cleaning up. Unexplained hunger at any point in the day can be managed by quick, prepared snacks that don’t need anyone else’s involvement.

What I was thinking, therefore, is the following system:

07:00 to 14:00 Me (I prep/serve Breakfast, take over watch at 08:00 for 6 hrs)
13:00 to 19:00 She (she preps/serves lunch, take over watch at 14:00 for 5 hrs)
19:00 to 23:00 Me (4 hrs)
23:00 to 02:00 She (3 hrs)
02:00 to 05:00 Me (3 hrs)
05:00 to 08:00 She (3 hrs)

My total watchkeeping hours/day = 13
Her total watchkeeping hours/day = 11

Has anyone tried something like this and/or see flaws in the design?

Mark Wilson

Two amendments spring to mind on first read of this are:

Standing orders: If in doubt call me. For whatever reason. I will not bite your head off. Not even if you wake me for the most frivolous reason. I was only pretending to sleep anyway.

John & Phyllis’s Modified Swedish System – the reverse dog.I can’t believe I’m saying this. I’m not sure how this translates in North American English but on this side of the Atlantic it has a completely other meaning. But whoosh, maybe you just got this stuffy Brit. In which case, chapeau.

Paul Browning

Wonderful food for thought John. Yet again! (I feel like I need to begin every comment with some variant of that, but then that’s the whole point of your site isn’t it).

I hadn’t seen the 4 hour day 3 hour night watches called Swedish before, but that’s essentially what we do as well, although we change at 6 o’clock. We might try the 8 o’clock change next passage.

I think the basis of watchkeeping is fatigue management for the whole crew, especially for the skipper-navigator. There is nothing more dangerous at sea than an exhausted skip-nav closing an unfamiliar shore at the end of a journey. We find the “Swedish” system finds us arriving as a two person crew more rested than we departed.

In truth, I spend more time on deck than my wife who is way less experienced and needs help on deck more often. But she needs more sleep than me, so it evens out to suit us both pretty well I reckon.

The other important thing is once clear of port and past all tricky navigation, the first off watch is the skip-nav. An hour of sleep during the day is almost worth two at night, not so much because you’re able to bank sleep, but because you’re able to switch off and simply rest.

When I used to sail in ocean racing crews, there was always a marked (testosterone driven?) reluctance to sleep during the day, especially the first day, which meant that, come the early hours, you were invariably sailing the boat by yourself, even if you had crew on deck with you. Indeed, I well recall declining offers to join offshore crews for this very reason. I would ask up front what the watch system was.

‘Suck it and see’ is all very well, but it just never seems to work as well as a structured 3 or 4 hour system, I have found. Especially if it also operates during daylight hours.

David Lochner

On our first overnight we had to decide who took the first evening/night watch. This was my wife’s first overnight, my experience was on racing boats with no set watch system, not much fun. Since our normal sleep patterns have her going to bed a couple of hours earlier than I do, I stood the first 2000ish to 0000ish watch and then we would rotate roughly every 4 hours. If one of us had a particularly grueling watch, they got an extra hour or so of sleep.

Our long passages are from 30 to 60 hours, the longer ones are easier because we get better rest the on the second day.

Jean-Louis Alixant

Hi John,
Just like Paul and others, I always welcome any of AAC’s articles because they get me thinking, challenge our ways, and generally encourage us to adopt better practices. I try to translate what I pick up in a practical form: an updated procedure, a change of layout, new training etc. Thank you for sharing all that thoughtfully distilled experience, we do our best to put it to good use!

I find the reminder to keep to the formal schedule and get those sleeping / resting hours always beneficial. I do need less sleep than most, I get to sleep very quickly, and wake up in an instant, ready to go. I can sleep 5, 10 or 15 minutes, or several hours. Or many more. I took this for granted and it took me a while to understand that this was not the norm, by a wide margin indeed.
I have eventually made it a personal practice on board to stick to the schedule and disappear in my cabin when I am off-watch. Especially as a skipper, you cannot ask your crew to stick to a procedure if you have all sorts of excuses to not do so yourself. Drive the desired behaviours and lead by example.
Furthermore, other crew tend to worry about me not getting enough sleep if they see me active for long periods, because they need quite a bit more themselves. No need to discuss this: I just disappear and get myself to sleep more in case we’d face a situation that demands additional action time. Or read, write, but not in plain sight.
In that context, I miss the other “duties” in the schedules that are being discussed: navigation, cooking, inspections and maintenance, communication etc. I have explicitly made time for these in our watch schedule to recognize the toll it takes and to be clear that this is planned for. Maybe that will come in Part 2, together with managing crew shift and watch tips?
I am pleased you added the Feb. 4th update. I insist that we spend time together on KaliX – this is not a job, it’s a fun activity that we decide to experience with people we choose. For that, and to keep the crew – no matter how small – literally together, we always have share lunch and dinner. We include breakfast if possible, but allow flexibility there to catch up on sleep if needed.
Including all of this in the formal schedule allows us to keep track of the sleep time we effectively have available, not just the theoretical 12 or 8 hours if we simply split watch time in two or three.

Eric Klem

Hi John,

I want to provide my support to point #9. Having trained a lot of crew over the years, I would generally take an excited quick-learner over the average moderately experienced person. Sure, it takes a little while to get them up to speed but they almost always turn out better in the end and it is fun along the way. Figuring out who those good inexperienced people are is hard but I actually found it is a bit easier than finding good experienced people for lower level positions. Finding out how they do in tricky circumstances in other pursuits is very helpful and then seeing how they pick stuff up in simple daysailing is usually enough. Of course, I am assuming that there are other more experienced people around and that the inexperienced person will never be put in a situation where they are making critical decisions. I am also assuming that you spend a bit of time sailing locally with the person first and making sure that they pick stuff up quickly and don’t have immediate seasickness problems.

My biggest struggle with long distance sailing has always been getting enough sleep regardless of whether I am skipper or a lowly deckhand. I sleep well in a normal cycle but if I mess up the rhythm of that cycle, I really struggle. For example, I can’t even take an afternoon nap at home unless I am very sick. Dogging the watches is a disaster for me and I really dislike the argument that it is fairer as I feel like it hurts most crew. For me, fewer longer watches have always worked better. In a 2 watch system, this means that the basic 4 on 4 off is generally best for me although splitting the day into 2X6 hours and 4X3 hours also works okay. In nice weather and long daylight, I actually find splitting the night into 2X4 hour watches and the day into 2X8 hour watches works well for me but 8 hours can be long for people and isn’t appropriate when things get tougher. Going to a 3 watch system with 4 hour watches solves most of my issues provided the other watches are big enough not to have to call standby or off-watch people regularly.

And of course, I am a big believer in some form of standing orders.

Eric

Paul Browning

I love the link to the commercial world with inexperienced but keen people. About 35 years into my 45 year working life it suddenly dawned on me (duh!) one day that the worst employees or work colleagues I’d ever experienced were people who came highly skilled but with poor people skills and it occurred to me that what we needed were the best people first, and good skills second. It took a while to figure out what attributes “the best people” needed to have, but it didn’t take long to figure out how to train them. Interestingly the last 10 years of my career were by far the most interesting, productive and profitable of my life, simply because we always had such great people.

What’s this got to do with sailing? Absolutely everything. Temperament and people skills really matter, especially over a several day or week ocean passage in cramped conditions. A highly skilled a**hole is unfortunately not able to be simply jettisoned overboard (more’s the pity) so figuring how how to tell them apart is a really important skill to master, if you’re putting together offshore crews.