Help & How-To

How to get your passages into your log — with the Rubberduck app or with any GPX file. Plus everything around it.

1. Create your log — 2 minutes, right from the app

1. Get the Rubberduck app and open it.
2. Settings → Kielwasser-Blog.
3. Enter your email and a username → Create log.
4. Tap the confirmation email — done. The app connects automatically and your log is live at kielwasser.blog/yourname.

No password needed: the app receives its own access key. Your email is used only for confirmation, comment notifications and account management.

Had a logbook before? Don’t create a second one — restore the connection instead: Connect existing log (section 9). Nothing is lost.

2. Publish a passage — from the app

1. Record and finish your passage as usual.
2. Settings → Kielwasser-Blog: under Legs (single passage) or Voyages (whole trip with all legs), tap Publish.
3. Choose the logbook detail: short or complete.

Track, map, distance, duration and speed appear automatically. Up to 20 photos per passage come along (the first becomes the cover), GPS metadata is stripped. Kielwasser detects the sailing area from the track. Uploads keep running in the background even if you leave the app.

Sharing: Every published passage has a permanent link — WhatsApp, Facebook and forums automatically show a preview with map and statistics, and one tap takes readers straight to your passage story. The app can also create share cards as images, straight into your Instagram story if you like.

Live position (opt-in): If you enable „Share live position“ in the app, your log’s front page shows „🔴 At sea right now“ with a small map during a passage — and your log’s portal card gets a red dot. Without coverage the display ages honestly; it disappears automatically when the passage ends.

Sailing with crew? Only the owner can publish — for crew the server declines. Who may do what is in point 9.

3. Upload GPX — no app required, works with any plotter

Every chart plotter and every tracking app exports GPX — and every GPX file becomes a full Kielwasser passage:

1. Sign in to your log in the browser (see step 7).
2. Menu App & GPX → follow the GPX route: Media → upload the GPX file and note its ID.
3. Passages → New: write title and report, enter the ID under “Track (GPX)” on the right → Publish.

Distance, duration, average speed and the map are calculated automatically from the file.

4. Entirely without the app — your log fully in the browser

Even without the app (and even without GPX) you can keep a complete log:

1. Create your log at kielwasser.blog/bordbuch-starten: email + username, click the confirmation email, set a password.
2. Passages → New: write title and report; enter departure port, destination, distance, duration and wind by hand on the right — just like a paper logbook.
3. Add photos to the report as usual, assign ship and voyage on the right → Publish.

Without a track there is no map — everything else (stats row, photos, report, comments) works the same. If you add a GPX file later, the calculated values replace your manual entries and the map appears.

5. Posts between passages

Harbour day, boatyard, shore leave: in the app under Settings → Kielwasser-Blog → Write post — title, text, up to 10 photos, linked to a voyage or leg. Or in the browser as a regular journal post.

6. Ship & profile

The app transfers your ship automatically: type, home port, registration, MMSI, description and your custom fields. Paper measurements (length, beam, draft, sail area) are added in the browser in the ship profile — the app never overwrites them. Your “About me” for the skipper page is written right in the app.

Boat names automatically get the prefix SY (sailing yacht) or MY (motor yacht). The home port also places your pin on the portal’s home-port map — enter just the town (e.g. “Stavoren”), without additions.

The full profile (incl. MMSI, ATIS, owner and passage statistics) lives on your log’s ship page — reachable via the ship card on your log’s front page. Pick a boat photo right in the app (Ship → Edit → Boat photo; the 16:9 frame lets you choose the tile crop yourself) — or in the browser as the ship entry’s featured image — it appears on the ship page and as a preview on the portal cards.

As crew you can see the profile but not change it: boat and crew list are the owner’s (point 9).

7. Comments & approval

Readers can comment on passages and posts (name + email required — abuse prevention only, no registration). A reader’s first comment awaits your approval: you get an email to your registration address with a direct approval link; alternatively in the browser under Comments. After that, further comments by the same reader are approved automatically. Spam is filtered out beforehand.

8. Working in the browser

1. In the app: Settings → Kielwasser-Blog → set a web password (min. 10 characters).
2. Sign in in the browser — username + web password.

There you can edit passages, swap photos, create GPX passages, approve comments, and choose your log’s design, mood and cover image.

New: 📦 Inventory — maintain board inventory, consumables, safety equipment (with inspection/expiry dates) and spare parts comfortably in the browser (quantities, best-before, target stock, storage places). The Rubberduck app (4.4.4+) syncs when you open the inventory; consumables feed the printable procurement list.

9. Invite crew & reconnect the app

One log, several crew members: invite crew by email — in the app under Connection → Invite crew, or in the browser cockpit under Crew. Since Rubberduck 4.7.0 the crew sails along with their own app on their own device, Android as well as Apple — no longer only in the browser. Everyone signs in with their own account and needs their own Premium unlock. The log itself — boat, crew list, QR codes, rooms and stowage — stays with the owner; the crew adds passages, log entries and expenses, and edits only their own. A log has exactly one owner.

App disconnected or new phone? Connect existing log → Connect by email: tap the confirmation email and the app reconnects automatically — no password needed. From Rubberduck 4.6.7 the app says so itself: if it still knows your address, the notice is at the top, the section is already open and the address filled in. Do not create a second logbook — the message that the email or name is already taken means exactly this: you already have one, and it is waiting for you.

New: connect via QR code — in your logbook cockpit open 📱 Connect app, generate a QR code, scan it with the iPhone camera and confirm in the app. No typing needed; generating a new code invalidates the old one (Rubberduck app 4.4.4+).

Who may do what? The owner runs the logbook, the crew sails along. That plays out differently for three kinds of entries:

1. Boat and crew list are the owner’s alone. The crew sees everything but cannot change it — the list carries a note with a lock, and there is no button to add or edit at all.
2. Passages and logbook lines belong to whoever wrote them. Everyone edits and deletes their own. Crew may add their own logbook lines to someone else’s passage — those then appear in the owner’s logbook too.
3. Inventory, packing lists and expenses are kept jointly: anyone may change quantities and tick items, but only the owner may delete.

Publishing stays with the owner. A passage reaches the blog only through the owner’s account — deliberately so, to keep anyone from publishing unasked.

One device, one logbook. Since Rubberduck 4.7.0 every logbook belongs to exactly one log. If you connect the app to a different log, it creates a separate archive for it; your previous one stays untouched on the device. Nothing is moved and nothing is overwritten. The app asks when the boat name does not match what it knows — if it matches, or if one side has no boat, it does not ask.

10. Ship QR code — reachable without showing your number

A weatherproof code on your boat. Whoever scans it sees the boat, the skipper and the home port — and can write to you without ever seeing your phone number or email address. The most common case: the boat lies alone in the harbour or rafted up alongside — whoever needs to get out, wants to raft up or sees something chafing reaches you at once. The message arrives in the app (envelope at the top) and by email as well; messages in other languages are translated.

Create: in your log cockpit under QR codes, or in the app under Ship → QR code. Choose the colour, whether the boat photo and home port are shown, and whether the code is active. Several codes are possible — dinghy, bicycle, second boat — each with its own name and photo.

Print: the template comes as a PDF in 40, 60 and 90 mm — as an A4 sheet to print yourself and as a vector version for a print shop (3 mm bleed, crop marks, cut contour, K100 modules). For outdoor use you need weatherproof film; on plain paper the print is a sample to try out.

Boat sold or code misused? Renew it once — the old code stops working immediately. The ship QR code is part of Kielwasser Premium; a code already in place keeps delivering even if Premium runs out: whoever stops at the pontoon and types has nothing to do with our billing.

QR codes belong to the log and are created and renewed by the owner (point 9).

11. Your data

Kielwasser is ad-free and never trades data. GPX originals are kept, everything is exportable, and you can delete account and log any time right in the app. Questions? Contact support.

To be precise: you can delete your account at any time. The log itself can only be deleted by its owner — as crew that ends your participation, while your account stays untouched.

12. Area news — official notices for your waters

Kielwasser shows official notices to skippers right in the portal: closures, lock and bridge works, wrecks and events — on the front page, under discover areas and on every area page. Closures are marked in red; a click opens the full notice on Kielwasser.

Sources: Rijkswaterstaat (NL), ELWIS/WSV (Germany), Søfartsstyrelsen (DK) and Sjöfartsverket (SE) plus further official services in Croatia, Italy, Greece, Spain and the UK plus international waters (USA, Canada, Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Australia/NSW, Caribbean, South America, Japan, Southeast Asia, Turkey, Finland) — updated hourly, foreign-language notices translated automatically. The Rubberduck app shows the same notices in its Area tab; when starting a passage the app warns about active closures in your area.

New: fairway alerts deliver new closures for your areas by e-mail (form on the notices page, unsubscribe anytime) — plus a daily status with water levels and marine weather. Under Knowledge you’ll find area guides such as the Staande Mastroute and the Baltic protection areas, under Harbours the harbours visited by all crews incl. marina info.

⚠️ The notices are a planning aid and do not replace official notices to mariners for navigation.

13. Areas & maps — your sailing area at a glance

Kielwasser groups coasts and inland waters into sailing areas. Under Areas each region comes with an overview map showing the current official notices, water levels and model marine weather — plus the logs and harbours in that area.

When you publish a passage, Kielwasser detects the matching area from the track and files it there — so other sailors discover your story through their own waters.

14. Finding harbours & anchorages

Especially handy for anchoring — the ⚓ Anchorage forecast: switch to Anchorage forecast in the harbour search and tap any bay or anchorage on the map. Kielwasser computes a night-calm rating from 1 to 5 for the coming night — hour by hour, from wind direction and shelter, gustiness and swell. So you quickly find a calm spot for the night.

Under Harbour search you can search more than 14,000 harbours and marinas — by name, by place (including the nearest marina to a town name) or by country via the flags. Tap a spot on the map to see the harbours and anchorages nearby.

Every harbour has a detail page: a current aerial image (sea marks can be toggled on), the ships in the harbour live from AIS, berths and anchorages, community-reported depths, the facilities and the current wind.

The wind-shelter rose shows which directions the harbour is sheltered from (green) and where it is open (grey). The ⚓ night-comfort value (1–5) estimates how calm the coming night will be — from wind direction × shelter, gustiness and (only for open anchorages) swell; gusts and the roughest night hour are shown too. If the approach runs through a lock, the nearest locks appear right on the harbour page.

Harbours without an entry can be completed by you — mark facilities, add depths, notes and photos. The Rubberduck app offers the same harbour search including wind shelter and night comfort.

15. Locks — operating times, VHF & closures

Under Locks thousands of locks sit on the map — with operating times, VHF channels and current closures. Filter by country via the flags; click a lock for details, click a closure notice to open it.

The source is the official waterway services (EuRIS for Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria), complemented by smaller locks from OpenStreetMap. The same locks also appear right at the harbours and in the app’s Area tab.

16. Knowledge: mast route & protected areas

Under Knowledge we collect curated sailing guides. The mast route shows the standing-mast route with clearance heights, the current closure situation and live notices along the corridor. The protected areas explain nature reserves with their access and anchoring rules.

We keep the guides up to date and mark them with an “as of” date. In the app you open the same guides via the Knowledge section.

17. Water levels & marine weather

In the areas and area news Kielwasser shows the current water levels (PEGELONLINE/WSV + BSH coastal gauges (mean water & tide forecast), Rijkswaterstaat with NAP reference, DMI for Denmark) and a model marine weather (DWD and Open-Meteo, outside Europe NOAA, Environment Canada and BOM) — automatically for your region and in your language.

⚠️ Water levels and marine weather are a planning aid and do not replace official forecasts or notices to mariners.

18. Allowing notifications

Several features reach you even when the app is closed: a message via your ship QR code, new closures in your waters, the night-watch alarm, the storm alert and the GPS warning. For that, notifications must be allowed.

1. The phone asks once, at the first start of the app.
2. If you tap “Don’t allow”, you silently receive nothing afterwards — and the app cannot ask again: iOS and Android never show that dialog a second time.
3. Turning it on later: iPhone/iPad → Settings → Rubberduck → Notifications. Android → Settings → Apps → Rubberduck → Notifications.

Wherever the app depends on it, a hint appears with a button straight into the system settings — in the QR view and with the area approach warning.

Without notifications you still get: QR messages also by email; anchor, night-watch and storm alarms keep sounding on your own device (the siren even overrides the silent switch). What is missing is the alert on the locked screen and anything coming from another device.