Boat Trip Provisioning Planner

Who this is for

Stores for a cruise, scaled to the crew. You enter the days aboard, the crew and a quantity per person per day for each item, and the sheet works out what is needed, what to buy after what is already aboard, and what it will cost.

Skippers and crew stocking a yacht, motor cruiser or narrowboat for a trip of more than a day or two, and anyone provisioning a charter where everything has to be bought at once.

What this helps you track

• How much of each item the whole crew needs for the trip
• What is already aboard and what still has to be bought
• The cost of the shopping, item by item and in total
• Water needed, from your own figure per person per day
• Where each item has been stowed

How to use it

1. Write the boat, the trip, the departure date, the days aboard and the crew number, plus the water you allow per person per day.
2. List each item with its category and a quantity per person per day in whatever unit suits it; put the unit in the item name.
3. Count what is already aboard and enter it. Total needed and to buy are worked out in the browser and workbook.
4. Add the unit cost from your shop or last receipt; the cost column and the summary give the spend.
5. As items come aboard, write where each is stowed so it can be found at sea.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

How much food and water should I allow per person?

The sheet does not say; appetites, climate, the boat and the trip all change it. Enter your own figure for each item and for water, based on past trips, and adjust it after this one.

What about items that are not per person, like gas or fuel?

Enter them with a quantity per person per day worked out from your own use, or enter the total you want as already needed and leave per person blank. Fuel is better planned on the boat fuel and passage log.

Does it allow for a reserve?

Only if you build one in. Raise the per person figure or add the crew number plus one; the sheet does no rounding up and adds no margin of its own.

Why record where things are stowed?

Because on a boat, items bought are not the same as items found. A stowage note saves emptying lockers at sea and helps whoever takes the next watch.