I am still a long ways from being qualified for a USCG 100-ton captain's
license, but I should would like to collect the right information to
eventually qualify.

I have an accurate log on the computer of every sail I've done since I
started 4 years ago. Unfortunately, I do not have signatures because it's a
computer log.

I'm going to start keeping both a paper and computer log, so I can collect
signatures. I'll contact some of the skippers I've sailed with and ask for
signatures for past sails.

The question is: what EXACTLY should I log? Please don't tell me to look
at the requirements online, because I've done that and it's still very
vague.

Do I need the vessels documentation number?

I assume that you do not count any time in rigging a boat as part of the
hours/days (in racing, this can be fairly significant)?

I've been told that a "day" is four hours. This brings up numerous
questions:

1) What if I sail for 3 hours every Wednesday and 3 hours every Saturday
for 16 weeks (typical racing schedule). That's a total of 6*16 = 96 hours
on the water, spread evenly over 32 separate sailing events, but none of
them lasting 4 hours. Is it true that I cannot count any of this time for
credit towards a license?

2) What about 28 hours spent on a distance race? How is this counted? One
day? Two days?

Any tips on what information to collect is appreciated. I have both ASA and
US Sailing certs, and I think I'm going to use my US Sailing logbook for the
paper log. But it doesn't have fields for documentation number, etc.

-Brien