Seafarer Hours of Rest Record: STCW and MLC

An online record of hours of work and rest on board. Mark your watches by the half hour — STCW and MLC limits are checked over rolling windows, breaches are highlighted, and the form to sign exports to PDF.

How to fill it in

Apply your watch

Choose a standard pattern or copy one day to the whole month.

Mark everything else

Drills, mooring, all-hands work — by dragging across the grid or in the day view.

Breaches and a PDF form to sign

The summary shows the breaches, and the PDF button gives the form to sign.

Mark up a month of watches and see where the limits are broken

Seafarer

Month

Watch

from

STCW exceptions (70 h, 3 periods) A short break is not rest Drag across the grid to mark work; one square is half an hour.

Limits check

Seafarer and ship

Full name

Rank

Keeps a watch

Ship

Flag

IMO number

work rest window with a breach tap a date to open the day in close-up

A draft and a self-check, not the ship's record. The official form for recording hours of rest remains the ship's own, established by the company and approved by the flag administration. Departures for the safety of the ship and in emergencies are not taken into account here: the tool shows the fact of an excess, and deciding whether an exception covers it is not its business.

Features

Rolling windows, not calendar days

The rule says "in any 24-hour period". A schedule with ten hours of rest in every calendar day can still contain a full day without rest across the join of two days — a check by days does not see it.

Month boundaries and clock changes

The first days of a month are checked together with the end of the previous one, and a day with a ship's clock change is 23 or 25 hours long — the Conventions count real time.

All the rules and exceptions

Ten and seventy-seven hours, no more than two periods with one of them at least six hours, an interval of up to fourteen hours. The STCW exceptions regime — 70 hours and three periods — is switched on separately.

Slack and work budget

See how many more hours of work the week can take and how long you can work straight on from the end of a watch without a breach. The answer to "can he also go to mooring stations?".

A form to sign as PDF

The month grid, rest in 24 hours and in 7 days for each day, breach notes, ship details and spaces for the signatures of the seafarer and the master.

Crew and archive of months

Each month is kept separately, and a backup can be saved and loaded back. With Premium — several seafarers, a pack of forms for the whole crew and a spreadsheet for Excel.

What you can do

Keep a record of hours of rest on board by the half hour
Check STCW and MLC limits over rolling windows
Account for ship's clock changes and month boundaries
Find out how much more you can work without a breach
Export the form to sign as PDF
Keep records for the whole crew (Premium)

Why counting by calendar days is not enough

The rule is written as "in any 24-hour period", not "in each calendar day". Example: on the first day, rest from 00 to 10 and work from 10 to 24; on the second, work from 00 to 14 and rest from 14 to 24. By the calendar each day holds exactly ten hours of rest. But between ten in the morning of the first day and ten in the morning of the second lie twenty-four hours of continuous work. Such joins appear when the watch schedule changes, when the clocks are changed and after a night mooring, and they cannot be found by hand: a month holds more than fifteen hundred rolling windows.

Frequently asked questions

What are the hours of rest requirements for seafarers?

Under STCW (section A-VIII/1) and MLC 2006 (Standard A2.3): at least 10 hours of rest in any 24-hour period and 77 hours in any 7-day period. Rest may be divided into no more than two periods, one of which is at least 6 hours long, and the interval between periods may not exceed 14 hours. The MLC also allows a maximum hours of work regime: no more than 14 hours in any 24 hours and 72 in any 7 days.

What exceptions does STCW allow?

If the flag administration has authorized them: 70 hours of rest in 7 days instead of 77, but for no more than two consecutive weeks, and up to three periods of rest — one at least 6 hours, the others at least one hour — on no more than two 24-hour periods out of any seven days. The regime is switched on with the "STCW exceptions" toggle, and the check then follows these rules.

How is "no more than two periods of rest" read?

Over a 24-hour period rather than a calendar day. On the 04–08 and 16–20 watch the second rest runs from 20:00 to 04:00, across midnight, and a calendar count sees three pieces instead of two. Counted from 08:00 there are exactly two periods, so a day is flagged as a breach only if no 24-hour window covering it fits into two periods.

What happens to a 23- or 25-hour day when the ship's clocks change?

Open the day by tapping its date and choose "Clock change": the day becomes 23 or 25 hours long (or half an hour shorter or longer). The limits are counted in real time, so an extra or missing hour affects both daily and weekly rest.

Does a short break count as rest?

The MLC states plainly that hours of rest do not include short breaks. Turn on "A short break is not rest", and single half hours of rest between spells of work will be counted as work. The option is off by default, because company rules differ.

Can this form be handed to an inspection?

It can be printed and signed, but the official form remains the ship's own, established by the company and approved by the flag administration. This table helps keep the records and find breaches in advance; transfer the data to the ship's record if it is kept on a different form.

Where are the records kept and how do I avoid losing them?

In the browser storage on this device, one month per seafarer. Browsers sometimes clear site data, so press "Backup" from time to time and keep the file: it can be loaded back on any computer with the "Load backup" button.

What does Premium add?

Records for several seafarers with switching between them, a pack of PDF forms for the whole crew in one file and a CSV spreadsheet for Excel. One seafarer, the limits check, the PDF form and the backup work without Premium.

💡 Want us to improve this tool just for you?

We can! Just send us a quick message with your idea. If you'd like to discuss it in detail, leave your email and we'll get back to you. You can stay anonymous.

How do you rate this tool?

Thank you for your rating!

Change my rating

Want to leave a comment?

Want to share more? Leave a comment!

Thank you! Your comment will appear after moderation.

Who is this tool for?

⚓ Sailors and yacht crews

Published 01 Sep 2026 Updated 13 Sep 2026 Author: The Supreme