How To Digitise MARPOL Record Books
Replace paper Oil, Garbage, and Ballast Water Record Books with electronic entries, Master verify, and true-copy PDF — without treating software as a flag Declaration.
The industry problem
Oil, Garbage, and Ballast Water Record Books still live as bound volumes. Corrections are hard to explain. Shore cannot see whether yesterday’s operation was recorded until someone photographs a page.
Inspectors probe exactly that weakness: missing codes, overwritten lines, and no trail of who changed what.
The traditional approach
A cupboard of annex books, a photocopier for the office, and a scramble the night before PSC. Some fleets add a standalone e-log that does not share vessel context with cargo, inspections, or the deck logbook.
How WaterTight helps
Statutory record books put MARPOL, ballast water, biofouling, and ISPS Part A/10 operations in one electronic set:
- Operation-code entries with the fields that code requires
- Master verify with an extra factor
- Amendments that keep the original values
- True-copy PDF for inspection
- Paper fallback when the ERB is unavailable
Cargo Operations still owns the operational cargo ledger. The Annex II electronic book is the statutory page — two places, two jobs.
WaterTight does not issue a flag Declaration and does not treat these books as UK type-approved by themselves.
Next steps
Book a demo focused on the paper annex books you still carry — ORB, GRB, BWRB, or Cargo Record Book (Annex II).