Night watch schedules for two, three and four crew
The rotas small crews actually use, why some of them give the same person the 02:00 watch every night, and the handover and standing orders that get a boat safely through to morning.
In this piece
The right night watch schedule for a small sailing crew depends mostly on how many of you there are. Two people usually stand 3 on, 3 off through the night, or 4 on, 4 off if they want longer sleeps and can stay sharp through longer watches. Three people have it easiest: 3 on, 6 off gives everyone a real sleep, and the times rotate on their own. Four can split into two watches of two, or stand single watches of 3 on, 9 off.
The tables below lay those out hour by hour, with the Swedish system and the one thing every rota has to be designed around: whether the same person ends up with the 02:00 watch every night. After that come the parts that keep a watch safe, which matter more than the rota: the handover, the standing orders, night vision and the clip-on rule.
Two crew: 3 on, 3 off or 4 on, 4 off
With two aboard, one sleeps while the other has the boat, and there is nobody else. Most couples on passage stand three hour watches at night.
| Watch | On deck |
|---|---|
| 20:00 to 23:00 | A |
| 23:00 to 02:00 | B |
| 02:00 to 05:00 | A |
| 05:00 to 08:00 | B |
Three hours alone on deck is manageable for most people, even in the cold. The weak point is the off watch. By the time you have peeled off your gear, wedged yourself into the bunk and dropped off, three hours off is a little over two hours of sleep. Some couples go down to 2 on, 2 off in cold or rough weather, when concentration drains faster.
The alternative is 4 on, 4 off, which gives a sleep long enough to feel like one.
| Watch | On deck |
|---|---|
| 20:00 to 00:00 | A |
| 00:00 to 04:00 | B |
| 04:00 to 08:00 | A |
Look at what each person gets. A stands eight hours of the night and B only four, but B’s four are midnight to 04:00, the hardest watch there is. And both systems share a flaw if you keep them going round the clock: a day divides into an even number of three or four hour watches, so the same person lands on the same times every night. Some crews like that, because the body settles into a fixed pattern. If you would rather share out the bad watch, split one evening watch into two shorter ones, the way navies have long split 16:00 to 20:00 into two “dog watches”. That makes an odd number of watches in the day, and the order flips every 24 hours.
Three crew: the 3 on, 6 off watch system
Three is the best number for a small boat on passage, and 3 on, 6 off is, in our view, the best watch system there is for it. Everyone gets six hours off, enough for a proper sleep. And because eight three hour watches do not divide evenly between three people, the times move on by themselves. Over three nights it looks like this.
| Watch | Night 1 | Night 2 | Night 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:00 to 23:00 | A | C | B |
| 23:00 to 02:00 | B | A | C |
| 02:00 to 05:00 | C | B | A |
| 05:00 to 08:00 | A | C | B |
That assumes you keep three hour watches through the day as well. If the days are looser, with everyone up and about, write down who starts each evening so that the 02:00 still moves around.
Four crew: pairs or singles
Four people give you a choice. The traditional answer is two watches of two, 4 on, 4 off. There is always someone to talk to, a second pair of hands for a reef without waking anyone, and somebody watching the person who goes forward. The price is four hour sleeps, and the same even number problem as with two crew, fixed the same way with a dog watch.
The other answer is single watches of 3 on, 9 off.
| Watch | On deck |
|---|---|
| 20:00 to 23:00 | A |
| 23:00 to 02:00 | B |
| 02:00 to 05:00 | C |
| 05:00 to 08:00 | D |
Nine hours off is luxury, and with four aboard there is always someone to wake for a sail change. But eight watches divide exactly by four, so C gets the 02:00 every night unless you change the order. Move everyone along one place every second or third night.
Some crews stagger single watches instead: one person comes on every two hours and stays for four, so there are always two on deck and one of them is fresh. The rest works out the same as pairs, four hours off, but whoever comes up always joins someone who has been on deck for two hours and knows what the lights around the boat are doing.
The Swedish watch system
The Swedish system is for two watches, often of two or three people each, and it fixes the rotation problem by making the watches uneven: shorter in the cold dark hours, longer by day, five in all. Five is an odd number, so the two watches swap times every day. There is no single official version. One common one runs 4, 4, 4, 6 and 6 hours.
| Watch | Length | Day 1 | Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:00 to 00:00 | 4 h | Port | Starboard |
| 00:00 to 04:00 | 4 h | Starboard | Port |
| 04:00 to 08:00 | 4 h | Port | Starboard |
| 08:00 to 14:00 | 6 h | Starboard | Port |
| 14:00 to 20:00 | 6 h | Port | Starboard |
Other versions run 5, 5, 5, 5 and 4 hours, or move the start times to fit meals. The idea is the same in all of them: five uneven watches so the times rotate, shorter ones at night and longer ones by day, when a long off watch means a proper sleep.
Where the skipper fits
On a boat with two aboard the skipper stands watches like anyone else, and the other person has to be able to handle the boat, use the radio and recognise when to wake the skipper. With three, most skippers are in the rota too, and accept being woken in their off watch for anything the standing orders cover. From four up there is a good case for keeping the skipper out of the rota altogether, on call at any hour, doing the navigation and the weather in between. Someone who gets woken for every ship needs a way to catch up, and a fixed watch on top of that makes for a tired skipper by the third night. If the skipper does stand a watch in a paired system, pair them with the least experienced crew member.
The handover
Come up ten minutes before your watch starts, dressed, clipped on, with something hot to drink, and give your eyes those minutes to adjust. Then the outgoing watch talks you through it.
- Course. The heading being steered, the course to steer, the next waypoint, and any change of course due during the watch.
- Traffic. Every light in sight, what it is, which way it is going, and what the AIS says about its closest approach. Point at each one.
- Weather. Wind speed and direction and how they have changed, the barometer, any squalls or cloud lines on the way.
- Sails and boat. What is up, how many reefs, autopilot or hand steering, engine on or off, anything that has sounded or felt different.
- Log. The last position and when it was written. If it is more than an hour old, write a new entry together.
Finish with words both of you say out loud: “you have the watch”, “I have the watch”. It sounds formal on a 10 metre yacht, and it removes the minute in which each of you thought the other one was looking.
Standing orders: when to wake the skipper
Standing orders are the skipper’s instructions to every watch, written down and fixed somewhere the watchkeeper can read them by red light. Write your own. These are examples of the kind of thing that goes on them, not a standard:
- Wake me for any vessel whose bearing is not changing, or that AIS says will pass within 1 nm.
- Wake me for any light you cannot identify.
- Wake me if the wind goes over 20 knots or shifts by more than 30 degrees.
- Wake me if the barometer falls 3 hPa or more in three hours.
- Wake me if the visibility closes in or a squall is coming.
- Wake me before any sail change, and before anyone leaves the cockpit.
- Wake me for any alarm, any new noise, or water above the floorboards.
- Wake me if you feel unwell or cannot stay awake.
- If in doubt, wake me. On this boat nobody gets told off for it.
Under those go the boat’s own rules. Ours are short: life jackets on deck at night, clipped on before leaving the companionway, nobody goes forward alone, and everyone who stands a watch knows how to make a Mayday call on the VHF.
Staying awake and keeping your night vision
Full night vision takes something like 20 to 30 minutes to arrive and one glance at a bright screen to lose. Keep every light aboard red or dim: a red head torch, red light over the chart table, the plotter in night mode with the brightness turned right down, phones at their lowest brightness with a night filter on. If you have to look at something bright, close one eye and keep it closed, and that eye keeps its night vision.
Staying awake is mostly about not getting too comfortable. Every 10 to 15 minutes, stand up and make a slow full circle of the horizon, including the patch hidden by the genoa, then check the AIS. Keep snacks and a flask within reach. Coffee helps most people at 02:00 and costs some of them their sleep afterwards, so find out which you are before the passage. Music or a podcast in one ear at low volume helps some people; never in both ears, because Rule 5 of the collision regulations asks for a lookout by sight and hearing.
Clipped on, every night
Someone who goes over the side at night from a boat on autopilot, with the rest of the crew asleep, may not be missed until the next watch comes up. That is the reason for the rule. At night everyone on deck wears a life jacket and is clipped on, from a strong point they can reach before they are out of the companionway. Nobody goes forward alone. If a sail needs attention, the watchkeeper wakes someone, and the second person stays in the cockpit and watches. The jacklines, tethers and habits are the same as for sailing alone, with one difference: a crew can turn the boat round, but only if somebody knows you have gone.
The first night is the worst
Almost every crew finds the first night the hardest. Nobody has banked any sleep, nobody’s body clock has shifted, the excitement of leaving has worn off, and anyone prone to seasickness feels it most in the first day or two. By the third night most people have settled into the rhythm.
So plan for it. Leave rested, and send the first off watch below in the afternoon even if nobody feels like sleeping; lying down with your eyes shut still counts for something. Eat a proper hot meal before dark. Reef before dark too, so nobody has to do it at 02:00. Start the rota at a fixed time, 20:00 on the dot, however awake everyone feels. A passage plan that puts the first night in open water, away from headlands and shipping lanes, makes it easier still.
Before you leave, write the rota and the standing orders on one card and fix it by the chart table. At 02:00, nobody should have to work out whose watch it is.