Ballast

[William_H]

Tools and spares

Much depends on the size of the boat. I take mine home each winter and one of the jobs is to completely clean out all storage cupboards etc. I then replace with what I need. This is mostly based on what I needed in the last few years by way of tools and spares.
I have a locker built into the side seat of the cockpit. This contains most of the junk. I fitted screwed into the lid pieces of elastic so that knife pliers and screw drivers are all attached inside the lid. The elastic needs frequent replacing but works well. Spare shackles screws and pieces of cord also hook through the elastic. So while racing we can do repairs on the run without even entering the cabin. So there is a contrast to what is carried on bigger boats. good lcuk olewill

 

[WilliamUK]

I guess the best way to do that is to restore a boat that needs a fair bit of work, and never take any tools home from the yard

Pete

Depending how much I have saved up before I crack and buy something with a cabin, that will happen to some degree or other. I'm not sure I'll resist long enough to buy something that doesn't need anything significant immediately so some work will be inevitable.

I couldn't take that approach now though - I'm not sure I'd want to carry a bandsaw and planes with me on a Lark... I wouldn't have anywhere to plug in the saw and I'm not convinced it'd be a stable enough platform for planing.

Me being me, though, I'll probably have the necessary kit for some on-the-fly repairs even on there.

 

[KellysEye]

>That's some spares/tool kit. Certainly agree about long distance. That's what I'm working towards in the (hopefully not too distant) future and learning the skills to repair structure, plumbing, electrics and so on are reasonably high on my to-do-before-leaving list.

Yes it's a good idea to learn a range of repair skills. Probably the most important thing is to have an exploded parts diagram for everything and a workshop manual for for large things like engine etc. What I found is that you know something is not working but don't know why. I soon realised that if you take something apart you find what's broken, obvious with hindsight. However you MUST keep a diagram and list of the bits you take off as you take them off so you can put it back together. Be very careful to make a note on such things as which way round a diaphragm is. Keep the diagram and list you will need it again, boaty parts are made for weekend and holiday sailors.

One thing we learnt is to carry two spares kits for everything, you can't get them in the boonies. What we did was look in the chandlers for the spares packs. If there were none for some things we called the manufacturers, explained what we were doing, and asked what was likely to break with 24x365 useage. Amazingly they were all very helpful.

Good luck with the planning!

The only thing you can't repair is modern electronics, basically anything with a circuit board. The key one is the GPS, we carried two handhelds as backups and lots of AA batteries.

 

[lille_bee]

Essentials

I'm sure somebody on forums various have mentioned the following before...

If it moves and it shouldn't .... "Duck tape"

If it doesn't move and it should ... "WD 40"

but my personal preference is PAT... Precision Adjustment Tool.. more commonly known as a 1 kg lump hammer..

all of the above have value on a boat at some time or other but if they all fail, call in the "better half" and it can be nagged to death.

 

[Simondjuk]

It amazes me how many people have great big heavy boxes, full of tools which are no good to man nor beast. You know the type, they contain the remains of five cheap and nasty socket sets, a load of screwdrivers which are designed to fit types of screw head which are yet to be invented and a few pairs of ancient and rusty pliers which are seized solid.

With careful selection of decent tools, it's amazing how compact and minimal in number they can be kept. I have just about all the hand tools I used during the 16 month refit of my boat, which involved taking just about everything off and apart and then putting it back, in a box about the size of a shoe box, plus two modestly sized additional items in the form of one 1/4" drive and one 1/2" drive socket set.

Similarly, I have a medium sized tool box in the garage which contains sufficient tools to do an engine change on a car, barring lifting the engine of course.

The most used thing on the boat though? Probably the bit of string I always tend to have in my pocket.