What have you found most useful when things have gone wrong?

[macd]

7mm is the size for practically all jubilee-type clips, for a start.

...unless the clip in question is buried behind the engine and deep in the bilge and takes five minutes thrutching to reach. In this case it will always be 6mm

 

[OGITD]

For myself and others:

Builders foam,
Full range of stainless jubilee clips,
Wire clamps,
Electrical wire, electrical tape,
Self amalgamating tape,
PTFE tape,
Full set of sockets & spanners,
Various size screwdrivers .... philips & standard,
Spare bottle-screws,
Rope & wire,
long piece of brazing wire.
Plumbers / waterproof epoxy putty.
Full set of filters,
Spare exhaust elbow would of been nice!

 

[macd]

Various size screwdrivers .... philips & standard

What, no Pozi?

 

[Woodlouse]

Surely the answer depends on what in particular has gone wrong?

For me the last most useful thing was an inline squeezy fuel pump like you have on fuel tanks for outboards. It was used to back blow a blockage from my main engine fuel line in the middle of Lyme bay.

 

[onesea]

Surely the answer depends on what in particular has gone wrong?

This is true I was just curious as to what people have used, was not looking for lists of what to carry... The what has been used... Was curious.

I should add wine bottle cork form near by MOBO on Windmere when dinghy sailing the day after late night drinking. We where off to buy more beer/ wine when we realized we forgot to put any bungs in....

 

[Talbot]

You can achieve a lot with the use of araldite, duct tape or a hammer.

 

[Dipper]

Insurance.

 

[Beadle]

For me:
A drill (hand not electric),
Engine Oil,
Gaskets gromets,
Some Good Rope/ cordage,
WD40,
Duct Tape,
Saw,
Scraper,
Off-cuts of wood,
Kitchen Towel, Old Towels (Rags * Drying),

This is not a list of what I carry but things I have used. What about you?

All good stuff just a couple of other things:-

A hammer

A chisel

A ball of string

A few rolls of insulating tape

 

[macd]

You can achieve a lot with the use of...a hammer.

Especially in it's most versatile form, the 'Manchester screwdriver'.

 

[boaterbaz]

Ti wraps and gaffa tape. When all else fails a saense of humour

 

[pagoda]

A nice cup of tea, nothing seems so bad afterwards.

+1

and a decent digital multi meter to troubleshoot electrical problems.....

 

[Rowana]

You can achieve a lot with the use of... a hammer.

Ah! The noble art of percussive maintenance!
If in doubt, give it a clout. The bigger the doubt, the bigger the clout!

A man after my own heart!

 

[Kukri]

Radio 4, when in range.

Very soothing.

 

[photodog]

A good rant and a Visa card with some headroom.

 

[KellysEye]

We carried a full set of tools plus spares for everthing such winches, anchor winnch, water pumps, generator and oil ,engine and oil, nav bulbs, fuses for electrics and switch panel, spare alternator, spare rigging wire for all shroud sizes and stalok fittings, dinghy prop, outboard, sheets, halyards etc etc. Plus the normal bodge it Duct tape, wood, epoxy glue etc etc. For long distance sailing, we had three lockers full of the stuff.

 

[Grumpybear]

The Seaman's Compendium of Swearwords, 47th Edition.

 

[Dipper]

My impact driver is one of my least used tools but has proved invaluable on a number of occasions.

 

[Amphitrite]

A mole wrench and duct tape, and if possible handled by my sailing mate and ships engineer Thomas who will fix absolutely everything...

 

[interloper]

A cell phone.

Yes, a cell phone can fix a bad situation even on a boat.

 

[2nd_apprentice]

When we had our emergency, quite a few years ago now, what we really needed was a bilge pump that would drain the saloon. The one fitted to the boat only drains the engine bilge, forcing us to use the pump shown in the link below but at that time attached to a board that I stood on. This was remarkably uncomfortable and inefficient to use.

Subsequently we installed the one shown in the link, which we hope we will never use. http://coxengineering.sharepoint.com/Pages/bilgepump.aspx

Thanks for that! Never quite figured out where to fit my pump without it being either in the way or akward to use.