[Capt. Debbie]

Over time your boat accumulates several hundred pounds of spare parts and tools not to mention fishing gear.

Changing an O/B's water pump on open water is a bit much for many. A dead battery is more likely. Or out of gas.

Preventive maintenance costs more (like a new battery at year 3) , but it will keep you out of the unexpected.

Good fortune does favor those that are prepared.

And USCG's are minimums. VHF radios are not required on recreation vessels under 20 meters(66Ft). a good thing to have one very good one set up right.

Originally Posted by Walleyed

Jimmy's statement made me think of what I carry, other than USCG manda
ted items...

I have my "bitch bag" filled with a full set of metric and SAE sockets, end wrenches and hex keys, screwdrivers, torx drivers, various pliers, vice grips, multimeter, sparkplug socket, wire crimps, butt connectors, terminal connects - spade & ring. A spare impeller for the sea water pump, sparkplugs, spare prop, extra Racor fuel filter element, extra quart of motor oil, a gallon of pre-mix antifreeze, full assortment of buss fuses and last, but not least, a spare bilge pump.

2 VHF (one DSC, w/ built-in GPS) radios, with separate antennas. 4 discrete GPS devices: (2 combo chartplotter/sonar, plus my iPad running Navionics and iNavx and my iPhone).

I'm sure there's other stuff packed away too. I've had some bad luck in the past and I've found out that parts and supplies that are sitting at home in my garage don't help when I'm drifting in a channel, there's a barge coming my way and the engine won't start. (happened last year, lug on the engine ground cable decided to get flaky while sitting in Sandy Hook channel).

Call me paranoid, but short of some sort of catastrophic failure, I can fix most things that can go wrong on my boat while I'm still floating.

And this is all for a guy who is rarely more than 10 miles out and never more than 20. And yes...I do have towing insurance too.

Key take-away: Think ahead to what you might need. Having a 6" piece of wire and 2 butt connectors in your garage at home doesn't help when you need it right now.