10 Essential Items for Every Trailer Sailor
Everyone has different ideas of what they need aboard their boat. While cruising in a trailerable boat will always entail a certain degree of "roughing it", we each have our own minimum comfort level. Personally, I would never consider travelling for more than a day or two without my trusty laptop and an MP3 player loaded with at least a couple of books on tape. Others might consider these essential (to me) items to be a complete waste of space. Creature comforts are, therefore, completely subjective and impossible to claim any universal need for.
Safety equipment of course is universal. If you launch your boat without an adequate number of PFDs, you're operating your vessel illegally and unsafely. Be sure that you know the safety equipment requirements of all the states you'll be boating in and outfit your vessel with everything required.
Rather than dealing with the 'must have' assortment of mandatory safety gear or the highly personal creature comforts, let's discuss ten 'should have' items that, in my opinion, are universal necessities aboard any trailer boat.
#1: Marine Radio
Some people argue that the proliferation of cell phones has made the marine radio obsolete. I couldn't disagree more. Even if you have one of those high-end satellite phones that are never out of range of a tower, you need to have a marine radio on board as well.
All marine radios receive NOAA weather broadcasts as well as radio traffic, making you aware of an approaching storm well before you can see it on the horizon. Large commercial ships announce their comings and goings on channel 16 via "security, security, security" announcements, helping you to stay out of their way in narrow channels. If you need to check for a slip at a marina and you don't have the telephone number, you can usually contact them via channel 16 well in advance of your arrival.
All these things make the marine radio a 'should have' item on any size boat, however it is the radio's use as a piece of basic safety equipment that earns it the top slot on my list. If you find yourself in serious trouble (and you're within range of one of those pesky towers), you can contact emergency services by calling 911 on your cell phone, but it can take hours for official help to arrive. A call of "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday" spoken calmly into the microphone of your marine radio on channel 16 will instantly, and dramatically inform every boat in the area of your predicament and very likely result in immediate rescue.
Marine radios are available as either handheld or permanently mounted units and come with a variety of features and price points. How many bells and whistles you want to pay for is up to you, but even the most bare-bones radio will provide all the basic safety features. A permanently mounted radio, wired directly to your battery with a masthead-mounted antenna is the best way to go, but a handheld set is much better than no radio at all.
#2: A Permanently-Mounted Boarding Ladder
Especially when sailing alone or with an inexperienced crew, the ability to get back on board your boat without assistance if you happen to fall overboard is an absolute necessity. Some very athletic (or foolishly macho) boaters consider a loop of rope hung over the side to be the only boarding system they need. It looks easy enough on paper but is a lot harder to pull off in cold water and choppy seas. In fact, if the water is very cold, you're only going to have a few minutes to work the kinks out of your ad-hoc rope ladder before hypothermia paralyzes your arms and legs. If you happen to be injured in the process of going overboard, the problems of getting back on board will be magnified still further.
A portable aluminum ladder that hooks over the transom can be adequate only if you NEVER sail alone AND your sailing partner(s) knows where it is stowed and how to quickly deploy it. Even then you run the risk of drowning with company if you both happen to go over the side together (granted that's not very likely, but why take a chance). A basic ladder can be purchased for under $100 and can be installed in an hour by almost anyone with a power drill and a couple basic hand tools. It's a small investment that can literally be a life saver.
#3: Depth Sounder
As a trailer sailor, it's a safe assumption that most of your time afloat will be spent in unfamiliar waters. And nothing makes a skipper's life more stress free than knowing exactly how much water is under his keel at any given time. Charts are great to have, but are only available for certain waters—many of the inland lakes that are prime destinations for trailer sailors are uncharted. Even if you're navigating with the aid of a chart, the reading from your depth sounder is a big help in verifying your position against the chart and making sure you are where you think you are.
There is a dizzying array of sounders on the market, ranging from under-$100 units with a simple numerical display to thousand-dollar-plus devices that display full-color contour maps of the bottom. Many sounders with graphic displays double as fish finders and some provide other information, like water temperature and boat speed. One handy feature of almost all sounders is a shallow water alarm that will sound an annoying little buzzer if you stray into water shallower than a pre-set depth (my boat draws 2 feet, so I have mine set to go off at a depth of 4 feet, which usually gives me plenty of time to avoid a grounding).
The working gear of any depth sounder is divided into two halves; the sounder itself and the transducer. The sounder will include the display and houses the electronic components that interpret the data it receives from the transducer. The transducer is a little sonar transmitter that shoots a pulse of sound through the water and listens for its echo. It can be mounted in contact with the water (through a hole in the boat or on a bracket screwed onto the transom), or can be glued to the bilge floor inside the boat and transmit through the fiberglass hull.
Personally, I believe that simple is better and I've always opted for a bare-bones sounder with a digital readout and a puck-style transducer glued to the hull. If you fish, or you just need to have the most high-tech gear on the market, by all means spring for something more sophisticated for your own boat. Aside from the priceless peace of mind these little gadgets deliver, the price you'll pay for a basic sounder is less than the cost of a keel repair from running aground on the rocks.
#4: Charts
As mentioned above, charts are often not available for smaller bodies of water but, where they are available, there's no excuse to not have them aboard. You also need to be able to read them and, if you can't, I strongly suggest you sign up for a basic seamanship class through your local power squadron or the Coast Guard.
The most often used feature by the recreational boater is the chart's display of water depth and the location of channel markers, but they also contain a tremendous amount of additional information on local hazards and conditions. With the use of a compass and some basic tools, they also make it possible to navigate long distances with tremendous accuracy. As I've said, as a trailer sailor you're usually in unfamiliar waters, and a chart takes a lot of the guesswork out of where you are at any given time and what course you need to steer to get to where you want to go.
Official nautical charts are published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the data is made available free of charge (although the publishers of printed charts and distributors of chart reading software charge for the finished products they create). NOAA recently began offering booklet versions of many of their charts that can be downloaded from their web site and printed at home by the end user, allowing a completely cost-free option. Information and downloads are available from their web site.
Charts are available in printed form, as individual paper charts, or compiled into chart books for a particular region (like Lake Erie or the Chesapeake Bay) from most marine supply stores and a number of internet sources. Higher-end GPS devices often have the NOAA charts built in, but the displays are often too small to be an acceptable replacement for a paper chart.
The most cost-effective piece of charting software I'm aware of is a package called Sea Clear II which displays NOAA charts on your computer, allowing you to scroll around and zoom in and out with the click of a mouse. If you have a GPS that can interface with your computer, it will double as a navigation program, choosing the appropriate chart and displaying your location, heading, and speed in real time on your laptop. A number of online vendors offer this software, bundled with complete charts of North America and the Pacific for less than the cost of a single paper chart. I bought mine via eBay from a guy in Cleveland for $8, which included shipping. At the very least, this inexpensive software gives you the ability to pour over the charts of any location you're considering for a cruise without having to buy a chart book in advance.
#5: A Comprehensive Took Kit
Okay, so you're probably not going to find yourself a hundred miles offshore needing to rebuild a fuel pump; you still need to keep tools aboard your boat. One of the great joys of a trailerable boat is the ability to do our maintenance and modifications in the comfort of our back yard, but nothing is going to put a damper on your trip faster than having to sail back to the dock to drive into town and buy a replacement cotter pin for the one you dropped overboard.
While your toolbox should be personalized to meet the needs of your specific equipment, many items are universal. These include screwdrivers (both flat and Phillips) of several different sizes, a pair of pliers and a crescent wrench. Electric tape and duct tape should also be on hand. Make sure you have replacement bulbs for all your navigation lights, as well as replacements for your trailer bulbs. Have plenty of spare fuses for all your electronics as well as your boat's distribution panel, as it is very common to blow the same fuse a couple of times before finally tracking down the location of an electrical short. A mixed assortment of screws, nuts, and bolts will come in handy for everything from repairing a broken tiller mount to hanging a towel holder.
If your boat is a sailboat, be sure you have some spare rigging hardware and a replacement block or two in case something breaks or flies overboard while underway. If you're a powerboater, have a spare set of spark plugs and fuel filters aboard, along with the tools needed to replace them. Hose clamps will come in handy on any boat. And everybody should have at least one good waterproof flashlight.
#6: Two Anchors
In many states, having an anchor aboard your boat is required by law, and you should certainly have one even if it's not mandatory. Motors and wind both have a habit of dying at the exact wrong time and, if that time happens to be when you're close to a rocky shore with a current carrying you into danger, wishing you had an anchor to hold your position isn't going to be nearly as useful as having an actual anchor to drop.
While one anchor is an absolute necessity, a second anchor can come in handy in a lot of different situations. Yes, they're bulky to store and add to the weight of your towing package, but the extra safety and utility makes finding room for one in your lazarette a small price to pay. If you're anchoring in a tight space and don't have room to swing freely, feeding out a second anchor from the stern can hold you firmly in one spot. This system also comes in handy when you want to back up to a beach to wade ashore from the transom ladder--just carry your spare anchor ashore and plant it in the sand, and you won't have to swim after your boat when you're ready to re-board. And it's a real neck saver when you're anchored out to watch a fireworks display or an air show where the action's going to be at a fixed location and you don't want to turn your head back and forth the whole time as your boat swings on the hook.
Aboard the Wanderlust, I have a 16.5-pound claw anchor hooked over the bow pulpit for my everyday anchor needs. I also keep a 15-pound navy-style anchor with six feet of chain in the cockpit lazarette. The only time the claw failed me is when I anchored over a bed of thick lake grass and it drug so badly that I was almost forced to give up on the anchorage. In desperation, I hooked the navy anchor to the end of the 10 foot claw chain and dropped them both overboard. With the two anchors working together, I stayed firmly in place all night.
#7: A Spare Trailer Tire
A highway hundreds of miles from home is no place to discover that you don't have the proper gear to deal with a simple flat tire. You should obviously also have a spare tire for your tow vehicle as well. Unless the lug nuts on your trailer tire are the same size as those on your tow vehicle, make sure you have an appropriate wrench for each (or better still, a single 4-way lug wrench that fits both).
Don't assume that the jack that came with your tow vehicle will be appropriate to lift your boat trailer. If there is any doubt at all, do a test lift of your trailer before you take your first trip. If your existing jack can't lift your boat in complete safety, a compact hydraulic floor jack can be purchased for less than $25 from most discount and auto supply stores.
While we're on the subject of your emergency road kit, a set of wheel chokes and a hazard flag or some road flares would be a nice addition as well. Also, aside from protecting your trailer from being scratched by the jack, a wood block or two can come in handy in a variety of situations.
#8: An Auto Club Policy that Covers Your Boat Trailer
While we're on the subject of trailer issues, I can't overstate the peace of mind that comes from being able to call for help if either your trailer or tow vehicle develops a problem beyond your ability to repair in the field. The vast majority of auto club policies do not cover your trailer. If you suffer a breakdown and require a tow, you will most likely be required to unhitch your boat on the side of the road and leave it behind. Worse yet, if your trailer suffers a failure, the auto club won't even respond.
I personally had a great experience with the Boat US Trailering Club when I developed a problem with my temporary tow vehicle (read the story in our True Trailerboat Adventures section), and I would recommend them highly. The Trailering Club membership is available for just $18 a year, in addition to your Boat US membership, making it the cheapest auto club policy I've ever heard of. If you develop a mechanical problem on the road, they will either fix it in place or tow you AND your trailer to a service station up to 100 miles away for repair…for free!
While it won't make a breakdown completely stress-free, it beats sitting on the side of the road with a 3,000-pound albatross hitched to your bumper wondering what to do now. I don't mean to sound like a commercial here, but it really is the smallest investment for the most peace of mind you can possibly make. While not strictly a boating item, it is definitely a must-have for any trailer sailor.
#9: A Telescoping Boat Hook
It's not the most glamorous piece of equipment you'll pick up at the marine supply store, but a telescoping boat hook is probably the most useful multi-tasker you'll ever have aboard. It's literally the Swiss army knife of boat gear.
If you happen to miss the dock you were aiming for by a couple of feet, just grab your handy boat hook and pull yourself in. Did your hat fly overboard? Luckily, you have a boat hook to fish it out with. Did you run aground in mud? There's no way you can climb overboard to push off without getting stuck yourself in knee-deep muck, so break out the handy boat hook and pole yourself free. And I've never met a sailor who hasn't had the experience of a loose halyard blowing freely in the wind overhead just a foot out of reach.
And those are just a few of the everyday uses for this amazing pole with a hook. Many models allow for interchangeable heads, allowing your hook to double as a deck brush or mop and some even come with built-in paddle blades. Basic hooks are available very inexpensively at the local Wal-Mart, but do yourself a favor and pay a little more for a heavy-duty model. After all, there's nothing more embarrassing than trying to fend off a pirate attack with a bent boat hook.
#10: A GPS Device
The added safety comes in the form of being able to communicate your exact location to rescuers in route, just by reading the latitude and longitude numbers from the GPS display. You don't even need to know how to read a chart and you'll still sound like the Professor on Gilligan's Island relaying rescue coordinates into his coconut radio.
You'll need a bit more skill to utilize the convenience factor of your GPS, but once you've mastered the basics, you'll be able to plan out your route in advance and program waypoints into the device that will plot your target heading and keep you on course for the entire trip. My personal favorite GPS trick is to mark the location of my launch ramp as the "home" coordinate while I'm at the dock. Especially at night or in bad weather, it's not always easy to spot the ramps from offshore and a quick glance at my trusty GPS keeps me from sailing past and having to backtrack.
Almost any GPS unit will also display your current speed, although they get pretty unreliable below about 2.5 miles per hour. While it's useful information for calculating the ETA of your next landfall, it's important to keep in mind that the speed reading is a representation of your speed through the air, which can be very different from your speed through the water.
Like most marine electronics, GPS units come in a wide variety of models with different features and price points. My GPS is ten years old with a simple digital display, but it still gets the job done. I paid about $100 for it at the time and, although new models are much more powerful, a basic handheld GPS will still cost about the same now as they did a decade ago. Beyond the basic hundred-dollar handhelds, you can pay much more for hardwired models with large, full-color displays and built-in nautical charts.
Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of thinking that you can take the GPS out of your car and use it on your boat. Aside from the confusion you'll create when the poor thing thinks you've driven your car off a pier, these devices are programmed to navigate from street to street, not between latitude and longitude coordinates. Get yourself a good quality, waterproof GPS designed for either boating or hiking use. Applications are also available to convert some cell phones into GPS devices, but I have no personal experience with using one. Above all, don't let the convenience of a GPS display give you an excuse for not knowing how to navigate with a compass and a paper chart.