Essential Kit for Long-Distance Cruising

Read any sailing magazine for any length of time and you are bound to come across an article about the latest bit of “essential” kit that you must have on your boat if you prefer not to die.

It really makes you wonder how on earth the likes of Joshua Slocum, Francis Chichester, or even the participants of the Golden Globe race managed to get all the way around the world in one piece!

The simple fact is that you don’t need any of this equipment! Sure, it makes your life way easier and navigation using modern GPS systems has opened up long-distance cruising to far more people, but none of it could be remotely classed as “essential”.

What is essential?

A Strong Boat

It might seem obvious but the number of people I’ve seen that get seduced by a nice shiny boat without paying attention to the quality of its construction is amazing! Whether you subscribe to the long keel, heavy displacement camp, or the lighter, faster, and more nimble fin keel camp is, by and large, irrelevant. Provided that the boat is strong with, for GRP boats, a good solid layup (think pre-1990) and, if it has a bolt-on keel, a good wide attachment point, you are good to go.

A quick word about bolt-on keels

Some people will throw up their hands in horror and declare that you’ll die if you so much as leave the shelter of the harbour in a boat with a bolt-on keel. I say poppycock! (mostly). There are bolt-on keels and there are bolt-on keels. When looking at modern production boats which, almost universally, have bolt-on keels you will notice that the attachment point is just the width of the keel itself. This can be as narrow as six inches and really provides very little mechanical resistance to sideways loads. Personally, I wouldn’t go offshore with a keel of this type although plenty of people do so successfully. Older boats tend to have a cast flange at the top of the keel which can be two or three times the width of the keel itself – my own boat (Sigma 362) has a keel like this and has been “tested” a couple of times without anything untoward happening. In fact on the last occasion, I had her inspected by a professional who declared that in twenty years of repairing boats after groundings he’d never seen a boat suffer absolutely no hull damage after a grounding like I’d had (see here for the story).

Back to the point

So you have your good strong boat. What kit do you need to fit her with?

Water

Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink…

So says the Ancient Mariner and it’s as true today as it was when Coleridge penned those lines in 1834! You absolutely must ensure that you have enough water to last the expected duration of your passage with a good margin of error. You will need at least six litres of water per person per day. If you are a crew of two crossing the Atlantic from the Canary Islands in a modest boat that crossing is going to take you in the region of 22 days so you’ll need at least 264 litres. If your tanks don’t hold that much get some jerry cans and lash them to the deck.

By the way, never let rainwater go directly into your tanks. Use an empty jerry can to collect it in so that you can check it’s ok before pouring it into your main tank. So, even if you don’t “need” jerry cans, it’s a good idea to carry a couple anyway for rainwater collection and you should keep your main tanks topped off as soon as there is space in them to empty a jerry can. That way you’ll always have an empty can for rainwater.

Self-Steering

If you are going to be sailing across oceans, you are going to need some form of self-steering system. Hand steering is fun for day sailing but for long passages, it will become very tiresome (and tiring) very quickly. So what sort of self-steering should you have? If your boat won’t naturally steer itself there really is only one answer – a wind vane system. These systems are very simple so have very little to go wrong and they use no power at all so if your batteries die it matters not. There are two main types – Servo Pendulum and Auxilliary Rudder. The former tends to be more powerful so will steer a larger boat whereas the latter can be used as an emergency rudder should your steering system fail.

The other type of self-steering is, of course, an electric system. Modern systems are pretty reliable and simple to use. The disadvantage is that they can use a lot of power if you don’t set them up correctly. And I’m not just talking about the system itself. Having a properly balanced boat in terms of sail plan will give the autopilot a much easier time and use less battery. If you set the sensitivity lower it will also help your batteries – you really don’t need to be held on course to the last millimetre when you are making a passage of hundreds of miles.

I have an autopilot that I use when the wind is really light and the wind steering system doesn’t have anything to work with. I also use it whilst I’m setting up the wind vane when I set out to keep the boat on the correct course as I tweak the vane.

Automatic Identification System

An Automatic Identification System (AIS) is not really essential but I can tell you, it gives so much peace of mind that nowadays I wouldn’t go offshore without it. Of course, it is not infallible – it doesn’t pick up the “dark” fishing boats nor does it pick up coastlines.

Charts

It should go without saying that you should have charts to cover your intended route but I heard of a couple who navigated the Pacific using Google Earth! Whether you prefer electronic or paper charts is up to you although, technically, you should carry paper charts even if all your navigation is done electronically. If you have old charts make sure that you check for updates and amend your copy as necessary.

Reliable Depth Sounder

It might seem obvious and most boats will be fitted with one of these, along with a speed/logger and wind direction/speed instruments but, after having spent two years with an unreliable and erratic depth sounder the depth is the only one I’d classify as essential.

That’s about it really. Anything else, like RADAR, fancy chart plotters (I use a ruggedized and waterproof Android tablet), or watermakers can be assigned to the “nice to have” category.