Oh Spare Me!)
SOME FOLKS CARRY ALMOST ENOUGH SPARE PARTS TO REBUILD THEIR BOATS. BUT REALLY, YOU DON’T NEED MUCH—NOT LIKE IN THE OLD DAYS.
In my early 20s, I rode a BSA motorcycle, a 650-cc Thunderbolt. If you’ve spent time straddling a classic British bike, you know the importance of carrying spare parts, and maybe spares for the spares, whenever and wherever you ride. Boats were the same way back then, in the “good old days”: If you didn’t break down at least once every weekend, you weren’t using your boat. You carried an array of V-belts, impellers, spark plugs, points and condensers, carburetor cleaner, fuel filters, random lengths of wire, a box full of odd nuts and bolts—all sorts of things. And diesels were not immune: For years, I kept a spare set of injectors and a head gasket in a drawer under my berth although, thank goodness, I never had to use either.
That was then, though; today, boats are dependable critters, especially if you keep up with your maintenance. But some skippers still haul such a cargo of spare parts around that there’s barely room left over for the crew. And I’ll be darned if I can figure out why. After all, most of us spend the majority of our cruising days not far from shore and within easy reach of assistance, even if we’re voyaging far from homeport. Indeed, cruising today is sort of like taking a road trip: Although you’re a long way from home, AAA is usually nearby. So, unless your boat is the seagoing equivalent of my 1972 Beezer, I think you can safely leave the marina with only a few basic parts and tools. And hey, sometimes maybe you can cut back to just a towing-service account and a credit card. Let the seagull hit the fan. You’ll simply arrive at the boatyard at the end of a towline. Ignominious, but it beats attempting complex repairs at sea. THE ONE “SPARE” EVERYBODY NEEDS But first, let’s get real. Certainly, you should carry enough parts and tools to handle simple glitches, stuff that’ll handle the seagoing equivalent of changing a flat tire. You don’t always want to wait for Sea Tow or TowboatUS. And since all boats are different, there’s no general rule governing what you should have onboard, no “Carry three model XYZ fuel filters and an extra ship’s cat,” for example. So for specific engine spares, ask your mechanic. However, although it’s not technically a “spare” perhaps, the one thing every boater should always carry is an anchor at the ready. When your engine dies, the first thing you should ask yourself, in the deafening silence, is, “How about that anchor!” If the problem’s one you can deal with, it’ll be a lot easier to focus on it if you’re not worried about drifting ashore or into traffic. If you’re calling for a tow, why not minimize your drift while waiting? Dropping the hook in an iffy situation is like putting out safety reflectors before changing a tire alongside the highway. I always carry two anchors of different patterns, by the way, to handle a wider variety of bottom conditions. And, now that I think of it, some people do refer to that second hook as a “spare,” at least sometimes. THE OTHER SPARE EVERYBODY NEEDS Let’s face it. You also need to always carry a spare impeller for each and every raw-water pump onboard. A plastic bag or other obstruction in the seawater supply can make an engine overheat in minutes, overheating can damage the impeller, and a damaged impeller can break apart and scatter bits of rubber throughout the seawater cooling system. Then you, or a bunch of boat yard guys, have to ultimately and laboriously hunt them down.
Replacement isn’t a terribly tough job. Once you’ve removed the faceplate from the body of a suspect raw-water pump, inspect the impeller inside carefully. Look for cracks at the base of the vanes or damage at their tips. If you see trouble spots or you’re in doubt, swap the darn thing out. Impellers, after all, don’t cost much, compared to mechanics. And of course, as soon as possible, buy another impeller to replace the spare you’ve just made use of.
And maybe check out Speedseal ( www.speedseal.com) as well, if you haven’t already. This cool little company makes faceplates that substitute big hard-to-drop thumbscrews for regular screws. If you’ve ever plunked one of the latter little devils into the bilge while fiddling with a screwdriver, you’ll appreciate this. By comparison, Speedseal thumbscrews can be tightened or loosened using just your fingers.