Fitting out a cruising toolkit
Equip your offshore toolbox with an eye toward self-sufficiency
You can never have too many tools. This maxim is true whether you are heading off for the weekend or setting sail for distant lands. Maintenance tasks and mechanical breakdowns require a vast assortment of skills and hardware, and having the right tool for the right job saves time. It’s all part of boating: working on the engine, rebuilding the head, fixing the autopilot or watermaker. Sooner or later, necessity will be the mother of new skills, especially when fixing it yourself is not an option but the only solution.
Start by being active in taking care of your boat and its systems when you’re in port. Provision for foreseeable needs with the necessary spare parts and tools, and have the knowledge (including engine and equipment manuals) at hand to use them all wisely. Aim to be as self-sufficient as possible in the fix-it department.
The mighty screwdriver An entire book has been written about that little piece of hardware known as the screw (One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw by Witold Rybczynski). Suffice to say, a sailor’s tool kit eventually boasts every screwdriver known to modern man: straight-bladed (slot-headed), Robertson (square-headed), Phillips (cross-headed), Torx (unique to electrical equipment)—all in various sizes and lengths.
One indispensable aid is a long and large straight-bladed screwdriver, preferably with a square metal shank that goes right through the handle, so you can hit it with a hammer or put a wrench on it for leverage. Fellow cruisers we’ve talked to use this tool for everything from tightening the bolt that holds the zinc on the end of the boat’s shaft drive to reaching the mounting bolts of the pump unit on a marine head. Ted Popham, who sails the cruiser The Alice Colleen, uses two big straight-bladed screwdrivers as levers and insists they can’t be too big.
Other essentials include stubby and S-shaped screwdrivers for tight spots, and a mini ratchet handle that fits the hex-bits used in standard electric screwdrivers.
Wrenching work It’s rare that a boat doesn’t require both metric- and standard-sized sockets and wrenches, and they should go up to 1 1/4-inch and 32mm in size. Duplicate wrenches in commonly used sizes such as 13mm are useful for tightening nuts while holding the bolt. Sets of open, closed and combination wrenches will let you work in tight spots. When buying ratchet sets, always check that the set includes odd sizes such as 16mm. They often don’t. Deep sockets permit the nut to be driven farther down a threaded rod and may be needed for head bolts on the engine or for keel bolts, so check those nut sizes.
A breaker bar (non-ratcheting socket handle) can be extended with a piece of pipe slipped over it to give additional leverage for breaking loose stubborn nuts. It is also useful to have a long socket extension for hard-to-reach spots such as keel bolts. A right-angled plumber’s wrench, designed to tighten fittings up and under sinks, is a great boat tool for getting to hard-to-reach nuts.
Cutting edges If you plan to do any modifications or repairs on board, you will need a selection of saws, files, taps, knifes and chisels.
For simple woodworking tasks like building shelves or sawing holes in the bulkhead or overhead, consider using Japanese saws. They are small, easy to pack away and cut quickly on the pull stroke. The cut is very narrow because the teeth aren’t offset. Best of all, they don’t require electricity or make any noise.
For cutting steel, you need hacksaw blades and both the traditional D-shaped holder and a keyhole handle that fits on one end of the blade.
Hole saws in a variety of sizes suitable for both wood and metal (high-speed steel or HSS drill bits) are useful for cutting conduit or limber holes and for mounting items in instrument panels or bulkheads.
Taps are needed for mounting hardware on the mast or toerail. You can also tap into fiberglass for a tight fit through the deck. The most commonly used sizes are 6-, 8- and 10-millimeter (1/4-, 5/16- and 3/8-inch). Carry both metric- and standard-sized taps.
Stanley knife blades can be used to cut, trim and fit wood surfaces. To plane and smooth a surface, the blade can be taken out of the holder and dragged with pressure. It works better than sandpaper.
Bolt or wire cutters that are big enough to cut your rigging wire are essential. Alternatively, you can cut rigging quickly in an emergency with a hammer, sharp metal or cold chisel, and a metal block to cut on. For a clean cut, bind the wire with tape before cutting. Cold chisels are also useful for shifting recalcitrant nuts and cutting off bits of metal.
Electrical A separate toolbox with all the tools and parts necessary for electrical repairs and modifications is essential. To start with, carry wire strippers, a crimper, and have a supply of ends and wiring nuts in three different sizes—color-coded red (small), blue (medium) and yellow (large). For heavy gauge wires such as battery cables, a dedicated large crimper is a must—either a press-tool or a simple hammer-crimp one. Many sailors recommend having a rigging Nico press, as well.
Eventually, an electrical toolbox will contain a vast assortment of goodies. More serious electrical projects or a hobbyist (radio, computer, etc.) will need a supply of LEDs, resistors, diodes, capacitors, ICs and transistors.
Cruisers Terry and Janine Plain have an electrical tool box that, in addition to a huge array of electrical components, contains a Weller AC soldering iron and a butane soldering iron, as well as solder, a de-soldering tool, a Torx screwdriver set, a jewelers screwdriver set, two sizes of needle nose pliers, a fuse puller for auto-type fuses, plug adapters for different countries’ AC power, wire strippers and wire snips.
No boat should be without a multimeter, either an analog or digital model. It should measure to 20 amps. They are not expensive, often less than $20. Knowing how to use one, however, means more than reading numbers off the scale. There are a number of books available specifically pertaining to marine electrical systems, or consider taking a basic electronics course.
The war against rust In a salty environment, tools and fittings take a beating. To combat this aggression, the first level of defense is to avoid storing equipment in a wet place and spray tools with a protectant such as WD40, CRC Longlife or Boeshield. Wiping tools with Lanoguard, a New Zealand lanolin grease, is another option and small things like needles and drill bits should be wrapped in an oiled cloth and kept in an airtight container.
Popham uses custom-made vinyl bags for his wood saws and axe. “I have a grooved piece of wood to stop the teeth damaging the bag and always grease the saw,” he said. For rarely used things like big pullers and engine spares, some cruisers resort to a heavy smearing with grease, close wrapping in plastic or vinyl and binding with tape. Tools should be wrapped in a fashion so that the package doesn’t hold water or stay wet. If tools have already become rusty, use rust converters followed by an anti-rust paint.
For getting rusty or seized metal fittings apart, use heat. Carry a propane torch and an impact wrench, the kind you hit with a hammer to loosen obstinate screws or nuts. Solvent sprays like Aero-Kroil and WD40 are also useful for releasing stuck hardware.
Power tools Many cruisers have drills or sanders purchased decades ago that are still in service. Veteran cruiser Michael Harris, for instance, has most of the same tools that he started out with 20 years ago. He says that when buying tools, he tends to opt for quality rather than price.
These days, however, many electric tools have plastic parts and plastic casings. This winter, when my new grinder broke down, I discovered that the motor brush holders were plastic and had melted. There is no guarantee on the length of life or robustness of modern electrical tools. Warranties work, but only if they are valid internationally or if you are cruising locally when the item fails. Paying more or buying a name brand may, but not necessarily, guarantee that the tool will last longer than its less expensive brother.
The Plains have both 240-volt and 120-volt four-inch angle grinders. The rest of their tools are 120-volt: palm sander, 1/2-inch drill, heat gun, 1/5-horsepower Dremel, and a 3/8-inch Makita cordless drill. “We bought quality when we built our first boat in 1980. The Makita drill and the sander are that old.”
Like many long-distance cruisers, Tom and Jean Ness have acquired three inverters of various capacities and more than a handful of plug adaptors for North American, Australian, Malaysian and Thai power leads. Jean’s favorite tool is her angle grinder that doubles as a polisher. “I love it,” said Jean. “I don’t know how we ever completed a haul-out without it.”
When buying cordless tools, money is well spent on a model that comes with an extra battery pack. Buying a second battery later is always costly and often impossible. Worse, cordless tools always run out of power in the middle of a job. One way to extend the life of a cordless tool whose battery has died is to directly wire it up to a 12-volt source with a power cord. I have done this to drills rated at 14-volts and another at 9.6-volts
without problems.
The digital camera, Internet and the computer have become the greatest tools of the 21st century. Using search engines, you can find technical information for just about every boat product or system. Additionally, you can e-mail customer service personnel who can arrange for spare parts or replacements, help with troubleshooting or send you exploded drawings. We’ve used a digital camera to photograph inside of areas too small for the human head, such as looking for hidden welding voids or for leaks under the cabin sole. A digital camera is also useful for documenting the dismantling of a transmission or engine. The pictures can be used in reverse for putting it all back together.
While it certainly is nice to have everything you’ll ever need, you can’t possibly own or carry every tool on board. Lend when you can, but tag all gear with your Dremel tool first. And if you have to borrow, remember that a six-pack (or a bottle of wine) is a nice way to say thank you.
