Bluewater Prep

Leaving sight of land raises the self-reliance stakes substantially. Getting your boat ready is an exercise in finding the potential weak spots, and then building a plan to cope with any failures.

Prepping a boat for bluewater travel is an order of magnitude more challenging than typical weekend boating or even coastal cruising. It is an inconvenience if you have an engine failure a few miles from a marina and have to call for a tow. It is a dramatically different scenario if you’re three days out of the Chesapeake Bay on the way to Bermuda.

The conversation about prepping a boat for bluewater travel traditionally focuses on repairs at sea, and on having the tools and spare parts to accomplish those repairs. But these days, many boat systems are so complicated (think black boxes filled with circuit boards and other components) that it’s unrealistic to believe most boaters can fix them underway.

In those cases, it is more important to be able to analyze a system and figure out a workaround. For some critical systems, the answer will be to carry complete spare parts; for others, it may be wise to have a secondary system ready to go.

Here’s a mechanic’s-eye view of typical systems aboard, and what to do if one of those systems fails.

Making It Go

We’re driving powerboats, so nothing is more important than the propulsion system performing well. Modern