Boats are the natural habitat for power tools designed to work ‘off grid’. To be unencumbered by cables and the need for constant mains power voltage is an essential part of getting any kind of job done onboard. This could be while you are sailing or just as likely when you are in refit or winter layup mode, working your way down the never-ending to-do list.
Sooner or later, no matter how competent or incompetent you think you are with a power tool, you’re going to be wishing you had a cordless tool of some sort. Sometimes you need a tool to go up a mast with you and other times you’ll need a tool to head into a dark locker or bilge recess and reach an awkward place at fingertip reach. The list of jobs you can accomplish with just a crack team of four essential tools is pretty impressive.
From destruction of something old and worn, such as removal of spent anodes or a worn-out non-slip deck, from wire brush prepping a surface to finishing the job, or cutting back a metal surface, dressing a surface in preparation of being glued or bolted to driving home bolts, polishing toggles, or just making repetitive unscrewing or re-screwing less tedious, the scope is pretty endless. In an emergency, you may need to get the tools out to help cut the rig away quickly or to jury rig a boom, and with these four tools, you’ll have it covered.
On my boat I carry the following:
Drill – not just for drilling holes, but also used as a screwdriver, and often recruited for wire brushing.
– can be used to cut fibreglass
