Too many spares?!?

Think the reason you should carry a full oil change on a BWB is in case you have a leak or contamination. Or you need to drain the system in order to achieve a repair. Same for tranny and cooling. Just saying.. even on the the sailboat with sails to fall back on we carried those filters and supplies.

slowgoesit said:

So regarding spares what say you? Am I crazy or what?

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My boat is designed and equipped to be used in remote places and for that reason I carry a lot of spares / redundancy. So, for example, while I don't have a back up low pressure pump for my water maker, I do have two water makers. From my perspective, your list isn't excessive, although there are a few items I don't carry: I have 1 spare anchor, not 5, no separate fuel tank for the dinghy (its tank is integral), and I have never considered fuel/water/black tank deck plugs. And I have only two credit cards.

The one spare that I wish I had, and I didn't see it on your list, is spare props.

Hippocampus said:

Think the reason you should carry a full oil change on a BWB is in case you have a leak or contamination. Or you need to drain the system in order to achieve a repair. Same for tranny and cooling. Just saying.. even on the the sailboat with sails to fall back on we carried those filters and supplies.

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Yup, agree, and we've got all that covered!

MYTraveler said:

The one spare that I wish I had, and I didn't see it on your list, is spare props.

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The boat has a Hundsted CPP. We don't have an entire spare prop, as it's about $45k, but we DO have one spare blade for the prop assembly.

MYTraveler said:

The one spare that I wish I had, and I didn't see it on your list, is spare props.

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How heavy is your prop?
And do you really think you'd be able to change i underwater?

On ours Rudder would have to be removed and you'd need a forklift to lift the prop

Plus Conan strength and a massive breaker bar to undo the nut holding it on.

Simi 60 said:

How heavy is your prop?
And do you really think you'd be able to change i underwater?

On ours Rudder would have to be removed and you'd need a forklift to lift the prop

Plus Conan strength and a massive breaker bar to undo the nut holding it on.

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That's my logic. I can't change props without help, so losing a couple days for prop repairs or to get props shipped in isn't a huge deal.

OldDan1943 said:

Totally agree with you.
Hint; If you have a lady onboard, you can never have too much TP onboard

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Blockage risk rises proportionally per heavy TP user lady.

Full set of anodes for hull, running gear, thruster and engines. Extra boat and tender keys. Extra binoculars.

One observation as a tech: I come across quite a few 'spare' belts, hoses, impellers and seals that are deteriorated due to age and storage conditions. Rubber parts that may not be used for a long time should be stored in well sealed packages away from heat. Be sure to rotate stock with belts, hoses and impellers. It happens a lot, new stuff is bought for a maintenance job and the spares on board stay where they are - rotate stock!

Bostonwhaler16 said:

Full set of anodes for hull, running gear, thruster and engines. Extra boat and tender keys. Extra binoculars.

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Good points, and we have that covered. Extra keys for both,and 4 sets of Binos.

EngNate said:

One observation as a tech: I come across quite a few 'spare' belts, hoses, impellers and seals that are deteriorated due to age and storage conditions. Rubber parts that may not be used for a long time should be stored in well sealed packages away from heat. Be sure to rotate stock with belts, hoses and impellers. It happens a lot, new stuff is bought for a maintenance job and the spares on board stay where they are - rotate stock!

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Excellent point! And I'd add that you should periodically go through all your spares to re-familiarize yourself with what you have, also to check expiration dates, etc.

Just a follow-up to this thread after completion of our trip. This was prompted by another recently posted thread about spares.

This was a complete list of repairs in our 7 month, 6,440 nm (7,411 statute miles) trip from Port Orchard, Washington State to Moore Haven, Florida.

Since (and during) the trip, we added:

• Freon for refrigerator
• HVAC gauges
• Spare fridge controller for main refrigerator
• spare hyd hoses

Parts of Mexico, and definitely El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama, it is extremely difficult to get parts, and expensive and time consuming when you CAN get them in. Case in point: The fridge controller went out. The name brand, SECOP OEM controller in the United States is readily available for $68.00. In La Paz, MX, only a no name controller was available . . . for $350,00 usd. I ordered the name brand, had it sent to my sister in the States, but bought the no name brand to get us going immediately. Also has a very small leak in one of the fill valves of the system. We had a refrigeration guy remove the valve, and silver solder the tube. (hence the freon and HVAC gauges added to our inventory of spares).

Other than that, I used:

• fuel and oil filters, and engine oil, spares on-hand.
• replaced LED reading lamp in fwd stateroom. Replace with on-hand spare.
• two macerator pumps. Replace with on-hand spare.
• misc electrical connectors
• wire wire to fix an intermittent electrical issue with our get home engine
• replaced a VHF antenna. Replace with on-hand spare.
• hyd hose, which I did not have, but sources in La Paz for $110.00 usd, made to order
• fresh water washdown pump, which died after only 3 months in use. Replace with on-hand spare.
• Just under 3000 gallons of diesel fuel, includes main and Aux engine use.

This is pretty much all we used on our boat in repairs for the trip. Now, we used a LOT of our spares to help other boaters out along the way. Charged them the cost of replacing the parts once we got to Florida, NOT the local price, and they were ecstatic to get them! Especially for that price. Let's see, one macerator pump, two fresh water pumps, some tubing and hose clamps come to mind, as well as making up a couple of battery cables for a guy in Mexico.

If you are heading down the intracoastal waterway, or podunking around in short trips, obviously you won't need this many spares, but this is what we carry.