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What items need to be in the emergency/tool box for my boat?
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What you want for an 18 footer is much different than what is necessary for a 60 footer which crosses oceans:
For my 18 footers, I carry: a good socket set in both SAE and metric, 1/4 and 3/8" drive. A prop nut socket or tool. Long nose pliers, a strap wrench to remove fuel filters, large and small vise grips. Multip bit screwdriver, including Robertson bits. Multi purpose tool, by Gerber. Spark plug wrench, and extra set of plugs. Monel sizing wire, electrical ties, extra hose clamps for all sized hoses. Tapered plugs for all thru hulls. Rescue tape, duct tape, vinyl electrical tape. One large Cresent wrench, open end wrenches, fitting all bolts on the engine. A large flat blade screw driver (1/2" blade).
Also carry at least two fuel filters, one oil filter and gaskets, oil absorb pads, extra length of fuel hose, and squeeze bulb.
Other emergency gear: 9 x 12 piece of 3 mill clear plastic rolled up. Two space blankets, EPRIB or PLB, hand held VHF, AA battery pack for VHF, Strobe light, flares; day night, whistle, air horn, first aid kit, triangular bandage and towels. Cigarette lighter, 36" square piece of orange plastic, hand held compass, small mapping GPS (Garmin Colorado 400).
What you want for an 18 footer is much different than what is necessary for a 60 footer which crosses oceans:
For my 18 footers, I carry: a good socket set in both SAE and metric, 1/4 and 3/8" drive. A prop nut socket or tool. Long nose pliers, a strap wrench to remove fuel filters, large and small vise grips. Multip bit screwdriver, including Robertson bits. Multi purpose tool, by Gerber. Spark plug wrench, and extra set of plugs. Monel sizing wire, electrical ties, extra hose clamps for all sized hoses. Tapered plugs for all thru hulls. Rescue tape, duct tape, vinyl electrical tape. One large Cresent wrench, open end wrenches, fitting all bolts on the engine. A large flat blade screw driver (1/2" blade).
Also carry at least two fuel filters, one oil filter and gaskets, oil absorb pads, extra length of fuel hose, and squeeze bulb.
Other emergency gear: 9 x 12 piece of 3 mill clear plastic rolled up. Two space blankets, EPRIB or PLB, hand held VHF, AA battery pack for VHF, Strobe light, flares; day night, whistle, air horn, first aid kit, triangular bandage and towels. Cigarette lighter, 36" square piece of orange plastic, hand held compass, small mapping GPS (Garmin Colorado 400).
I have one more to add. Last month I'm out fishing and one of my buddies says there's oil all over the top of the livewell (which was full of gogs). I look around and have no clue where it came from. A few minutes later I'm turning the wheel and notice that a fine spray of steering fluid is pissing out of the hose conecting the two rams. Luckily I had just picked up some silicone repair tape a week before...with a few wire ties I was able to patch it up and keep on fishing.
"All of that" is stored in two "plastic Ammo boxes"--They live under the bow platform. The ditch bag is under the helm seat. The offshore list, includes power tools etc. But for bigger boats.
A tube of Quick Steel has saved me a few times. But the Tow Boat US card beats them all.
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I had an 18 and now have a 21. On both boats I carried pretty much the same tools as Thataway stated in his post, however, after finding out that many of the sockets/wrenches/and other misc. tools didn't fit anything on the boat I paired down my tool kit somewhat and made room for tools that really were necessary on MY particular boat. If you have the room bring the other gadgets for use when helping someone else, but if it doesn't fit anything on your boat why bring it along? Also, having a two stroke I always carry an extra gallon of oil. If the oil injection on the motor ever goes bad I can at least add oil to the fuel to get home.
JollyMonNJ
Tools are good to have, but unless you know how to use them, even one of those 5,000 piece Craftsman sets won't do you much good.
I've built my sets on all my boats through trial and error - I fix anything and everything using the tools on the boat, if something can't be done with a tool in the boat box, whatever I grabbed from the home set (I haven't found anything I couldn't fix with the tools there) gets added to the boat box(es) - not unexpectedly, the set of tools on my bigger boats are more than double the size of those on my 23' & 13'.
My basic set is: 1/4" & 3/8" sockets from 1/4-3/4", combo wrenches 1/4-3/4", open end wrenches 3/8-11/16", pliers (pump, wiring, needlenose), flat & philips drivers (6 total), 8" adjustable wrench, vice grip, hammer, file, box cutter, chisel, punch, strap wrench, folding hex keys & multimeter.
All good suggestions. Also consider electrical system repairs. You may just need a stock of fuses of the right sort. If you have pop fuses you should have a way of bypassing them, but still keeping the circuit fused, when (not if) one of them fails.
My $0.02
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Newburyport, MA
Eastern 35 FB
Door#3
What items need to be in the emergency/tool box for my boat? 
