Hi!
I’m with Dustoff on this…
What are you’re doing and who you’re doing it with will determine what you’re gonna need.
Basics start with all the required USCG require nta for a 26 ft vessel. After that are a valid First Aid Kit and the knowledge of how to use it.
Next would be basic emergency water, medications and food stuffs that you don’t need to cook and sufficient bottled water for the number expected to be aboard for a reasonable time frame (which goes back to how you will use your boat) so no one gets dehydrated or blood sugar level issues, especially if anyone has diabetes or is pre-diabetic or heart medications etc…
If on populated waters within cell phone range a TowBoat membership takes care of getting you back to the ramp to haul out and repair at home for anything serious. Minor stuff one of those hand tool kits suffices for tools. A Duct tape or Flex Seal tape roll is not a bad idea. I like to have a tube of stick water epoxy on board but we get a bit farther afield. I like to keep the general boat stuff aboard but I could just as easily leave it home if I needed to save space… I just like/need to putter around when I have idle time.
Comfortable folding cushion seats for the anticipated number of passengers that can still tuck away when not in use is a nice creature comfort but things can be shared to save space.
A Porto-let, flush water filled and spare sanitation tablets. Toilet paper and spare roll, Hand sanitizer and a pack of fresh wipes to freshen up/clean-up.
Extra LED headlamp and two sets of spare batteries.
An appropriate anchor with at least 150 ft of twisted three strand anchor line.
Four boat lines sufficient to adequately tie up and sufficient fenders for both sides.
A spare 50 ft line just in case
A spare blanket in addition to planned sleeping gear.
A plastic “police” or “coach” whistle which is a lot more effective than shouting or fumbling around for an air horn (on my experience). You wear it on a lanyard
A small table top LED lantern is nice (along with two spare sets of batteries)
A can & bottle opener , paper or plastic plates and eating utensils of your choice
I prefer to keep a multi tool &/or a sharp “Swiss Army” type knife on a lanyard handy hanging up in the cabin
A box of tissues and a roll of paper towels
I prefer and have installed 3 electric bilge pumps on circuit breakers. They will work better, faster, more effectively than solely relying upon a manual hand pump plus they will work automatically while freeing up me to deal with the issue(s) that made them come on in the first place. They are a problem mitigation tool to buy time to take appropriate action. They are much more effective than any hand pumping. (Note: The Mac26X has three primary bilge areas… port & starboard outside the ballast transfer tubes and center between the transfer tubes.)
We keep our boat in a seasonal slip and find having a good battery chargers on board helps keep the batteries topped up. We also have a small wet/dry vacuum to clean-up as wet as to suck up any trace water in the bilges the sump pumps don’t get.
We find having a dual switchable battery system is useful and gives some backup capability if used properly.
A cell phone charging outlet and charging adapter and appropriate cable are quite useful.
A secondary fire suppression extinguisher is also beneficial. To be effective any extinguisher must be in sight and readily avialable at all times… when it’s needed there is NO TIME to be fumbling around remembering where it is and digging it out.
We like to carry ginger chews to help prevent/mitigate sea sickness as well as some hard candies to enjoy.
A selection of various size ziplock bags always seem to come in handy. A couple plastic grocery bags as garbage bags help keep things nice and tidy with not much space required. The can be tied shut, stored and are easily carried to where they can be properly disposed of.
We have been using a thermonic cooler for several years that can run on shore power (via an adapter) or on 12 volt power while the engine is running. It holds the cold very well and essential eliminates the need to bring/buy ice cubes for a regular cooler.
We also switched over all our onboard electrical systems to reset-able circuit breakers which eliminates needing any spare fuses and the awkwardness of finding and replacing blown fuses.
Some type of pillows that can be used for support as well as sleeping are handy to have. One per person staying on board is generally sufficient.
A good easily used and read current chart, an appropriate compass are baseline for navigation. A pair of good small binoculars helps too!
If you can afford it a good marine grade GPS with the current chart chip for your area is nice to have… often you can get a combination unit that includes a sonar transponder for depth and bottom information if you like.
A good VHF radio system can be very helpful when needed.
If you keep on top of your space management and organizational skills this isn’t all that hard to accomplish…. Again this all depends upon how you will be actually using your boat.
We use a variety of lock lid clear sided bins set from Huffy or Lowe’s that have a somewhat common format so the various sizes work together. We modified or galley to allow us to use 6 open top bins for the most commonly used items.
Hope this helps….
Best Regards
Over Easy
