Our Sailing Pre-Departure Checklist Before We Head Out To Risk The Sea, Sailboat Interior
Let me guess, you just bought a sailboat?
And you are here because you need to know what needs to be done before you go sailing?
Or you already have a sailboat, but you are unsure how to prepare properly for a sailing trip.
You are in the right place because if you read to the end you will learn how we prepare our boat for any sailing trip, which will, in turn, help you on your boat.
Sailing can be risky business if not properly prepared. So, I’ve taken the time to write out our pre-departure checklist of the things we do on our sailboat before we lift the anchor and set off for the horizon.
I’ve went ahead and separated the checklist into two separate parts for ease of use:
Sailboat Interior
Sailboat Exterior (Another article)
I’m not going to lie, it’s quite the extensive checklist. It’s a lot to remember, so of course, I’ll say it, practice, practice, practice. How are you supposed to improve your already sick skills without it? Practice this checklist every time you go sailing and before you know it, it will all become secondhand nature.
Now that I've warned you, let’s go ahead and jump right into it. Also, figured I’d mention, there’s really no particular reason for the way this checklist is ordered, just as long as they all get done.
Side Note: The information you find below is subjective to our sailboat, Agápe, a 1988 Bayfield 32C. This is our checklist we use for our boat. Every boat is different, so make sure if there are any major differences, you add those on to this checklist. Our boat has no hydraulic systems on board and these systems will not be mentioned in this article. So just be aware, if you have hydraulic systems, that should definitely be a part of what you check before you leave.
Sailboat Interior
This section of the checklist describes what needs to be done on the inside of your sailboat before you go sailing. I’ve listed the whole checklist in the beginning so you can jump directly to a certain part of the checklist if you need to and for those of you that need the whole checklist described in detail, keep scrolling to get to the good stuff.
Diesel Engine
a. Motor Oil
b. Transmission Oil
c. Antifreeze
d. Air Filter
e. Check Bolts
f. Hoses / Wet Exhaust
g. Fuel
Pack Up & Strap Down
Check Bilge
Stow Table
Unlatch Gimballed Stove
Stow Valuables
Charge Electronics
Charge Battery Bank
Check Weather
Close Unused Seacocks
Feed Crew
1. Diesel Engine
Everything about your engine needs to be checked to optimize your motor’s capabilities and to prevent motor failures.
Ok, like I said before, there’s no particular order this list needs to be completed, but I can give you this, the engine is the #1, most important step in the whole checklist. So basically, don’t skip this most valued step when preparing your boat to go sailing.
There’s a lot of things going on with the engine, so it’s important to take it seriously and take good care of it now to prevent problems down the road.
Side Note: Our sailboat, Agápe, is equipped with a Yanmar 3GM30F diesel engine and a Kanzaki transmission
a. Motor Oil
Diesel engines are thirsty, so it’s vitally important to check your oil levels in your motor regularly. We personally burn close to a quart per long passage (10-12hrs run time).
You don’t want to burn up the rings in your pistons or anything else for that matter. So, this is a very important step in the checklist.
For this step, you are going to need the oil you’ll be using, a perfectly sized funnel and an oil mop to wipe up.
Depending on where your boat is located, you might want to consider using different motor oils.
Because our boat is located in South Florida, in hot climates, we can use Shell Rotella SAE 30.
There are so many different types of oils to choose from, but our favorite brand is Shell Rotella.
If our boat was in a colder climate, we would use a multi viscosity blend such as Shell Rotella 15W-40.
The multi viscosity blends are great when first cranking your engine in cooler climates. They offer a thinner blend of oil than straight 30, making it easier to start your engine on those brisk days.
Side Note: If you don’t know which oil is best for your engine, I highly suggest pulling out the ole engine manual. Those things hold a ton of great information, including which oil is best for your specific motor.
b. Transmission Oil
This step is the same as checking your motor oil, but you’ll be checking the oil levels in your transmission. We use Shell Rotella SAE 30 oil for our transmission. Most transmissions can and do use straight 30 weight oil.
Again, if you are unsure of the oil to use in your transmission, refer to your user manual to see what the manufacturer suggests.
You don’t want to wear your gears out, causing your transmission to slip. So make sure you regularly check your transmission oil levels to prevent any unnecessary extra wear and tear.
c. Antifreeze
We have the Yanmar 3GM30F. Because we have the “F model”, which means we have a dual-cooling motor, we have an open (sea water) and closed (antifreeze) system.
This step may not apply to your motor. If your motor has a closed system and uses antifreeze, then this section will apply to you.
Before every trip we check the antifreeze levels in the engine as well. It's usually not something that needs to be filled too often, but just get in the habit of checking it anyways.
We use Shell Rotella ELC Nitrite Free Coolant in our diesel engine to help protect the motor from corrosion and overheating.
If you’re like us, it’s when we don’t check something that we should’ve checked, is when that something usually breaks.
So, just keep checking your motor all the time.
d. Air Filter
Again, not super often does your air filter have to be changed, but if you don’t check, how will you know if you needed to?
If your filter is super clogged (super black), it’s probably time to change to a new filter.
This is the air filter we use for our Yanmar 3GM30F.
Unless you have the same motor as us, you’ll have to pull the manual out again for your engine and figure out which filter you need.
It’s a good idea to always have a couple extra air filters on board.
e. Check Bolts
Make sure you check all bolts everywhere on your motor. When you run your motor, it causes a certain amount of vibrations throughout the whole boat. Which can and will cause bolts on your motor to start backing out of their housing.
I know it sounds crazy, but it’s happened to us a few different times. Where important bolts in various locations have backed out and we would’ve never known had we not inspected our motor thoroughly.
Make sure at some point you go through your engine and add Loctite on all of your bolts. It will help them from backing out and it’s what we use now. Of course after learning important lessons.
Even after adding Loctite to all bolts on our motor, we still check all bolts before heading out to sea.
Just please check anyways, because you want to make sure your shaft doesn’t almost back off coupling to transmission like ours did. Two of four bolts had backed out of the coupling holding the shaft and we had no knowledge of it.
It was a great thing we checked or else that trip could’ve ended in disaster.
f. Hoses / Wet Exhaust
Check all of your hoses on your motor and your wet exhaust system. This just needs a quick look to make sure there are no leaks or cracks in your hoses.
While you’re checking your hoses, take a look at your wet exhaust system. Including hoses and exhaust elbow to make sure nothing is separating from where it’s supposed to be like ours did on a 20hr offshore trip.
It allowed all water cooling the motor to empty in our bilge instead of out the boat. Of course while the motor was running. There was a lot of water.
So learn from our mistakes and just check everything back there before you leave to be sure and safe.
g. Fuel
Check your fuel! Never run your diesel motor out of fuel.
I’m going to say it, just get in the habit of checking your fuel levels often.
You do not want to deal with the debacle that will happen if you run your diesel out of fuel. It’s a headache, a nightmare really.
You certainly don’t want to be bleeding your fuel system while out to sea or anytime really.
However, if you ever have to, make sure you have one of these extractor syringes on board to bleed your fuel system if ever necessary.
Phew! That pretty much sums up the checklist for our diesel engine. Now, remember to always check your motor before you leave to go on a sailing trip. You can even check on it when you arrive after your sailing trip.
2. Pack Up & Strap Down
Like Jerry Garcia says, it’s time to pack up the stuff and go.
I know when at anchor or tied to a dock, we all have stuff we leave out because well, it’s our home. But nine times out of ten, that stuff can’t stay out.
Side Note: a good rule of thumb when deciding what needs to be stowed away, if it can fall over it certainly will.
So, make sure you have a place for everything and everything has a place.
Certain things need to be strapped in, like our microwave. I want to add a strap to hold stuff on our settees. We don’t have one yet, but we will.
Side Note: We also have a strap in the galley, so whoever is cooking while underway doesn’t get knocked over if we’re heeled over.
Make sure everything you don’t want falling over is put away and/or strapped in. If you don’t, you’ll have a fun mess to clean up when you get into port from your rolliest sailing trip yet.
It’s not only to avoid the mess, it’s mainly for safety purposes. You don’t want to be tripping over stuff when you need to go down below. It’s happened to me, it’s happened to Bobby. It’s probably happened to many, many sailors. You’ll end up walking down stairs and you’ll get pitched on the other side of the boat because of that one thing you didn’t put up. We don’t want anyone getting hurt.
3. Check Bilge
It’s very important you check your bilge before you risk sailing in open water. This is your safety net to be able to empty water out of your boat, if you happen to ever take on water while in open water.
Shoot, our very last offshore passage, we were taking on water for most of the trip. So, had our bilge pump not been working, we would have been f****d (excuse my French).
So just run the bilge pump and make sure it’s working. Lift your float to see if it’s working too. If either of them is not working, I am going to suggest you fix the problem BEFORE you leave to go sailing. This is the bilge pump we use.
With that said, I will then tell you, you can still leave if your float is not working and you can manually run your bilge pump. But ONLY if your bilge pump is working and you will regularly check your bilge while underway and empty any existing water before you leave.
The last thing you want to do is sink your boat. So just keep the bilge pump running properly and you won’t have to worry too much.
4. Stow Table
Depending on the layout of your boat, you’ll most likely want to put your table in the salon away. We have a wall mounted, foldable table in our sailboat. We actually have a bookshelf behind the table.
We could leave it down if we wanted to, but we prefer to keep it stowed away and out of the way. It also adds protection to the stuff in our bookshelf.
Having your table up gives you more room to move about the boat as you need to. We also like to expand our starboard settee into a big double bed and can only accomplish this when the table is up.
By doing this, it provides more comfort while on longer passages. Because it’s just Bobby and I, and we like to be able to hear one another when one of us is sleeping. Safety 101.
Different boats have different tables. If you have a big U-shaped settee, it would make no difference whether it was up or down. Unless, of course, you could make a bed in place of the table, in which case, you know what I would choose.
This is one of the steps that is purely based around what you are comfortable with. I mention it only because it’s on our checklist and what we do for our comforts on our sailboat.
5. Unlatch Gimballed Stove
If you have enough storage for all of your pots and pans, great, but if you’re like me, where you don’t have enough storage, then storing a couple pots on your stove while underway is the best option.
You first have to unlatch your gimballed stove for this to work properly. After you’ve done that, your stove is now able to swing back and forth freely while keeping the stovetop level.
I put two pots on my stovetop, unlatch the stove and I don't have to worry about the pots falling off no matter how heeled over the boat gets.
Again, this isn’t just for storage purposes. It also allows you to cook while underway without throwing hot food all over the boat. So, utilize the tools you have on your boat and you’ll be surprised at how well the gimballed stoves work while out to sea.
6. Stow Valuables
I know I already have a whole section above about putting your stuff away, but I’m mentioning it again in more detail because these are your most prized possessions we’re talking about here.
Put your valuables somewhere safe. On our sailboat we have to make sure our camera equipment and computer are put up somewhere they can’t fall and break or get wet.
We use this Apache Weatherproof Case to store our electronics in. It’s very similar to the infamous Pelican Box. This case, yes, while kind of bulky, it’s seriously a life saver. It’s a shockproof, waterproof, and an airtight hard case specifically for camera gear among a few other uses.
If you have valuables that you don’t want getting wet, broken, or any other disaster to happen, then consider getting one of those cases. If that’s not for you, then at the very least, put your valuables in the driest, safest spot possible on the boat.
7. Charge Electronics
We have a ton of rechargeable items on board because we refuse to have anything battery powered. So our list is long and we usually have to start charging everything 2-3 days before departure.
The reason we do this is because once you lift your anchor or untie your lines, you never know if something will cause you to become powerless while underway.
I never hope for bad situations like this, but you have to prepare yourself for the worst, just in case. Your vessel could lose power while at sea for a plethora of reasons I won’t name here.
The point is, there is a possibility you need to save whatever power you do have left to try and start the engine. So, we make sure everything that needs to be charged is fully charged before we leave so we don’t have to use our precious power while underway for a rechargeable light.
Side Note: We don’t allow batteries on our boat. No AAs or D batteries on this vessel. Everything we own can be recharged by a USB cable. Batteries start getting really expensive after a while and they don’t last for nothing. So, we learned investing in rechargeable things is so, so worth the money.
I’ve listed below the things we remember to charge before we leave.
Rechargeable Lights
If you don’t have any rechargeable lights on board, I highly suggest you get some. These are the lights we use on our boat.
Dr. Prepare LED Swivel Light - We use this light almost every day. We have been super impressed with it.
Waterproof Pen Light - Bobby carries this in his pocket most of the time. It’s a great light when you need eyes on something small.
Coast Head Lamp - You can’t go sailing with one of these headlamps. It’s perfect when you need both hands to work on something, but you also need light.
Luci Solar Powered Lights - This light is the most amazing invention ever, hands down. Blow up, portable, solar lights. Genius. We have 3 on board currently.
Rechargeable Handheld VHF Radios
Camera Gear
Camera Batteries
Mic (named Jim) - Deity V-Mic D3 Pro
Laptop - Apple MacBook Pro
Phones
Speakers
You know us, we have to have the tunes, the sweet sounds of love on the boat at all times. These are the speakers we use.
JBL Clip3 - This is a great little waterproof, portable speaker to take with us on dinghy rides and all over really
JBL Charge4 - This is the big one that we use on the back of the boat, driving or sitting put. We love this speaker.
JBL Tune 125WS - Love these wireless headphones, I can’t hear anything with them on. It’s perfect.
All products listed here are tested and proved by us to be a great product. We learned the hard way, batteries are expensive, they don’t last, and they tend to leak battery acid. At this point, we don’t even waste our time. Rechargeable all the way!
8. Top Off Battery Bank
Again, you might want to start on this a few days ahead of leaving on your sailboat. We do this for a multitude of reasons, but the most important is because starting your trip off with strong batteries saves yourself a ton of stress.
Yes, we have solar and yes, we can charge our batteries with our alternator on the motor, but you don’t want to start your trip catching up.
We use a small 2200W Predator generator while at anchor, but we put it up while underway, so it’s only if we were 100% in dire need of it would we pull it out while boating.
9. Check Weather Thoroughly
This is a very important step in this checklist. Safety first. Check once, check twice, you honestly couldn’t check enough before you leave on your trip.
This could literally be a life or death decision. Not trying to scare you, only trying to create awareness about weather and how serious it really is.
There is too much technology these days to not have your trip planned around weather. That is sailing in a nutshell. You will be sailing around bad weather during good weather windows.
We use everything we can use that is available that we know about.
Specifically:
Predict Wind - If you subscribe to their weather forecasts, they give you the best routes for your trip, based on weather, highly suggest having this, it’s worth every penny.
Windy
NOAA
Local weather radar
Local weather forcast
Weather beacon buoys on our route
VHF daily weather update
When it comes to this subject, utilize all of your resources that you know of. Take it seriously. Really get good at reading all sectors of weather and sea conditions. As a sailor, you will never regret learning about the weather.
10. Close Unused Seacocks
We may or may not do this step. It really depends on how rough the sea state is going to be. If it’s not rough at all, we tend to leave the seacocks open.
Side Note: It’s a good idea to #1 know how many seacocks are in your boat and #2 where they all are.
For our boat, when it’s rough out, our sink in the head starts spewing sea water from the drain. So, we tend to at least close this one and use the galley sink while underway. Some people close their seacock to their toilet, but we don’t have to do this one.
Figure out which seacocks allow water into the boat while underway and close those ones in your boat. Every boat usually has one in rough weather that allows water to come in.
Side Note: Never close your seacock to the motor, unless you are taking on water there and don’t plan on using your motor.
11. Feed the Crew
Make sure all crew members eat food before you even lift the anchor (or untie the lines). Too many times, Bobby and I have left on a trip and we’ve forgotten to eat beforehand. Sure I can cook underway, but by eating beforehand it makes sure your crew is fed and ready for whatever the sea is planning.
Honestly, when we first leave, we’re too excited to eat. By the time we realize, it’s often too late. We end up hangry, irritable, and one time, I even felt extremely nauseated and I never get sea sick.
So, just make a habit of feeding you and your crew before you leave on a sailing trip.
This marks the completion of the interior section of our sailing pre-departure checklist. Don’t worry, like I said before, all of this will become second hand nature sooner than you realize.
Please continue reading part 2 (sailboat exterior) of this checklist in the next article: Our Sailing Pre-Departure Checklist Before We Head Out To Risk The Sea, Sailboat Exterior
Please feel free to add anything you do differently or that you’ve added to your checklist in the comments below and please share this article with your boating friends.
Fair winds & calm seas my friends.
Peace & Love,
✌️❤️⛵️
Nikki
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