outfitting a SIB: need to have/nice to have

[tehschkott]

What would you consider a good general purpose kit for outfitting a small 10ft SIB for semi-open water operation? (Seattle/Puget Sound - coast running or Sound jumping)

I'm trying to common-sense it out but I have no experience here. Below is what I have, what do you think is missing or excess?

Mechanical / Utility:
Manual bilge pump
Hypalon repair kit
Small tool kit
Anchor - 2.6kg Bruce, 6ft chain, 200ft line
2x Oars
Small foot pump
Extendable boat hook
Crappy battery powered nav lights front (red/green) and rear (white)
Launch wheels

Navigation:
Hand compass
iPhone/iPad with Navionics and Memory Map in waterproof case

Radio:
VHF Body Radio
Spare AA/AAA batteries

Rescue/First Aid:
Air Horn
Spare PFD
Sunscreen
Emergency rope throw-bag
2x bottles water
Small first aid kit

Engine: 9.9hp Evinrude
6x Gal Dinghymate transom mounted fuel tank
3x Gal reserve
2 cycle oil

As stated, this is in the Seattle/Puget Sound area. Some fishing will be done with it but it will largely be used for transport. Feels like this boat is a little small for what I would like to ultimately do (diving/camping), but thought it'd be a good starter boat that fit my budget while I learned the lines. (see what I did there?)

This is my first season/first boat - 10ft Achilles SIB with a 10hp motor - details posted in a few threads now, sorry for the repeat.

[willk]

Have a read at this.

You seem to have a very large amount of fuel

[tehschkott]

Oh that's perfect - thank you. Searched but missed that somehow.

Yeah, you can lose a lot of fuel crossing the Puget Sound, noodling around for a weekend and then the trip back.

[Pottsy]

Dont see any flares on your list!!!

[SR4]

Electrical spares kit, fuses, some wire, connectors e.t.c. a fire extinguisher, spare clothing (dependent on weather)

[EnglishLes]

Some high energy bars in case you need to use the oars or keep warm.

[captnjack]

9 gallons of fuel is ALOT for a 9.9hp. 6gals is plenty IMHO. That's like 30+miles of use. Instead of all that extra fuel bring $20 to refill in a pinch.
I only carry 12gals for my 60hp 4 stroke, roughly enough for 80miles round trip.

Honestly I would skip the throw bag. On a boat as small as yours its not really needed. In a pinch tie a mooring line to your spare pfd and drive a circle around your overboard passenger.

Add a chartplotting handheld GPS

[captnjack]

Originally Posted by SR4

Electrical spares kit, fuses, some wire, connectors e.t.c. a fire extinguisher, spare clothing (dependent on weather)

A fire extinguisher is not required on a boat this small of open construction. For good reason, if anything small is on fire throw it overboard. If its at all large its going to melt the tubes in a second and you'll be in the water. Its a pointless item to bring along and have rattling around in a 10ft SIB.

[tehschkott]

Originally Posted by captnjack

9 gallons of fuel is ALOT for a 9.9hp. 6gals is plenty IMHO. That's like 30+miles of use. Instead of all that extra fuel bring $20 to refill in a pinch.
I only carry 12gals for my 60hp 4 stroke, roughly enough for 80miles round trip.

Honestly I would skip the throw bag. On a boat as small as yours its not really needed. In a pinch tie a mooring line to your spare pfd and drive a circle around your overboard passenger.

Add a chartplotting handheld GPS

Good to know. This is a 2 stroke with two people and a light camping load (we're experienced bicyclists/tourers and our pack won't be much different on boat). I'm lead to believe I get an hour a gallon per 10hp under good conditions. 9 gal = 9 hours travel doesn't sound like much from here - Fri thru Sunday, but I want to believe you're right, that it's overkill.

Example: This weekend we're leaving the Duwamish and heading to Blake Island. That's a little over 10 miles one way, 20 miles round trip, plus whatever noodling around happens. I don't know if I can refuel on Blake but I assume not.

Throw bag is about the size of a pineapple but if there's space to be made it'll go. Good idea.

Chart plotting - right now was going to use iPhone with GPS module and Navionics/Memory Map. Planned to throw a laminated real map and compass somewhere in the kit for backup.

[captnjack]

There's no fuel dock at Blake Island. But on 6 gals you could go out there, around it 20+ times and get back to Alki/Duwamish area no problem. I'm all for carrying spares/extras and using the "rule of thirds"for fuel. But I suspect you'll use about 2.5 gallons for the weekend.

The nearest fuel dock is in Eagle Harbor or Port Orchard/Bremerton. This is not a great book afloat, but a good resource for trip planning at home even though its yachty oriented. What
A new one comes out every year with updated phone numbers etc. but you can do fine getting one every few years.

[Max...]

See willk's discussion/link above for a huge discussion on what kit to carry - he's too modest to sticky it himself but we could ask Polwart if he would do it for him...

[azzurro]

Originally Posted by captnjack

A fire extinguisher is not required on a boat this small of open construction. For good reason, if anything small is on fire throw it overboard. If its at all large its going to melt the tubes in a second and you'll be in the water. Its a pointless item to bring along and have rattling around in a 10ft SIB.

Mmm I agree. Here in Spain it is the only mandatory kit I do not take in my boat.
But you cannot throw overboard a burning engine, can you? A hot outboard, a broken gas pipe and gas is a bad mix.

[m chappelow]

Just wondering how many small outboards actually catch fire , I can understand electrical fittings such as starter / battery's wiring shorting out perhaps but on manual start outboards I think the chances of an engine fire are very rare let's face it unless there's fuel leaking out and you have a naked flame lit , if your engine gets on fire the last thing I would want to do would be to lift the hood to squirt the extinguisher into it , I think most boat fires are cruiser cabin types with cooking facility's or inboard engines .
And if your flare pack ignites a fire extinguisher would be useless anyhow
I used to carry a small powder one but looking at the few seconds that it would last it would have to be a good first hit .

[SR4]

Originally Posted by captnjack

A fire extinguisher is not required on a boat this small of open construction. For good reason, if anything small is on fire throw it overboard. If its at all large its going to melt the tubes in a second and you'll be in the water. Its a pointless item to bring along and have rattling around in a 10ft SIB.

In the UK as a mariner you have a duty to help others in distress, I have just fitted a fire extinguisher on my boat, only a small one, but I have a lot of electronics, 2 x 25ltr petrol tanks, a small spark from a battery terminal and fuel vapour and you just never know, my biggest fear is fire on a boat whether the RIB or mother ship, I have all defences I feel appropriate in place. If I saw another boat on fire with a person on board who could not be bothered to buy one, hopefully I could let them use mine in order to fight the fire, obviously depends on the fire but without getting into sillly arguments I think you know what I mean

[willk]

OP - my 9.8hp 2S runs Wide Open Throttle at about 4.5L/hour (1.2USG) and a 25Nm day out for me comes in at 2.5USG. However, that is one up with no camping gear. The big issue as I see it is will your rig get on the plane with all that load in it. If you don't, then you're in bother, if it does you're still going to be running at high revs all day. Either way, your fuel consumption is going to be higher than mine. However, IIWY, I'd look hard at the load and space on that SIB and maybe try it out somewhere when the outcome isn't important (so no pressure to continue). A small boat like that won't handle much by way of waves when loaded and you may find that you feel happier sitting in the boat, rather than on the tubes. I appreciate that mine is a little smaller, but I'm just saying...

[willk]

10" SIBs (aka Tenders ) generally don't carry a fire extinguisher. There isn't a lot of firefighting deck space on a SIB. I considered the "fire under the hood" scenario and have decided that in such an event I would:

Kill the OB
Wet my hat and block the air intake on the OB
CAREFULLY remove the fuel line
Wet a fleece and wrap the OB
Get on the VHF

I certainly would NOT remove the cover of a burning outboard to play around with a mickey mouse fire extinguisher

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by willk

I considered the "fire under the hood" scenario and have decided that in such an event I would:

Unspin the clamps and flip the f'ker overboard.

Give it a few mins, haul it back out on the lanyard and call it lots of rude names.

[willk]

If the situation allowed for it - certainly. However, my lanyard purposefully doesn't allow the bracket to clear the transom, so it would have to be "Sayonara Waaay-haaay Toohotsue"

[Poly]

Originally Posted by SR4

Electrical spares kit, fuses, some wire, connectors e.t.c. a fire extinguisher, spare clothing (dependent on weather)

Not only is a fire extinguisher pretty pointless on a SIB, but since he doesn't have any electrickery he doesn't really need spares. The only fuse on his outboard (if any) will normally have a spare sitting right beside it. I guess you could offer it as part of your damsel in distress kit... ...on 10ft boat probably best to leave it to someone else.

Originally Posted by tehschkott

I'm lead to believe I get an hour a gallon per 10hp under good conditions. 9 gal = 9 hours travel doesn't sound like much from here - Fri thru Sunday, but I want to believe you're right, that it's overkill.

that should be your worst rather than your best conditions. 9 hours, even over an entire weekend is quite a long time in a blow up boat. You could easily cover 100 miles in that time.

Example: This weekend we're leaving the Duwamish and heading to Blake Island. That's a little over 10 miles one way, 20 miles round trip, plus whatever noodling around happens. I don't know if I can refuel on Blake but I assume not.

With 9 hours of fuel you could do that trip at 3 knots and still have spare!

Chart plotting - right now was going to use iPhone with GPS module and Navionics/Memory Map. Planned to throw a laminated real map and compass somewhere in the kit for backup.

Make sure you pack some sort of 'reserve' power as an iPhone will never last 9 hours using the GPS and screen continuously.

Originally Posted by azzurro

Mmm I agree. Here in Spain it is the only mandatory kit I do not take in my boat. But you cannot throw overboard a burning engine, can you? A hot outboard, a broken gas pipe and gas is a bad mix.

You might be able to - but a fire that can't be put out using the willk method might be the only time worth abandoning ship. Certainly, even a reasonably large (2kg), dry powder cylinder isn't going to fare much better even in very light winds.

Originally Posted by SR4

In the UK as a mariner you have a duty to help others in distress,

to save life not to carry tools and equipment to save them - you've presumably never used a small dry powder extinguisher if you think there is a realistic prospect of someone being in need of help, getting your attention, you getting to them and deploying it before it has become way too serious for what you have.
[quote[ a small spark from a battery terminal and fuel vapour and you just never know, [/quote] spark + fuel vapour = bang not something you can put out with coke bottle sized extinguisher. Electrical wiring is probably the only thing it will be much use for.

[m chappelow]

The having a duty to respond and act to someone in distress in the uk is a fair point as long as your not putting your own boat and crew at risk ,
About 20 years ago a local fishing party boat with 11 persons onboard sank in moments about 3 miles off shore , 100 yards away my mate in his 15 ft grp day boat along with his 2 young children with him a 4 and 7 y/o , heard cries for help ,
As soon as he gets along side them and as no one is wearing lifejackets he gets everyone trying to clamber aboard , lucky for him no one had the energy to climb aboard but hang on until the pilot cutter came along side to recover them .

Even though lifeboats and crews are trained in firefighting and the larger boats carry a fire hose don't expect them to start fighting fire on your boat (thats if the lifeboat gets on fire ) that stopped in the early 1990 s. .