When a friend bought an 18 foot fishing boat and needed a boat trailer to move it he asked me if I knew anyone that had one that he could borrow. I knew he was asking me if he could borrow one of mine and he also knew I would let him. When I saw the boat he had bought my first impression was whatever he had paid for it, it was too much.  When I looked it over I found the boat was sound, it just looked bad.

I ask him what other stuff did he have to go with the boat and he said “not much”. I thought it would be nice to put a safety box together for him. I knew that would be the last thing he might get for the boat.

I started with a few basic tools: a straight blade screw driver, a cross point screw driver, an ice pick like tool, a hammer, two pliers…a needle nose and regular pliers, an adjustable wrench and a small knife.  By rolling these up in an old towel that had silicone spray on it they would be somewhat protected from rusting and stay dry. In addition to the tools, a role of plastic electrical tape, a package of epoxy, a small length of electric wire, a small length of regular wire, two plastic whistles, a mirror, two wood cone hole plugs to tap into a hull puncture, and a small plastic box with an assortment of screws, bolts, crimp wire connectors, a square of sand paper, matches and a wax candle, and a small flash light. All this stuff went into a large heavy duty zip lock bag (I used a large bag that dog biscuits came in).

Along with the Bag of tools, I gave him an anchor and safety help flag. I told him he needed to get an anchor rope that was at least 100 feet long and enough type II life-jackets for as many people he would have on his boat. I also suggested an extra rope that could be used for what-ever. Two plastic cat litter buckets with snap on lids would hold everything but the anchor. I like to recycle anything I can. With 6 cats, I have an abundance the plastic buckets, and the big dog biscuit bags are great for all sorts of things.

Just for fun, I put a small first aid kit, plastic fork, a can of Spam and a bottle of water in one of the buckets for emergency food and water. 8-)

I tried to put a safety kit together that had the basic and useful items in it that someone could use and might need. The packaging I used was functional for on a boat. You can purchase a commercial boat safety kit and tool kit or put one together yourself. Either way you go, a

basic safety kit for a boat should be a must have on board.

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