Prepper Boat Thread

[SetsunaSails]

I was thinking of something for a spare battery bank. Potentially running from inside. Yeah all the wiring should be copper plated. I too worry more about my neighbors going crazy then a icbm. Still more likely in any even to have zombies then any other option lol

[Keelhauler]

I find it amazing how a seemingly simple question about prepping your sailboat for survival in case SHT. Turns into a global nuclear war. Unless your a cockroach you won’t survive. At the present time your biggest worry is civil unrest. To escape that, a well prepared cruising sailboat is your vey best option. Holding up on land in a bunker or house can be overtaken. A sailboat is easier to defend as you will always be on the move. Additionally if your a 100+ miles offshore you will most likely not run into any trouble. If your boat has solar, wind turbine, and a water maker then your will be pretty set. The ocean is your bounty. The more you learn about it, the better off you will be. I speak to you as a 38 year Vet that has fought in every campaign since Granada. Trust me when I say No One wants a Nuclear War. Except for maybe The the fat kid Kim. Oh and by the way! An EMP detention at 25 miles up has a radius of 440 miles. Again if your on the ocean chances are you won’t be affected.

Guns - A Ruger 10/22 stainless takedown. It compact lots of fire power, ammunition is affordable and you can carry a lot while taking up little space. But then again this a matter of opinion.

Food - we have invested in a freeze dryer. You can freeze dry any food except for fatty meat. Meat will need to be trimmed of all fat. Freeze dried food can last for years, light weight and takes up less storage space.

Fishing - Get with a proffesional saltwater fisherman. They will provide you with tricks of the trade to help you set up what gear you need.

Otherwise read the treads on Cruiser Forum as there is a ton of info on setting up your Sailboat. Have fun and best of luck.

[goboatingnow]

How anyone can think the sea is a refuge for more then a couple of days is beyond me.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

How anyone can think the sea is a refuge for more then a couple of days is beyond me.

Or explain to me how you machine spare parts for your water maker pump 50 miles offshore !!!

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

How anyone can think the sea is a refuge for more then a couple of days is beyond me.

Really? Also considering you can sail into uninhabited archipelagos or even the banks of the Bahamas with thousands of islands and hardly any population?

We’re at anchor now, fully provisioned for 6 months which can be stretched out to years with fishing, hunting and gathering.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

How anyone can think the sea is a refuge for more then a couple of days is beyond me.

Read the thread all the way .
I'm sure I posted a link to the book sailing the farm. It spells it out quite well in plain English and it includes many pictures and diagrams for a " Waterworld " happy life.

Search sailfarm.pdf
This one does an instant download

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...SbNqBjfN8yQzAa

Or you could just go to the second post in the thread.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Or explain to me how you machine spare parts for your water maker pump 50 miles offshore !!!

Make your own desalination plant from available materials.

See above post

[Cannasail]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Read the thread all the way .
I'm sure I posted a link to the book sailing the farm. It spells it out quite well in plain English and it includes many pictures and diagrams for a " Waterworld " happy life.

Search sailfarm.pdf
This one does an instant download

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...SbNqBjfN8yQzAa

Or you could just go to the second post in the thread.

Brilliant. Thank you for this.

[owly]

Somehow I just discovered this thread! My criteria for a "bug out boat" or any live aboard is first that it be a multihull...and unsinkable. The two go together, and the reduced rolling and huge deck space make being productive at sea possible, and a deck pod or bridge deck cabin mean you can be at a level where you can see around you at all times. it means you can keep watch in the worst weather without the issues of exposure. I don't have to prove to anybody how tough I am....I did that long ago! It must have enough payload capacity for long term, and that rules out trimarans. I would build an onboard workshop in the port hull opposite the galley in the stbd hull. Probably do most cooking above though. Watermaker is essential, and would be home built with spares aboard. Human power is clearly possible for the WM. A biplane junk rig is the only rig I would consider. The minimal hardware... no winches, no traveler, vang, sail track, furling gear, or any of the expensive parts of a Bermuda rig, extremely low stresses on sailcloth, lack of any standing rigging, light sheet loading, virtually no deck work, all point to this rig as the best for a prepper. It may not be the fastest sailing upwind, but outperforms on any point of sail from beam aft..... "Gentlemen don't sail to weather".
The key is to keep things as simple as possible.... standing rigging is a veritable house of cards, and the sails in a Bermuda rig are highly stressed, a tear propagates and destroys the whole sail. I would make my sail in individual panels between the battens, each laced in place so I could easily replace one. Two shorter masts may not capture as much wind or provide as much speed, but they reduce your vulnerability to capsize, keep your profile lower (less visibility and greater stability), have some redundancy, and are more easily replaced from local materials.

The best defensive weapons are electricity.... against boarders, bear spray, and a PCP air rifle capable of propelling a projectile at around 1000 FPS with no powder, etc, and very cheap pellets or lead slugs. Mine will get about 30 shots to the charge, that requires about 50 strokes of my stainless steel 3000 psi hand pump.
I do all my gardening using hydroponics..... Jacks is cheap and goes a LONG way. It is much preferable to soil in many ways. I often use cheap dollar store foam sponge... the kind with an abrasive on one side (which I tear off). It doesn't degrade and is not subject to moss growth like rock wool.
Lithium batteries and several ways to charge them are a good up front investment. Avoid using electricity any more than necessary... charge/discharge cycles = battery life.

A tablet is a valuable tool for storing information, for navigation, and for just idle reading. Vast amounts of data can be stored on a tablet and/or an auxiliary storage device. It can stand in for a laptop for most of the things that matter.... you won't be operating a utube channel ;-) Several of them would be good insurance, and with

Android tabs that is realistic. My Ipad is reaching end of battery life. I will replace the battery at home after backing up critical stuff.......... I would carry several of these inexpensive replacements in an SHTF, because this is my "library". Download everything you can because it will NOT be available after SHTF. One or several small devices can take the place of many volumes of books and piles of charts.
A vacuum sealing device is invaluable. It will protect important items from salt air and corrosion, from tools to seed, to foods to clothing. It's a non negotiable item in my book. Foodsaver makes rigid polycarbonate containers... It would be nice if they were larger, but they ARE reusable. Spares will go in foodsaver bags to keep them dry and protected.
GPS will go down, so expect nav equipment to let you down. If your chart plotter equipment is not capable of operating without a GPS input, you are royally SCREWED. Learn to use a sextant (not a sex tent). Printers are notoriously unreliable. The only printer I would trust is a laser printer, but it would have to be protected from salt air somehow... vac chamber? Paper charts are best. Can you enter a sextant derived location into an electronic chart? We will lose electronics eventually anyway, but with care they could serve us for many years.


At my age, I can expect to keep modern toys alive for most of the rest of my life with some planning and care.......... your mileage may vary.





I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by owly

Somehow I just discovered this thread! My criteria for a "bug out boat" or any live aboard is first that it be a multihull...and unsinkable. The two go together, and the reduced rolling and huge deck space make being productive at sea possible, and a deck pod or bridge deck cabin mean you can be at a level where you can see around you at all times. it means you can keep watch in the worst weather without the issues of exposure. I don't have to prove to anybody how tough I am....I did that long ago! It must have enough payload capacity for long term, and that rules out trimarans. I would build an onboard workshop in the port hull opposite the galley in the stbd hull. Probably do most cooking above though. Watermaker is essential, and would be home built with spares aboard. Human power is clearly possible for the WM. A biplane junk rig is the only rig I would consider. The minimal hardware... no winches, no traveler, vang, sail track, furling gear, or any of the expensive parts of a Bermuda rig, extremely low stresses on sailcloth, lack of any standing rigging, light sheet loading, virtually no deck work, all point to this rig as the best for a prepper. It may not be the fastest sailing upwind, but outperforms on any point of sail from beam aft..... "Gentlemen don't sail to weather".
The key is to keep things as simple as possible.... standing rigging is a veritable house of cards, and the sails in a Bermuda rig are highly stressed, a tear propagates and destroys the whole sail. I would make my sail in individual panels between the battens, each laced in place so I could easily replace one. Two shorter masts may not capture as much wind or provide as much speed, but they reduce your vulnerability to capsize, keep your profile lower (less visibility and greater stability), have some redundancy, and are more easily replaced from local materials.

The best defensive weapons are electricity.... against boarders, bear spray, and a PCP air rifle capable of propelling a projectile at around 1000 FPS with no powder, etc, and very cheap pellets or lead slugs. Mine will get about 30 shots to the charge, that requires about 50 strokes of my stainless steel 3000 psi hand pump.
I do all my gardening using hydroponics..... Jacks is cheap and goes a LONG way. It is much preferable to soil in many ways. I often use cheap dollar store foam sponge... the kind with an abrasive on one side (which I tear off). It doesn't degrade and is not subject to moss growth like rock wool.
Lithium batteries and several ways to charge them are a good up front investment. Avoid using electricity any more than necessary... charge/discharge cycles = battery life.

A tablet is a valuable tool for storing information, for navigation, and for just idle reading. Vast amounts of data can be stored on a tablet and/or an auxiliary storage device. It can stand in for a laptop for most of the things that matter.... you won't be operating a utube channel ;-) Several of them would be good insurance, and with

Android tabs that is realistic. My Ipad is reaching end of battery life. I will replace the battery at home after backing up critical stuff.......... I would carry several of these inexpensive replacements in an SHTF, because this is my "library". Download everything you can because it will NOT be available after SHTF. One or several small devices can take the place of many volumes of books and piles of charts.
A vacuum sealing device is invaluable. It will protect important items from salt air and corrosion, from tools to seed, to foods to clothing. It's a non negotiable item in my book. Foodsaver makes rigid polycarbonate containers... It would be nice if they were larger, but they ARE reusable. Spares will go in foodsaver bags to keep them dry and protected.
GPS will go down, so expect nav equipment to let you down. If your chart plotter equipment is not capable of operating without a GPS input, you are royally SCREWED. Learn to use a sextant (not a sex tent). Printers are notoriously unreliable. The only printer I would trust is a laser printer, but it would have to be protected from salt air somehow... vac chamber? Paper charts are best. Can you enter a sextant derived location into an electronic chart? We will lose electronics eventually anyway, but with care they could serve us for many years.


At my age, I can expect to keep modern toys alive for most of the rest of my life with some planning and care.......... your mileage may vary.





I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein

You do know this is not just for eow scenarios. If I were in Texas right now I would be sailing south .
The important part is to have your vessel ready to go all the time .
I get back to marina and the third thing I do is fill my water tank .
First is tie up second plug in shore power to top up battery if it needs it .
Fourth is empty my composting head urine bottle.

[owly]

It is likely that in an SHTF situation, you will be driven away from shore. You may make some shoreside forays, but they will need to be fast and discrete. Desperate people will want to take what you have. Remote areas of the inside passage, and the Sea of Cortez may offer some succor. The coasts of Canada and Alaska offer immense resources, not Mexico. There are fish, but little useful plant life, and virtually no potable water. This very dearth of resources makes the Sea of Cortez attractive. It means that few people will go that direction. Canada and Alaska are subject to brutal winter weather. 4-6 months of glorious abundance followed by brutal weather... snow, and rain. If you can endure this, you will live well, but you will not be alone during summer. "Sailing the Farm" down south may be an easier life.

What about the open sea, hundreds of miles offshore? Where? You can survive in your seagoing farm, but where are the weather patterns favorable? Perhaps the North Pacific high, or some other fairly static high pressure system... you aren't looking to go anywhere, so the places sailors avoid normally, are favorable. The equatorial doldrums are full of electrical storms, and the sultry heat is unbearable. Off the east coast, the Gulf Stream screws everything up, though the northwestern end of the South Atlantic doesn't look to bad.... I'm just speculating. Drop the sails half way between Ca and Hi, or a 500 miles off Belem perhaps?

Fishing with line and bait or lure doesn't seem to yield a lot for most folks. If you plan to depend on fish, a net system is perhaps worth looking at.


Bottom cleaning and maintenance is an ongoing issue, but accounts of people adrift in life rafts show that your boat will become a place where sea life will gather. That bottom growth that saps your performance is a food source, refuge, and hunting ground...a micro environment that is dynamic and full of life. Small creatures feed on growth, larger creatures feed on them and so on until dorado and sharks... like a reef. Goosneck barnacles are edible, and so are many varieties of jellyfish. Life is said to have originated in the sea.... Men with virtually no resources have survived hundreds of days at sea.... Men going prepared should be able to survive for many years.


We humans are gregarious...for good reason. Our skills complement each other. The SHTF prepper who sets off alone is a fool. Set off as part of a group, exchange ideas and resources, look after each other, share catches and crops. Set aside commercialism and self interest (greed). Some people will (seem to) contribute more than others, but in the end we need each other.

[owly]

Originally Posted by newhaul

You do know this is not just for eow scenarios. If I were in Texas right now I would be sailing south .
The important part is to have your vessel ready to go all the time .
I get back to marina and the third thing I do is fill my water tank .
First is tie up second plug in shore power to top up battery if it needs it .
Fourth is empty my composting head urine bottle.

You need to break free of dependence of shore. Adequate onboard charging is a critical capability in today's world. I consider a watermaker non negotiable. There are too many places where water availability and quality are questionable, and why on earth would you not used "direct deposit" at sea?



I don't expect an EOW / SHTF situation in the near term, but realistically in the next 20-30 years various factors will lead to a progressive collapse of social order which will accelerate. The general shape and sequence of events is but a rough outline, but it is becoming clearer. The timeline is not something I would venture to speculate on. I feel safe in saying that the world of 2050 will not be something I recognize. Recent events here in the US have demonstrated what can happen when group madness gets out of control. crazed humans are capable of ANYTHING, and have brought down the great civilizations of history before.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Keelhauler

I find it amazing how a seemingly simple question about prepping your sailboat for survival in case SHT.
<snip>
Guns - A Ruger 10/22 stainless takedown. It compact lots of fire power, ammunition is affordable and you can carry a lot while taking up little space. But then again this a matter of opinion.

I can't believe this thread gets dragged back out and one of the first things mentioned is guns

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Or explain to me how you machine spare parts for your water maker pump 50 miles offshore !!!

We don't need no stnkin water maker.

5000 litre water tank capability (2500 currently used)
Rain water collection sorted
200 litre water bladder in tender to supplement supply.

Saying that, it would be nice to have one but even now with parts available its enough to turn me off.

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Really? Also considering you can sail into uninhabited archipelagos or even the banks of the Bahamas with thousands of islands and hardly any population?

We’re at anchor now, fully provisioned for 6 months which can be stretched out to years with fishing, hunting and gathering.

Same here

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by owly

You need to break free of dependence of shore. Adequate onboard charging is a critical capability in today's world. I consider a watermaker non negotiable. There are too many places where water availability and quality are questionable, and why on earth would you not used "direct deposit" at sea?



I don't expect an EOW / SHTF situation in the near term, but realistically in the next 20-30 years various factors will lead to a progressive collapse of social order which will accelerate. The general shape and sequence of events is but a rough outline, but it is becoming clearer. The timeline is not something I would venture to speculate on. I feel safe in saying that the world of 2050 will not be something I recognize. Recent events here in the US have demonstrated what can happen when group madness gets out of control. crazed humans are capable of ANYTHING, and have brought down the great civilizations of history before.

I have sailed in everyone and except the puddle ( Atlantic)
Some lasting as much as 120 days underway continuous . I am not as you put it dependant on shore for basicly anything . Waterworld is a good movie and a joke at the same time