What tools are "must haves" on the boat in your tool bag while keeping it light as possible ?

[909]

It's time for me to buy tools.

What's in your tool bag ?

 

[racerone]

Before a sail boat race another boat asked us if they could borrow a tool to make repairs.------My skipper , owner off a 40' boat said afterwards----" you know if you have to carry lots of tools , maybe you should not be racing that boat "

 

[Chris1956]

What kind of boat and what kind of power? For my I/O I carried some belts, tools to change them and the usual electrical tape, spare fuses, wire, fuel filter and the simple hand tools. Spare prop and wrench are good as well.

With a modern OB, you can likely get away with less as they are more simple in design and if they break, you likely cannot fix them. A spare prop, wrench and fuel filter, plus elec tape and the simple hand tools are good as well.

 

[Scott Danforth]

in my pocket or the console on the boat, my cell phone and Tow Boat US number.

in the ditch bag, a hand-held GPS, a hand-held VHF, some rope

in the water-tight document box, a leatherman tool and a new distributor cap, rotor, and ignition module.

in the front v-berth storage, prop wrenches and a set of props

 

[Roadking57]

I hate getting caught w/o a few tools myself. I carry a very small plastic tool box with channel locks, pair of needle nose pliers,common screwdriver, phillips #2, side cutter, small 8oz ball peen hammer,one of those small cap lights that clips onto the bill of your cap because if I dont sure as chit it breaks in the dark. A small roll of elect tape and a few ty wraps, and a clean rag. Nothing expensive all second hand cheaper stuff in case dropped overboard not loosing snap-on quality.

 

[dingbat]

Tow Boat membership
Basic, water proof tool kit with test light.
Assortment of fuses
Spare separator filter with wrench
Spare prop with wrench and extra set of hardware

 

[Reserector_]

Others mentioned a prop and prop wrench. Keep a spare nut and cotter kit for your setup on hand. Easily dropped in the water.
As I work on my boat, I find certain screwdrivers and wrenches that work particularly well. Maybe it's a scrwdriver that gets to the distributor cap screws really well. Maybe a spark plug socket and extension that works really well. I leave those in the boat and buy replacements for the garage at my leisure.
After you've wrenched on your boat a bit, you can usually look at the pile of tools that you have to put away and easily pick out the ones that really should stay on board.
Other than that, a couple of screwdrivers, pliers, knife, etc.