The Offshore Racing Spares Checklist: What to Pack
Summer is here, and the Solent is already buzzing with the upcoming Round the Island Race. Whether you’re lining up for this iconic race or prepping your boat for summer cruising, one question remains: is your gear truly ready? Reliable rigging and the right essentials are what separate a perfect day on the water from unexpected setbacks.
In this month’s newsletter, we’ve curated the ultimate MRS summer essentials to keep you safe, fast, and fully prepared out there.
Core hand tools
These live in a small roll or box and get used for almost every emergency job.
· Medium and small screwdrivers (flat and Phillips), adjustable spanner, a small socket set, and a decent set of pliers (needle‑nose, normal and locking). Take a look to our Wera section.
· Sharp knife or rescue knife, plus a spare serrated blade specifically for cutting loaded lines and webbing.
· Allen keys for boom/gooseneck/track fittings, a shackle key, and a small hammer; add a hacksaw if you are doing longer offshore races.
Rigging and deck hardware spares
This is where soft shackles, lashings and “get‑you‑home” hardware live.
· Assortment of Dyneema soft shackles and loops to replace failed metal shackles, lash blocks to rails, or re‑attach sheets and tack lines without tools.
· Selection of stainless shackles, snap shackles, clevis pins and split rings sized for your vang, forestay, backstay, tack fittings and key blocks.
· Dyneema lashings and a few metres of strong webbing to re‑strop a block, replace a broken stanchion base tie‑down, or create an emergency tack or clew tie.
Explore our Harken and Tylaska section.
Rope and running‑rigging bits
Aim to be able to replace or bypass one key control line and one halyard.
· One spare low‑stretch control line (e.g. 8–10 mm Dyneema) long enough to serve as an emergency vang, traveller, tack tie‑down, or barber‑hauler.
· A short length of smaller Dyneema or similar as “universal lashing” for sliders, cars and broken eyelets, plus a few sail ties.
· Tape: at least one roll of good duct tape and one of electrical tape for seizing shackles, fairing sharp edges, and quick insulation jobs.
Need a rope? Take a look at our Marlow section.
Sail repair kit (race‑oriented)
This lets you keep a sail in the air and more or less to shape until you reach a loft.
· Sailmaker’s needles in a few sizes, sailmaker’s palm, small pliers and strong waxed thread for hand‑sewn patches and re‑securing webbing or sliders.
· Sail repair tapes: broad adhesive Dacron tape, spinnaker repair tape, and a roll of webbing for reinforcing corners or re‑creating a tack/clew strap.
· A handful of spare mainsail luff sliders or cars and headsail hanks (if used), plus a few stainless rings and shackles to re‑attach corners or reef points.
Hull, structure and “keep the water out” kit
You are not doing yard‑quality work, just stopping the catastrophe and finishing the race.
· Two‑part epoxy putty sticks or similar “knead and stick” products that cure quickly and bond to wet fibreglass for plugging small hull or deck leaks.
· Small assortment of hose clamps, wooden or soft emergency plugs, and spare hose for patching split raw‑water or cockpit‑drain hoses.
· A bit of scrap plywood or stiff plastic and more duct tape; combined with epoxy or lashings these make surprisingly effective impact patches.
Electrical and electronics odds and ends
Electrical issues can kill instruments or autopilot and hurt performance and safety.
· Basic electrical kit: side‑cutters, crimp tool, a handful of common crimp terminals and fuses sized for your panel and key instruments.
· Self‑amalgamating tape and insulating tape for quick waterproofing and strain relief around jury‑rigged connections.
· Headtorch plus spare batteries in a small dry bag so you can actually see what you are fixing at night.