At some point as a boat owner, you’ll have to have the boat out of the water for maintenance. Maybe it’s in your backyard, maybe it’s in a boatyard. There are a couple of pieces of gear that make this hands-on work time much less stressful and (hopefully) faster.

First up? Sawhorses. Being able to work at standing level is a true game-changer. Refinishing boat parts on the ground or even continually stooping to refresh paint trays will quickly make your back ache. The wisdom of sawhorses really struck us when we watched a fellow cruiser in one yard spend HOURS bent over working on building a new windvane. He had to stop every so often to massage his back. Meanwhile, we could stand as we applied varnish or cleaned fasteners. 

You can buy pairs of plastic ones that might fit aboard your boat, to take with you as you travel. If not, it’s easy enough to build a pair once you get your hands on some 2x4s and some screws. You can use these sawhorses, topped with a piece of plywood, as a work table, or you can extend their usefulness with yet more 2x4s that form the basis of a longer work surface. We don’t have the room to carry even the plastic ones with us but have already determined that our first order of business when we haul out somewhere else will be to source the wood to build a new set. The cost may well give us pause at first, but the time saved by being able to work comfortably will be well worth it. Maybe we’ll just take them apart and carry the pieces with us.

Second? Shade. Less important in winter conditions (at least from a temperature perspective), shade is critical for sun protection and relative cool when working in warmer climates. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, from moving your work space with the sun, to setting up a tarp over a work station in between 2 boats (maybe work with a neighbor to benefit you both!), to finding a large golf umbrella and rigging it to protect you, to . . . you get the idea. Anything that offers a barrier between you and the sun! Jeremy recently grabbed a piece of cardboard and fixed it into position to cast welcome shade while he sanded the in-full-sun taffrail. A friend facing an extended boatyard stay bought one of those pop-up tents, like the kind you might see at a tailgate party, and set it up next to her boat. The only limit is your imagination.

There are other pieces of kit that make boatyard life easier. Things like extension cords (even if you’re running them from your own boat to outside) and a work light (if you need to work at night, maybe because it’s just cooler then - Trinidad, I’m looking at you!). A hose with a pressure nozzle for cleaning.

Being in the boatyard isn’t my favorite part of cruising, but it is a part of the life. These pieces of gear will make using that time a whole lot easier!

There’s a whole other set of considerations if you’re living on the boat while it’s out of the water. In this case, the true “must-have” list is similarly pretty short. After the ladder that lets you access your home? You must have buckets. Specifically, the pee bucket and what I call the slop bucket. (There’s a whole other blog post about buckets and life on the hard!)

The pee bucket, for those of us whose marine toilets require being in water to use, saves any nighttime trips down and up the ladder. We stash it in the cockpit at night, then carefully carry it down and empty it into the land facilities in the morning. Ideal? No. But vastly preferable and safer, in our opinion, than trying to navigate the ladder when half-asleep.

The slop bucket is so we can use our sink as usual. We stick a piece of hose (not the one we use for anything else) up from the outside into the sink thru hull and put the other end in a bucket that sits on the ground. This way, any sink detritus goes directly into the bucket, which similarly to the pee bucket is emptied once a day into the land facilities. If you just use your sink with no way of directing and catching the flow, you’ll quickly wind up with a very stinky swamp under your boat and a boat hull streaked with galley grime. Alternatively, you can use the bucket directly in your sink, kind of as a makeshift sink, which then will have to be carefully carried down the ladder for disposal. Other options include the disposable everything one (not recommended from an environmental standpoint), or carting your dishes down and then up the ladder, or only ever cooking and eating outside. Using the galley sink as normal helps me feel less resentful of the boatyard life.

I think I forgot the most essential part of boatyard life, and it’s not something you can buy in the store. If you forget your sense of humor, you’re doomed.