One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from someone making a
presentation at a Trawlerfest... Can't remember who he was, but he asked all
of us... "Who here has spares on your boat?" Pretty much everybody raised
their hands. He went on to say... "Install them". We all kinda looked
dumbfounded, and he explained:

"If you install them, it does several things
for you.

1. You know you have the right spare
2. You know you have the tools
   to do it
3. You know HOW to do it
4. If the one you pulled off was still good,
   you still have a spare. If not, get a good one"

Sage advice!!!!

Original Message ----
From: Scott Bulger scottebulger@gmail.com

Boy I just
had a great experience based on taking good advice.

To set the stage, I'm
leaving the US for 6 months in about 3 weeks.  Our
spares kit is fairly well
built out and I'm in the final process of making
the boat ready for departure.
On the way down the coast we experienced a
belt failure, not a big deal
because the alternator used two belts and we
just lightened the load and
continued on one belt.

I'm not sure I agree completely with the advice "If you have a spare,
install it".

While there are certainly benefits to this approach, I can think of a few
reasons NOT to take this advice carte blanche.

a.  Spares are by their definition a replacement for a failed component.
They aren't consumables like filters and such.  When installed you now have
to do something with the previously in service component.  If it exposed to
the oil and fuel systems it needs to be cleaned, greased and repackaged for
storage.  If you used your spare gasket to install the spare component, your
now left with a used component and a used or useless gasket.

b.  Time preparing for an adventure like this is always a challenge.  Taking
time to replace perfectly good components may take away from time you need
to accomplish other important details.  An argument could be made that if
the spare would never have been used you did work you may never have had to
perform, very inefficient.

c.  When you sell your boat your spares kit may be appropriate for your next
boat (possible but unlikely).  Regardless the presence or absence of your
spares kit isn't going to influence the price a buyer is going to offer you.
A prudent seller may show the boat and make reference to the spares kit
(demonstrating an approach to maintenance and readiness that makes a buyer
happy) but then NOT sell it with the boat.  Piecing it out on EBAY may yield
a 50 or 75% return on the invested parts, rather than giving them away as
part of a boat sale.  Who knows, maybe the boat buyer would be the top
bidder?  If these spares were previously installed, they are worth much
less.

d.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  Anytime your working in and around an
electrical system you run the risk of breaking wires or damaging components.
I recently had the oil pressure sending unit wire break because the diesel
engine mechanic was doing a valve timing job and got a bit close to the
wiring harness.  Now you can argue that having it fail now was a good thing
and that its better to have it happen under controlled circumstances, but
there are innumerable failures that could be induced that would make this
statement untrue.  Also you could introduce the beginning of a failure that
doesn't surface for some time.

In summary, I believe this is sage advice within reason.  A prudent person
might look and insure they have a complete set of tools to perform the job,
but as was noted you really don't know until you do it.  Do I have a
serpentine belt tensioner?  No, but I have a Zyliss portable vice that can
be pressed into service to do the same thing, hopefully.  Am I going to open
up my Northern Lights 8kw genset and install my replacement raw water pump?
No, I'm going to go wire my Airmar ultrasonic weather station!

Of course, some may ask, why spend the time on this email?  Because it helps
me organize my thoughts and serves as fuel for our blog:
www.alanui.talkspot.com

As always, this advice is worth what you paid for it  ;)

Scott Bulger, Alanui, N40II, Seattle WA