The key to keeping things running smoothly is to know when they need attention. A well cared for boat, testament to the power of the written word.

Sailboats are high maintenance toys. Even new ones. More-so old ones. Maintenance can be a daunting task that will drain the enjoyment out of anything, if you allow it to, but I’d venture that maintenance can also be a very rewarding time, too.

To do maintenance on anything on board well, you first have to have a good working knowledge of the systems on which you are working. This means a little homework--perhaps a little time spent tracking down manuals--and a little time crawling around in the areas of your boat where you don’t spend much time. The reward from this kind of exploring is that you get to learn your boat better in the process. Most importantly, though, good maintenance is like an insurance policy. If you do the necessary maintenance, a boat’s systems are less likely to fail when you least can afford them to fail.

For instance: You wake up in the morning after spending a great night on the hook. Coffee in hand, you climb into the cockpit to start the engine. Turning the key, though, you hear only a CLICKCLICKCLICK from somewhere in the bowels of the boat where a throaty VROOM should have been. After much digging and flailing you find the water level in your batteries is so low that dust storms stir when you open the caps. Oops. Or: You navigate into your favorite spot, reach into the anchor locker and pull out the hook. As you drop it over the side, there is a "TINK" at your feet. When you look down, you see the pin from the shackle lying there along with all the rode. If you look quickly, you might catch your last glimpse of your anchor.

Parts, pieces, manufacturer phone numbers, and more can be kept in one place and take some of the edge off boat maintenance blues.

Maintenance doesn’t have to be an all-consuming enterprise. Contrary to popular belief, the list of maintenance items on a sailboat doesn’t extend by two for every one accomplished. The key to good maintenance is setting up a schedule and keeping records. If you don’t have one, get a maintenance log. These books are great! They allow you to keep track of the projects you have done, the maintenance actions you have taken, and there are pages for listing your spare parts you keep onboard and where you got them and their identification numbers. This allows you to walk into a store and, with a degree of certainty, order the "left handed feratistance" you need by name, part number, and manufacturer, instead of the normal, head down some what embarrassing request for the "thingamajiggy that fits on the whatchamacallit."

Some evening while you are just sitting around the boat looking for a low-impact project that will pay big dividends down the road, dig through the lockers and find all the spare parts you have onboard. Get them out, look at them, find the numbers and names and where you got them, and write them down. Then take a few minutes and think about the things that have failed in the last year, or that you have had to replace: oil filters, zincs, belts, fuel filters, packing… the list goes on, but you know what you need. If you don’t know where to get them, just write them down and later, start finding them in stores and keep that info to put in the book. If you have the manuals, dig them out and figure out what the manufacturer says for how often the parts need to be replaced or checked. If it says check it, buy one. If it says replace it, buy two. When you get back with your purchases, pick up the book and write down what you bought--and where you put it! There’s nothing worse than knowing you have a part you need but not being be able to find it.

I am going to make an assumption that the majority of my audience is not overly well healed and isn’t going to be able to afford to farm out their maintenance to a hireling. Hopefully you can correctly identify the working end of a screwdriver and have a passing knowledge of wrenches. If you do, there is nothing on a sailboat you can’t fix (with the possible exception of a piston-out rebuild of your engine, but that isn’t maintenance). The biggest thing stopping most people from doing good maintenance on a boat is the fear of screwing something up that will cost them a lot to have fixed by the aforementioned hireling. The best answer to that is to have somebody else that has done it before show you how it’s done. I was scared to change the packing in my shaft seal. I fretted over that for weeks until one day I just decided to go ahead and do it and found it was a piece of cake! I have shown at least three others how to do it now and I am sure they have done the same. The most it will cost you to ask for advice likely will be a couple beers. The job you can’t do is the one you don’t try.

So, now you have a bunch of parts, a lot of advice and a book. What next? Well, the next thing to do is to look at your habits. Do you sail every weekend? Do you motor a lot to get in and out of port, or is your auxiliary more of an alternative? Are you a beer can racer or more the "sit in the cockpit and watch the sunset" type? What’s the weather like? All these things will impact your boat’s maintenance schedule. If the weather is hot most of the time, you need to check your battery water more often than in a less heated area. If you run your engine a lot, you will need to change the oil and filters more regularly than the guy that fires it up only during the last 30 seconds of his return to the pier. The guy out there beating around the marks will probably be needing to inspect his rigging a lot more regularly than the guy who’s main use for the mast is hoisting the cocktail flag. You might have to crack the books from the manufacturers again, or you just might want to ask the folks on the forums here at SAILjazz about how often they break out the tools.

The rewards of a properly maintained boat are that you don’t have to do this underway in the middle of the night in a pitching seaway.

When you have what you think is a good working schedule for the stuff that you need to do, write it in the book…but do the first draft in pencil. You will find as you go along that the time between doing the checks will change as you start noticing the way they are when you check them. If something is always right at the breaking point (or just beyond?) you might want to shorten the time between checks. If the most change you see when you look at a piece of gear is the marks from the last time you took it apart, you might want to let it go a little longer. Anyway, you will adjust your maintenance schedule as a result of your maintenance. Now, realize that your life might just get in the way of the well-thought-out schedule, but don’t worry…. You’re the boss! If something gets rolled to the next trip to the boat, so be it! Sometimes things have a tendency to just keep rolling, however. It is at this time that the record section of the book comes into play.

The beauty of a maintenance log is its historical record. So if you find yourself saying "Yeah, I got to the boat only a couple times this summer and I had big plans those times, so I didn’t get around to doing an oil change. I couldn’t have used the motor that much, could I?" Grab the book. There, beside the last entry you made for doing an oil change is the engine hours. A quick glance and you realize that yes, you used the motor that much! And it’s now time to get out the oil.

Aboard my boat, recently, the air conditioner circulating pump died for the second time since we bought it two years ago. The first time had been a no-brainer, it was under warranty. This time, however, I wasn’t as sure. I reached for my trusty maintenance book and there it was, in black and white. In the end, I got to foot the bill for the new pump. But at least I knew it before I called the company.

Keeping a record of all the upgrades and repairs you have done to your boat isn’t just a way to pat yourself on the back. If you ever had to make a claim to your insurance company that totaled out your boat because the jet ski punched a hole clean through it, you will have a record of what the boat was worth beyond the purchase price. Also, if you ever decide to sell your boat, that book will be invaluable as both a sales tool, but a major asset to the person that buys it from you. (How many times have you said, "What was the previous owner thinking when he did this?!)

So, in the long run, the better you do the maintenance on your boat, the longer it will run. If you are like me and really hate surprises on the water, then doing your preventive maintenance is very important. The best way I have found to make sure I am doing what needs to be done is by using that Maintenance Record book. If you take the time to do the maintenance and do it right, take the last step and record it so you will be able to come back later and verify your memory. As the saying goes, "The Job’s Not Finished Until The Paperwork Is Done!"