Ditch Bag contents list

Two Peas

Two Peas

Member
Jun 24, 2008
914
Niagara River, ON
Boat Info
360DA 2002, Raymarine C80, SR50 Weather, Radome, DSC, Baltik 9'6" with 6hp Tohatsu
Engines
8.1 Horizons w/V-Drives
So Gary's flare thread got me thinking about Ditch Bags and what everyone carries in theirs.

Here's what I carry:

Ditch bag: I have the smaller Rapid Ditch bag by ACR and keep it under the helm seat where it fits nicely and seems readily accessible.

- Standard Horizon floating VHF with GPS and DSC
- Spot messenger
- Garmin 60c handheld GPS
- 6 Handheld flares
- Small First aid kit (WM cheapie)
- 2 bottles of drinking water
- 2 solar blankets (the tin foil type)
- cannister horn
- whistle
- two flashlights
- photocopies of my ID, boat registration, insurance, etc.
- a house key
- a bit of cash
- folding knife
- bit of line (maybe 10')

After reading on the subject a bit more, I may try to fit one manual inflatable PFD, and some extra foam to help the darn thing float.

The bag itself comes with four sewn-in lanyards to attach things to (like the whistle) so they don't get lost in the bottom of the bag, and there are lots of pockets and loops to hold things in their place.

Outside, my bag has one big external pocket that easily holds the VHF and Spot.

We don't boat far offshore, and are always within sight of land (so far anyway). I've basically assembled this bag in the event we have to abandon ship due to fire or collision.

So, what does everyone else have in theirs?
 
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E371.jpg
 
Now that is just plain funny.:lol::smt043:lol:
 
So let me get this straight - I post something that is undoubtedly useful, but since it was discussed 9 months ago, and two years prior to that, I'm beating a dead horse?

Please.

With over 10,000 members on this site, is it not possible that this post would be helpful to boaters who haven't considered a ditch bag?

Why is it that if you don't do an extensive raw SQL query on every keyword prior to posting a thought you're somehow regressing the site.

Get over yourselves already.
 
Two Peas said:
So let me get this straight - I post something that is undoubtedly useful, but since it was discussed 9 months ago, and two years prior to that, I'm beating a dead horse?

Please.

With over 10,000 members on this site, is it not possible that this post would be helpful to boaters who haven't considered a ditch bag?

Why is it that if you don't do an extensive raw SQL query on every keyword prior to posting a thought you're somehow regressing the site.

Get over yourselves already.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
 
My apologies on the glue bottle. I was just trying to crack a joke.

FWIW, starting a new thread from time to time on these subjects can be good as needs change and somebody may have built a better mousetrap.

Also, I have found the search feature extremely hard to use as the signal to noise ratio to be extremely low.
 
I agree with the flaky functionality of the search tool. If you look at good old Chuck1's link, his search only is succesful because he concatenated the words "ditch" and "bag" into "ditchbag".

I searched using "ditch" and "bag" separately, and found 99% of the returned results were irrelevant to my search.

I would bet that most users would not search on "ditchbag". I also searched on "abandon ship bag" with similar poor results.

On the other hand, a google search of "ditch bag" returned excellent reading on the subject...
 
I would agree that despite the fact if a topic was covered some topics are well worth revisiting, especially those that can save lives. Revisiting an important topics can help new members to learn something and serve as a simple reminder to those that have done this for a while. Over the years I've noticed that regardless how good your list of things is there's always something that can be improved or done differently.
 
This thread got me to thinking I need a 'real' ditch bag, I currently just have some cheap, small little bag that holds a few flares, the distress flag, a whistle and I keep my floating VHF in there. But I am now looking at the ACR #2272. I will then outfit it with things learned here. I am also looking at getting a liferaft and an EPIRB, but thats for another thread... What do you guys recommend for a ditch bag? Both contents and the actual bag.
 
Two Peas said:
So, what does everyone else have in theirs?
Click to expand...

Two Peas,

Nothing wrong with posting a new thread, just wanted to make sure you had seen the other post. There is some great info in them.

As to the died horse just part of the great community we call the internet. You have to admit the glue picture was a pretty good joke.:grin:

And yes the Search feature is fun at times. I know people use google with forum and/or club sea ray in their search.
 
OK, after reading some of the older posts, and some reviews, I think I am going with the Landfall Navigation Dri-Bag. Now I just have to figure out where to store it on the boat... :huh:
 
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Greg,

I originally bought the ACR #2272 bag. I loved it, but it was just too big and bulky for my needs. So I returned it and got the smaller model #2273 instead. This model is very similar but about half the size. For me, this size fits beside my helm seat where I can get to it quickly. I thought about storing it under the aft transom bench or in the transom locker, but decided it was best at the helm. Where does everyone else keep their bags?

If you look at the discussion from last May (http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18026&highlight=ditchbag) there are a few other good looking bags referenced.
 
I have a detailed discussion of this in my book... How's that for a plug?

I prefer to look at ditch bag contents based on "time" and not "function." Almost all of the discussions I ran across discuss things by functional groupings... i.e. communication group, signaling group, etc. I tried to look at it from what I'll need and when and then break it up in groups of "Immediate Need", "Less than 24 hours", "1-3 Days", "3+ Days", and documents...

This is the checklist from my book that is also in a pocket on the ditch bag so I can keep up with the contents:

Ditchbaglist.jpg


This list assumes you have a life raft... But the "Immediate Need" items are needed regardless of your boat size and where you boat (assuming coastal waters).

I don't think this has been discussed on CSR so I'm not sure it's a "dead horse" or "elmers glue"....
 
I'm thinking one of these sea streamers would be good to have also. Lasts longer than smoke or flares, can be seen over a mile away (so they say). Assuming you have a life raft...


see-rescue18.jpg
 
If you do have a life raft, it will have some supplies in the raft after it is inflated. You may want to check to see what is in there as a supplement to your bag. Mine has some flares, sea sickness medicine, pump, knife, strobe, etc... I just dropped mine off to be repacked yesterday so that's even more money out the door. In addition to checking the raft and refolding it, they repack all the consumables as well...
 
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