Don’t underestimate the value of proper documentation when it comes to marine insurance and onboard safety. Planning smarter from the beginning, and throughout your 3-year maintenance period, makes it easier to record important procedures and essential safety information in one place.
Make note of critical tasks such as how to change a propeller, where all circuit breakers are located, and how to replace a battery. Most importantly, create simple, easy-to-follow instructions that any crew member can understand and use confidently in an emergency.
Ask yourself: if you were incapacitated after a fall or onboard accident, could your crew safely operate the vessel and get everyone to safety?
We did this and our completed onboard safety and operations guide, known as the CREW MANUAL.
We were fortunate that our yacht already had a 600-litre water capacity, providing a strong foundation for long-range cruising and self-sufficiency. However, it’s essential that water tanks can be easily isolated near the source to create reliable water redundancy onboard.
If a pipe, pump, or fitting fails, having an alternative water supply is critical. Installing a simple ball valve between tanks is an effective and low-maintenance solution that allows you to quickly separate or redirect water when needed.
For remote cruising areas, the ability to produce your own fresh water is vital. Depending on water top-ups in isolated locations can be unreliable, polluted and challenging. Your water maker system should be practical, dependable, and supported by adequate onboard power storage to meet daily demands without compromise.
For this reason, we upgraded our water maker system to better suit extended remote-area cruising and long-term reliability.
There are four key areas of insurance and medical cover that every offshore yacht owner should carefully consider:
* Yacht insurance for local waters
* Yacht insurance for international waters
* Personal medical insurance cover
* Personal offshore medical insurance
The first three are generally straightforward. However, personal offshore medical insurance is often overlooked and can become a major issue when cruising internationally.
Many standard medical insurance policies contain exclusions in the fine print that do not cover injuries sustained aboard a private vessel in international waters, even if medical treatment is later sought on land.
Medical evacuation from international waters is another area commonly excluded from standard personal health insurance policies. Without dedicated offshore medical and evacuation cover, the financial and logistical consequences can be significant during an emergency at sea.
Early in our planning process, we made the bold decision to maximise solar power generation and build a highly efficient off-grid yacht power system. Our goal was to feed solar energy into a large lithium battery bank capable of running 95% of the onboard equipment reliably and efficiently.
To improve system reliability and simplify maintenance, the entire electrical setup was designed around a single brand ecosystem.
This reduced compatibility issues, limited the mixing of components, and allowed the system to be electronically monitored and controlled, complete with backup safeguards.
As an additional layer of redundancy, we upgraded the alternators to provide dependable charging support should solar production ever be compromised.
There is no denying that this approach comes at a significant cost, and a hefty one at that. However, after three years of continuous use, the system has performed flawlessly with 100% reliability.
Today our yacht operates with:
* No fixed LPG onboard
* No generator
* No reliance on shore power connections
The result is a cleaner, quieter, and highly self-sufficient offshore cruising setup designed for long-term independence at sea.
Food storage onboard should be carefully planned across four key areas:
* Frozen foods
* Refrigerated foods
* Dry goods
* Fresh produce
During the yacht power planning stage, it is essential to allocate sufficient battery capacity to run refrigeration and freezer systems efficiently, plus an additional 30% reserve capacity.
This extra margin is critical because onboard refrigeration systems work exceptionally hard in hot climates, especially when opened multiple times each day.
To reduce unnecessary load on the main refrigeration system, we use a high-quality external esky for drinks and water storage. It is stocked each evening, and by morning the internal temperature typically stabilises between 16–20°C, helping minimise fridge access throughout the day.
Another important consideration is redundancy. What happens if your refrigeration system fails while cruising remotely?
Proper food storage planning should always include contingency measures to protect essential supplies during extended offshore passages or equipment failures.
Major onboard systems were installed early in our three-year refit plan to ensure they could be properly tested, used in real conditions, and proven reliable over time.
This approach has worked well overall, with the exception of the television system. Aside from that, the vessel’s core systems have performed consistently and as expected.
Over time, we’ve become familiar with the specific quirks of each system and have developed practical backup solutions should anything begin to go wrong at sea.
To date, we have completed three offshore passages, each lasting between two and three weeks, with all major systems operating flawlessly throughout.
We maintain a proactive maintenance schedule, regularly replacing consumable components and servicing equipment according to a structured, self-developed plan to ensure ongoing reliability and offshore readiness.
We have since sold this mySerenity. The detailed maintenance system and records definitely added a competitive edge (and quick sale) when compared to other yacht sales at that time.