17 Gadgets for Boaters. By Boaters.

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Boaters love gadgets. They make our cruising life safer, easier and more fun. Here is our Gadgets for Boaters guide.

Every budget is different and while we met families with way cooler toys than ours, I am recommending gadgets we owned, or used for a while, while living and cruising on our sailboats, for four years.

Why These Gadgets?

Because we only recommend what we actually used, or tried during our four years of living aboard two sailboats.

And because a towel is not a gadget (as you might read elsewhere).

You will not find generic info and affiliate links just to make a quick sale. Not in this post!

Let’s go.

All of our boat gear posts: Boat Gear @ No Texting and Tacking.

1. Spotlight

A bright spotlight to help navigate the boat through dark channels, or amongst fields of crab pots is essential aboard. It will make a perfect gift too.

We know that, because we received ours as a gift and used it more times than I can count.

Here are some more essential items that must be aboard:

12 Safety Gear Essentials for the High Seas.

We had a typical marine flashlight, but we liked the spotlight better.

For best results, purchase a spotlight flashlight. The light beam can go quite far out, tons of markers and crab pots are unlit.

It is a relatively large and heavy one (the one we had), but it worked great.

Since ours came as a gift, purchased a long time ago, I cannot find the exact link for it, but the one I am recommending is pretty powerful as well.

2. Garmin inReach Mini Satellite Communicator

This compact satellite tracker will keep everyone on land less worried. It tracks the position of the boat (or person, if you take it along on hikes) every few minutes.

The monthly plans come with a variety of options for location time-span and messages.

We had ours at one of the cheapest plans, and it recorded our position every 10minutes, while allowing up to 10 messages per month.

I absolutely loved our inReach Mini. Our followers loved following our real-time location. Our families loved it even more. Especially helpful during longer ocean passages.

The link to follow is username and password protected, so only people who have the log-in information will be able to see your location and track.

All of our boat gear posts: Boat Gear @ No Texting and Tacking.

3. Foldable Solar chargers

Foldable Solar chargers are light, inexpensive and easy to take along on hikes.

We had a couple of these aboard and there was never shortage of sunshine to keep them working. They have to be moved about to face the brightest sun.

Sailing and traveling with kids and teens means lots of devices to charge!

Ours came with two USB slots, and they were enough to charge cell phones and tablets, giving our inverter a break during the day.

4. Solar charger power bank

Solar charger power banks are quite useful. We gifted it to an uncle who hikes and camps often.

It is great, because it is compact and, unlike the foldable charger, it does hold charge.

However, for boating purposes, I preferred the foldable panels, because they do not need to be plugged in an outlet to charge.

For those boaters, who might be at marinas, or use an inverter frequently, this charger will be a great and super useful gadget.

5. GoPro Waterproof Camera

How else would they film all the breath-taking sea life! A GoPro waterproof camera has become a favorite aboard many boats, including ours.

Since we were a bit too cheap, we held ours, while filming. If you are buying this amazing little gadget, might as well include a head-strap and a stick.

They have upgraded the models, since we purchased ours, so I am including a link to the latest one.

All of our boat gear posts: Boat Gear @ No Texting and Tacking.

6. Birdwatching Binoculars

Birdwatching binoculars will make an ideal gadget for boaters:

• They are compact and light
• The optics are amazing
• Younger kids can easily handle them
• Many are also waterproof
• All are small enough to fin in any drybag for a hike ashore
• Islands have unique birds to observe.

I purchased ours as a gift for my husband years ago.

We also had the usual large boating binoculars aboard, but we almost never used them. To be honest, I cannot remember if ours are waterproof, but the waterproof option is available.

After lots of research, I did go with Nikon, so this is what I am recommending.

7. Hand-held, floating VHF radio

There must be at least two hand-held VHF‘s aboard every boat. But you cannot go wrong with three either.

We had three, one was not great, but we kept it anyway. We always had one by us, in the cockpit, during passages, and another one charging.

They can be used like walkie-talkies too. Whenever we left our kids aboard, while running boring errands, we had a VHF with us and one aboard, for easy communication.

It was mostly so we would call one of our kids to come pick us up from the docks, with the dinghy, or tell them it was time to get back aboard from the beach.

You do need a relatively short distance and no significant obstacles in the way.

West Marine has a myriad of options, here is a link to one similar to what we had aboard.

All of our boat gear posts: Boat Gear @ No Texting and Tacking.

8. Paperwhite Kindle

A Kindle is super easy and super light, and super convenient to travel.

Yet, I’d still buy a paper book.

Make sure you keep both well-protected in a dry bag:

19 Best Boating Bags. Tips How to Use Them.

There are so many marinas, other cruising families and small local libraries, that swapping books is a perfect activity to help socialize kids and adults.

For even more socialization tips and tricks, read our full blog post:

Sailing and Socializing Kids – 8 Ways to Find Friends on the High Seas.

We had three Kindles aboard and the classic Paperwhite was our favorite. We do not like the Fire as much. The paperwhite Kindle feels a lot more like a book and the battery seems to last a bit longer.

9. External Hard Drive

While on the subject of swapping cool books, same goes for music and movies.

Sailors young and old have impressive libraries of movies, young and old.

An external hard drive will be a great gift for any boater. Pick different colors too, if buying more than one.

Watching a movie aboard is a classic favorite. Storing movies on DVD’s is kind of old even on land, much less aboard, when space is precious.

10. Nintendo switch

A Nintendo Switch is what our kids (and captain) played.

Video games aboard are sometimes distracting enough to help with seasickness. Until you realize they actually make you even more seasick, but go, convince my kids!

Here is a post with tips that actually work:

Seasickness Sucks – 21 Tried and Tested Tips to Stop it.

We did not have a TV screen, and we tried bringing a PS aboard briefly, only to offload it, quickly. It just did not fit the space, or the lifestyle.

A Switch is very portable, and cute, and kind of retro a bit. Brings back to memory those older games we used to play (or the cool kids used to play them, I never really got into gaming).

All of our boat gear posts: Boat Gear @ No Texting and Tacking.

11. Drone

A good drone is what will turn the cool views into “Wow!” videos.

Drones are perfect for capturing the beauty from above – remote islands in blue waters are hard to beat.

Drones can be used for cool YouTube videos. Some boaters try to make it into a business, others just keep them for family and friends.

Do visit our YouTube channel for fun videos of our travel adventures.

No matter the level of filming and flying skills, drones will really show just how amazing this boating adventure is.

Joe earned a license to fly a drone shortly before we sailed away and had a chance to test fly this super cool, fancy drone for a work project.

We never purchased one for our personal use, but those brief test flights were pretty amazing.

If you prefer the pro drone that Joe had, Click HERE.

12. Headphones

Headphones are a cool gadget, or rather an accessory.

I love over-the-ear headphones. On a boat, in a tight space, when we are all together, but working on something, or studying, noise-canceling headphones work great.

We all have different kinds and brands. Mine came from Walmart, with a mistaken label, for $10. I had to buy them, I love them and I don’t let any of the kids touch them.

13. A Wi-Fi Extender

We really wanted to purchase a WiFi extender/repeater and mount to the mast, it would have made our lives a lot easier!

But we sailed away from the US, before we purchased one, and were too lazy and too cheap afterwards.

Here are a few posts about boating gear you must have before sailing away:

10 Most Reliable Sailing Life Jackets (Adults and Kids)

First Aid Kit Aboard – Supplies and Organization

27 Important Tools for Boaters

For a more energy-efficient option, try to find a DC, rather than AC powered one. We preferred not to use our inverter unless absolutely necessary.

For those of you who are super thrifty, so to say, like us, we tied our cell phone in a white sock and lifted it up the mast with the hot spot on, or to receive e-mails. That will cost you around $1.

14. A sextant

Sextants are super cool. And they pair well with a celestial navigation class.

For more useful courses and boating subscriptions: 11 Valuable Boating Subscriptions and Courses

Our sextant was a gift and when you have a bunch of gadgets requiring electricity, but no electricity to charge them, you tend to turn to non-electrified gadgets.

So, we all played with it. There are books and courses online. It is not that hard to learn the basics.

All of our boat gear posts: Boat Gear @ No Texting and Tacking.

15. Diving Watch

Our kids had diving watches, and they ended up wearing them on and off.

If you decide to wear one, get a simple one, which you can read quickly. You probably do not need an entire minicomputer on your wrist.

Unless you do, then buy this one.

For a more casual diving and boating fun, here is a very highly-rated one on Amazon. I cannot remember where ours came from, they were presents from Grandma.

16. Reliefband Seasickness Bracelet

Oh, my, gosh! I cannot sing enough praises to our bracelets.

Before we found them, we took turns steering and throwing up, during every passage. They made a world of difference aboard.

I have a lot more info on them and more here: Seasickness Sucks – 21 Tried and Tested Tips to Stop it.

I am kind of beating myself for selling all five of ours, once we sold the boat, because they are perfect for all kinds of nausea situations.

Anyway, I would have sold them to you, but since ours are gone, buy your here.

17. Mini Projector

Few things beat watching movies on the random wall at a marina, a sheet stretched between trees, or the utility building in a boat yard.

This little gadget was really fun to use. Few boats are large enough to gather a bunch of kids for a movie night.

Besides, who wants a bunch of kids aboard – send them outside. Give them a white sheet and some string and have them build a movie screen.

Useful tips for selecting boating gadgets.

Here are a few things to keep in mind, when browsing for gadgets:

• Waterproof is always better than regular aboard.
• Buy a spare battery, if it is a difficult kind to find.
• Think about the storage – find a case and some silica bags.
• If a gadget uses less energy, and the battery lasts longer, it is a winner.

More Essential Gear for Boaters

12 Safety Gear Essentials for the High Seas.

10 Most Reliable Sailing Life Jackets (Adults and Kids)

First Aid Kit Aboard – Supplies and Organization

27 Important Tools for Boaters