Another item you should have on your boat is KNOWLEDGE of how things work and what things do and where things are!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I heard a story of a friend that went out with his son on their boat. It was a tournament boat like we all have with a factory ballast system. One of the lines cracked on a ballast pump and before they knew it, they had water high enough in the cabin that the engine stalled out. They had to offload passengers to another boat that 'rescued' them and they called 911 and the coast guard came out.

Guess what? The boat owner didn't know where the SHUTOFF valve was to the through hull connection that fed his ballast pumps. Wow, just wow.

It's actually surprising that the boat didn't sink. Not sure what happened to the engine. But being able to shut the valve would have made for a LOT less grief.