This is a working yacht safety checklist: the checks that get done before departure, the equipment that has to be aboard and serviceable, and the items that come round every week and every month. Use it as a base and cut it to your vessel.
One caveat worth reading first. What you are legally required to carry depends on your flag, your size, whether you are private or commercial, and where you are going. A 15m private yacht and a 60m charter yacht are governed by entirely different rules. Nothing here replaces your flag state's carriage requirements or, on a commercial vessel, your own safety management system. If you are running a commercially operated yacht of 24m or more, the regulated version of this list is in the superyacht safety checklist.
Before you leave
- Weather and forecast checked for the whole passage, not just the departure
- Passage plan made, with a decision point for turning back
- Someone ashore knows where you are going and when to worry
- Fuel, water and oil sufficient for the passage plus a reserve
- Bilges dry, bilge pumps tested, high-water alarm working
- Seacocks checked, hoses and clips sound
- Steering and engine controls tested through their full range
- Navigation lights tested, including the anchor light
- Hatches, ports and lockers secured, deck clear of trip hazards
- Tender and watersports gear secured or properly stowed
- Everyone aboard knows where the lifejackets are and how to call for help
Life-saving equipment
- Lifejackets — one per person aboard, correctly sized, including children; lights and whistles fitted; gas cylinders and firing heads in date on inflatables
- Lifebuoys and throwing lines — mounted where they can be reached from the helm, lights attached and working
- Liferaft — correctly sized, secured with a hydrostatic release if fitted, painter made fast, service in date
- Harnesses and jackstays — enough for the crew on watch, tethers not perished
- EPIRB and PLBs — registered, battery in date, correctly mounted
- Flares or an electronic distress signal — in date, stowed dry and accessible
- Grab bag — water, torch, spare handheld VHF, documents
- Boarding ladder — deployable from in the water by someone alone
- First aid kit — contents in date, and someone aboard who knows how to use it
Fire
- Extinguishers of the right type and number, gauges in range, service in date, mounted near the risks rather than in a locker
- Fire blanket in the galley
- Fixed system in the engine space, where fitted, with its release point accessible and unobstructed
- Smoke, heat and gas alarms tested
- Fuel and gas systems checked for leaks; gas turned off at the bottle when not in use
- Escape routes from every cabin clear, and everyone aboard shown them
- Engine space ventilation clear, no oily rags or loose flammables
Machinery and steering
- Engine oil, coolant and belts checked; raw water strainer clear
- Batteries secured and charged, isolators working, terminals clean
- Emergency tiller aboard, and someone has actually fitted it once
- Spare impeller, filters, belts and basic tools aboard
- Anchor and cable ready to let go, bitter end secured
Navigation and communications
- Charts or plotter up to date for the area, plus a backup that does not need the boat's power
- VHF tested, DSC registered with the correct MMSI, aerial connection sound
- Compass working and its deviation known
- Torches and a searchlight, with spare batteries
- Sound signalling device aboard
- Phone charged, and a way to keep it charged and dry
The safety briefing
Everyone aboard, guests included, should be shown these before you slip. It takes four minutes and it is the single highest-value item on this page:
- Where the lifejackets are and how to put one on
- How to call for help on the VHF, and the vessel's name and position
- Where the fire extinguishers and the fire blanket are
- Where the liferaft is and what launching it involves
- What to do if someone goes over the side — shout, point, throw
- How to stop the engine, and where the seacocks are
- Moving around on deck: one hand for the boat, and where not to stand
Weekly and monthly
- Weekly — visual check of life-saving gear and its stowage, engines on the tender or rescue boat run, alarms tested, extinguisher gauges and seals looked at, bilges and pumps checked
- Monthly — a fuller inspection with the equipment inventories checked item by item, lights and batteries tested, and anything found written down and fixed
- Annually — liferaft, EPIRB, extinguishers and inflatable lifejackets go to a service agent. Diary the dates so nothing expires mid-season
On a crewed vessel these intervals stop being good practice and become regulation. LSA and FFE checklists sets out exactly what SOLAS requires weekly and monthly, who has to supervise it, and what the log book entry has to show. The drills that sit alongside those checks are run and recorded with muster software.
Making the list do something
A checklist only earns its place if what it finds gets fixed. The failure mode is always the same: the round gets done, a problem is noticed, someone means to deal with it, and three weeks later nobody can remember whether it was.
The Muster App is where crewed vessels keep these as live checklists rather than paper. The check is built once in the admin and completed on a phone in the space being checked, with pass, N/A or fail on each item and a note or photograph on any of them. Items that matter are flagged critical, so a critical failure is named in the notification the moment the check is submitted. Anything that fails becomes a job on the Worklist with an owner and a due date, and every completed check carries the name of whoever did it and exports to PDF. The checklists page shows how it fits together.
What to read next
The superyacht safety checklist covers the regulated set on a 24m+ commercial yacht. ISM maintenance and inspections explains why a failed check has to become a job with a name against it.