Here you will find a sailing pre-passage checklist to use before you go for a sailing journey. On Britican we live by checklists! Everywhere I look there’s a checklist for one thing or another but by having them in place it really helps to remember important things that can often be forgotten. 
Sailing Pre-Passage Checklist
- Provisions, fuel, water, and gas – make up food for the journey (if it’s day trip I always make carrot and cucumber sticks along with preparing salads or sandwiches. For longer trips, I make several main meals and freeze them)
- Engine checks
- Generator checks
- Safety gear – allocate lifejackets (and harnesses if needed). It’s helpful to label the lifejackets with different numbers so when the crew takes them off and they’re piled up, they can easily identify the correct one later.
- Crew safety briefing
- Crew passage briefing – explain the ‘Passage Plan’
- Crew deck briefing
- Headsail – bending on, sheet leads, changing
- Mast – halyards, topping lifts, etc.
- Mainsail – reefing arrangements, clew outhaul
- Winches – operation, safety, the security of handles
- Ropes and fenders – how to tie on and store
- Watchkeeping duties (keeping a lookout, reporting other vessels, logs)
- Nominate Log keeper as part of the sailing pre-passage checklist
- Get the crew to put on the appropriate clothes
- Prepare yacht for sea: tidy, towed, batten down, secure, shut sea cocks-heads/ sinks
- Sails to be made ready. Reefing?
- Allocate crew mooring duties
- Set mooring warps to slip
- Disconnect the shore electrics
- Prepare to cast off
- Cast off and monitor using fenders
- Once clear of all hazards stow warps and fenders
- Other?
If you like checklists like this sailing pre-passage checklist, check out all my guides in our shop.
Check Out Other Sailing, Maneuvering & Mooring Related Articles and Videos
To get an overview of all our sailing, maneuvering, and mooring related articles and videos, start here: Sailing, Maneuvering & Mooring. Otherwise, check out one of these articles or videos:
- Stern To Med Mooring
- High Wind Sailing Techniques
- How To Tie Onto A Mooring Ball
- How To Leave A Dock
- Anchoring In Poor Holding Anchorages
- Anchoring Complications – Picking Up Someone Else’s Anchor
- Sailing In Storms
- How To Pole Out Your Jib Downwind Sailing
- Sailing With A Gennaker
- Rigging, Sails & Reefing On A Sailboat
- Sailing Pre-Passage Checklist
