Autonomy is the sailboat's ability to be self-sustaining without going to port, or in the extreme, able to survive the worst disaster and await assistance. We have prioritized autonomy into six elements as follows:

1. Survival gear
2. Ability to navigate in broad set of conditions
   (storms, damage to sails, no electricity, no engine)
3. Adequate & sufficient provisions for broad set of conditions
4. Ability to locate ourselves on map
5. Ability to communicate
6. Last but not least, ability to generate electricity and multi-safe electric backup measures

Here is what we've done aboard O'Comillas:

Survival:

• Self-inflatable fully-equipped liferaft canister (10 pax)
• Radio beacon (ACR Satellite 2 SSM)
• Signals & flares on boat and inside liferaft
• GPS positioning for VHF and SSB radios for distress calls
• Parachute sea anchor

Sailing:

• Reinforced furling mainsail with vertical battens
• Backup furling mainsail (factory standard)
• Furling genoa (factory standard)
• Asymmetric spinnaker
• Furling storm jib on second stay
• Storm mainsail with separate mast track
• Winches that can operate both as power assisted or manually
• Electric and manual bilge pumps
• Two steering wheels
• Two independent autopilot connections to the rudder
  • Self-adjusting pendulum bearings (factory standard)
  • Direct attachment to the rudder axis (backup)
• Emergency tiller

Provisioning:

• Appropriate quantities of food for the entire trip. (Add 25-50% to estimates)
• A refrigerator, a freezer, and a small bar refrigerator with built-in freezer
• Two natural gas tanks (x hours)
• Adequate amount of food that does not require to be refrigerated
• Survival quantities of ready-to-eat food that does not require refrigeration or heating
• 170 Gallons of water, plus potable water bottles for personal consumption

Positioning:

• Seiwa Explorer mkII plotter controller with GPS antenna
• Two portable Garmin GPS (with multiples sets of spare batteries)
• DMR-200 automated tracking system can be connected to a computer to give its location
• Two computers (weather data, course, tracking)
• A Mark 25 sextant, nautical tables & paper charts

Communications:

• VHF radio with two handsets and a backup VHF portable radio
• SSB (single side band) Radio
• Email connectivity over satellite phone or SSB radio
• Weather over email and SSB WeatherFax
• Flares & other visible signals
• Powerful halogen light can be used for signaling

Power:

• Engine battery (80 Amps Gel)
• Main battery bank (Four 140 Amps Gel for a total of 560 Amps separate from engine battery)
• Mastervolt Whisper 3500 (3 kW diesel generator with its own independent battery for self-start & 1 liter/hour consumption)
• Two alternators on main engine (150 Amps per hour)
• Fuel 125 gallons or 360 liters (with additional tank)

Finally, if we need to repair something such as sails, engine, equipment, electronics, etc, there is a huge toolbox with all sorts of tools, spare parts, electrical meter, sewing tools, manuals for everything, and of course duct tape.

Send us email if you have any questions or comments on any of the above. We intend to expand on some of these topics by writing our experiences in the Gear Talk (sidebar) section.