Top 10 boating gear

Every year the anticipation builds. Boating high season! We spend a whack of our precious time and money getting our craft ready. Then we head out for our much-anticipated holidays with a boatload of gear and all kinds of great ideas.

Sometimes it doesn't go according to plan, but each and every boating holiday reveals its fair share of successes, too.

There are the eternal good-news stories, like the sheer joy of kids messing about in boats. Everywhere we have looked this year, including aboard our cruiser, there have been laughing, smiling and screaming budding boaters on a wide range of watercraft, water toys and accessories.

Holiday fishing is another thing. Even if we don't catch Jonah, we always get a few to bend the rod and zing the line through the guides and click the drag.

Of course, we are only just starting to get into high gear for this boating season. Nevertheless, here are 10 things that have worked for our family afloat thus far. Take from this coddled list what you will, but there are certainly some standout successes with our new on-board kit.

Of them all, the stinger suits with an SPF 50 sun-rating factor are by far biggest winners (and losers of the catwalk). The head-to-toe Lycra suits coupled with the latest surfing hats with clips mean you need only sunscreen your face, ears, neck and back of hands every few hours of constant outdoor and in-water play. Hats even stay in place during off-the-boat bombs!

Additionally, the added protection of the stinger suits means we haven't been eaten by sandflies or stung by lice as often this year. And while they make you a tad cool when wet and its windy, which might be a good thing, you can add a zip-up wetsuit top or, as our kids do, a PFD 3 for warmth.

With a little luck, by the end of summer this list will have grown to 20 things that have worked aboard. As for the things that didn’t work, well, we are working on fixing them, too.

1. Hooded Lycra stinger suits and surf hats: These suits take the old “slip, slop, slap” Sunsmart motto to the next level and add considerable protection from the sun and biting insects when you are playing around the flats and mangroves, pumping yabbies, catching crabs, prawning and swimming where lice and jellyfish are about. The head-to-tail stinger suits with zips are easy to don and dry out between wears in a few hours. They have probably paid for themselves in saved sunscreen, not to mention being kinder on your boat (sunscreen can stain teak decks, fibreglass and clears). Add a pair of reef shoes and a surfer's hat with a strap and you have head-to-toe protection, requiring just a sunscreen of the face and neck. Search "Lycra stinger suit" for local suppliers like Adrenalin (adults $90, kids $75 with hood). Perhaps not the most fashionable things, but who cares when you're talking skin cancer.

2. DemerBox: This is a bit of audio indulgence, but the fully waterproof boom-box with Bluetooth in a Pelican case has been a huge hit. From cockpit to tender and the beach, the DemerBox let's you enjoy your music and crank-up your playlists from your phone in the full marine environment. The sound quality is excellent, the rechargeable battery is ridiculously long and strong, and there's room remaining inside the waterproof box to carry your phone and wallet to shore. Made in the US, the DemerBox costs about US$400 plus shipping. We don't use our inbuilt cockpit speakers any more. Or take it and the kids to the bow.

3. Portable barbecue: There are always restrictions on where you can and can't barbecue ashore. But providing you're not breaking the law and local fire bans, there's nothing quite like a real barbecue to get you slobbering. The instant portable and disposable barbecues from Bunnings for about $5 are always a winner with us. Between meals of fresh fish aboard, we enjoy a thick-cut barbecued steak on our disposable barbecues. Extinguish with water after the final round of marshmallow toasting and fold up into a little pile of rubbish to store back aboard. Of course, steaks in sealed Cryovac packaging have the longest fridge life. Supermarkets sell a lot of this packaged meat now.

4. SodaStream: I don't know about you, but carting drinks to the boat is a real chore. Of course, not everyone has an onboard watermaker, but everyone spending time aboard or camping has a water source. The SodaStream has been a great Christmas gift and godsend, turning our desalinated product into delicious low-mineral water and a variety of flavoured kids’ drinks (as treats) when you add the syrup. Instead of boxes of bottles we've just got this one battery-less carbonating machine and a spare CO2 cartridge aboard. A winner for about $80, plus $30 for replacement cylinders, at Harvey Norman.

5. Kids' fishing outfits: Kids are hard on tackle and by the end of the holiday season you will find your gear needs some real maintenance and cleaning if the little guys have been all over it. That's why you're best to buy dedicated tackle for the kids. The good news is that tackle has never been cheaper and better value for money. We bought each of our kids a $40 spin outfit loaded with 4kg line (we spooled them ourselves with quality pink Ande monofilament) and they've nailed a bunch of whiting, flathead and bream already. Should these outfits bite the bullet before next summer holidays, no worries, they're cheap enough to be considered disposable and will have served their purpose. Once they can look after their tackle, better quality outfits are in store.

6. Prawn lures: Everyone including a vast array of fish loves soft-plastic lures. But once again the prawn patterns have proven the biggest hits this summer. Make sure you have a selection of prawn soft-plastic lures with a variety of jig-head weights for various tidal and weather conditions. Flick the lures around the flats and sandy drop-offs that typically pervade most desirable anchorages and estuary boltholes, ideally around dawn and dusk and during the first few hours of the falling tide. Flathead, flounder, bream, whiting and more are your targets. You can catch dinner quick as that. The affordable kids' fishing outfits will work just fine for these light-tackle lure-casting sessions. Just make sure the prawn lure is bouncing along the bottom on the retrieve. At dusk, change to a squid jig and work your boat’s lights. About $10 for three lures and $10 for a squid jig.

7. Yabby pump: Low tide comes around at least daily when you are boating. It's an opportune time to hit the flats with the yabby pump and collect a bucketful of pink nippers for bait. Nippers love pumping nippers and it's a heap of fun. When the tide turns, fish like whiting make their way back over the flats. If you change the water a few times a day and remove the dead ones, your nippers will last for ages in a deep bucket. Every time you want to fish, just hook a live nipper in the tail and lob it out. You'll be surprised how many species you catch and the number of keepers that make decent eating. Look after your pump, with a freshwater flush and greasing of the nut at the end. Spare washer kits are worth carrying aboard. We have owned a few brands of pump but the Alvey model in the king size is by far best in terms of longevity, corrosion-resistance, comfort and productivity. About $70 from BCF.

8. Paddle boards: Before the wind gets up is the time to strike out for shore or just a tour of the foreshore in your paddle craft. Kayaks are preferred for fishing, but stand-up paddleboards or SUPs are all the rage for mooching about. You can pile the kids aboard for some capsizing fun, add a waterproof satchel and run an errand for fresh milk or ice creams, or just practice your balance and build your core strength with a 30-60 minute morning paddle of the glassy anchorage. You'll be surprised how many fish you see and the recky can become the basis for a return stealth fishing trip. I have caught some studd whiting by flicking live nippers ahead of the fish from my SUPs. About $800-$1000 for an inflatable, a bit more for a good one with carbon paddle.

9. Dive gear: It might be obvious for many readers, but our kids are only now getting into diving. They can pass a lot of time snorkelling about the shallows looking at the glassies, baby bream and whiting, hermit crabs, nipper holes, and bigger fish scooting past. It's worth getting your kids decent masks and snorkels and flippers that fit. Add the aforementioned Lycra stinger suit or a wetsuit and they're protected from sunburn, too. When they're a bit older you can add a handspear and tell them to get dinner. That's our plan. About $30 for a kids diving kit, a but more for your kit.

10. Digital cameras: It’s impossible to keep up to speed with the world of cameras, video, drones, WiFi and social media apps these days. The good news is that there are heaps of affordable waterproof cameras that take great pics and video, waterproof pouches that turn your phone into a decent camera, cheap drones for sale at all the big department stores, and with all the social media platforms you can get creative and self-publish your boating holiday exploits and share the fun. The return of the 'Instamatic' has been a boon for our kid’s this summer, with they're onboard boating journals and logbooks looking great. Make time for photography, especially when the light is heavenly and capture those exceptional moments and mementos to tide you through till your next boating holiday.

Hopefully, by the time the summer of 2016 comes to a close, this story detail the Top 20 things that have worked in the boating holidays…