wrote in message
6...
Need some advice on safety equipment for sailing a little offshore. Our
plan is to charter a boat and sail out of New York for about 200 miles
than
come back. The idea is to gain some offshore experience but without
taking
too much risk.

There will be six of us, three experienced coastal sailors and three
beginners. I have done a little racing offshore (Newport to Bermuda) and
some limited heavy weather sailing but that's it.

That sounds like a fair amount of offshore experience. The limited
heavy WX is icing in the cake.

The 42' boat will be fairly well equipped with a lifesling, harnesses
etc.

A lifesling is a useless piece of gear for offshore. Harnesses are
essential.

but without a few essential items: liferaft, SSB radio, EPIRB, 2nd
VHF. Can we manage without these?

Only if you don't have any emergencies.

We intend to be at sea for only 4-5 days,
so we should have a fairly good idea about the weather but things can
always change.

4-5 days is a wide WX window. Especially since you will be out of VHF
range and do not have a SSB to get WX updates.


I expect the biggest problem to be seasickness and fatigue among the
beginners. Any advice on managing that?

I suspect that the biggest problem among the beginners is that they might
find out that you are putting their lives in danger. Going that far offshore
without an EPIRB and a liferaft is foolish.


Regards,
Sail