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I keep a hand held gps/chartplotter and a hand vhf radio on board for backup. Dual batteries are a must with a single engine, with twins I would have 3 batteries.
The portable units are pretty cheap and gives you more flexibility. I use the portable gps as well as the 10" dash mounted unit at the same time. It is nice to have two independent and separate views. (Ie one in highway mode while the other in full chart mode. )I find this Great for night running when you want a big chart in front of you and the little unit telling you heading/turning info, it is easy to set up and you don't have to touch any of the sceeens when you are running to get any info. This is why I like it because when it is rough and at night #^&#^&#^&#^&ing with the chartplotter buttons is a pita. The portable has a dash mount that I hooked up to the 12V so it runs on the house battery and if that failed you have a couple AA batteries that will give you another 20 hours. I generally run the little one in highway mode while the larger screen is in full chartplotter mode showing me exactly where I am.
The handheld vhf radios are cheap, toss one in the console.
If you go offshore think about getting a personal gps-eprib, the cost has come down a lot and they are just as good as the full blown unit. (except they don't run a quite as long on the battery, but since the average rescue time is something like 50 min I would not worry about it) I bring it with me whenever I go offshore, even on anothers boat. You can't do that with the boat mounted ones, they are registered to the boat, not you.
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