Humiliating Confession & Question

[Dockhead]

How much I used to laugh at big power boats with their loud sound systems, wide screen tv's, all the comforts of home, and those people who sail on them with no clue about the kind of blissful communion with nature we get hanging out on the hook in a deserted cove, needing nothing more than a book, a gin & tonic, a good friend, quiet, and solitude.

But now I am in the process of buying a new boat and changing my lifestyle so that I can spend a few months a year on the water, instead of 2 - 3 weeks. This will not work if I can't get my wife more interested in sailing than she is at present. I have been able to drag her off for my summer cruise for the last few years, and she does get it, to some extent, but she does not much like the discomfort -- especially conservation of water and so forth -- it involves. So the boat I am buying is bigger and more comfortable than what I would need for myself, and has generator, watermaker, laundry facilities, and so forth, so she can wash clothes and shower as long as she likes.

She is a strong swimmer and loves to be in salt water, so this is a plus. But she's tall and thin and 15 years younger than me and she's cold all the time in conditions I find comfortable (so much for cruising the Baltic). She loves hot tubs (something I loath), plus she thinks that sea water is good for her skin, and it occurred to me that I might be able to kill three birds with one stone and buy one of those inflatable hot tubs to set up on the after deck with sea water, like the "yachtub". The boat has got Webasto hydronic heating, so it will be relatively simple to set up, taking heat from the boat's central heating system. I know that we will look just like all those idiots I laughed at for so many years, but if it helps build support from my wife -- I'm ready to be laughed at, I guess.

The question: any of you guys have any experience with such a setup? Does it work? The only information about the "yachtub" I can find on the web is propaganda from the manufacturer.

OK, stop laughing already.

[bstreep]

I think there was a thread around here recently about a floating hot tub. Try Welcome to Tug Tub.

I'm thinking putting a hot tub on your deck would/could stress it beyond it's intended load.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by bstreep

I think there was a thread around here recently about a floating hot tub. Try Welcome to Tug Tub.

I'm thinking putting a hot tub on your deck would/could stress it beyond it's intended load.

Thanks -- that looks interesting.

I'll check the deck loadings but I don't think a ton or so of water on the afterdeck would be any problem (the boat displaces 20 tons and is pretty robustly constructed). But floating behind might also work.

[cdennyb]

I would think majority of sailboats are designed to take a LOT of green water across and on top of the deck. A small tub like that wouldn't put a dent in it (figuretivly speaking LoL)==
although if you look closely to the design, it depends on a significant portion of the "tub" to be below the waterline, on the deck this wouldn't have much side-board height as compared to the water. Look it over closely before you choose to load it up on deck, I think the water would be fine just as it's shown in the brochure and web site.

Not too good in the Alaskan Inland passage though... LoL

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by cdennyb

I would think majority of sailboats are designed to take a LOT of green water across and on top of the deck. A small tub like that wouldn't put a dent in it (figuretivly speaking LoL)==
although if you look closely to the design, it depends on a significant portion of the "tub" to be below the waterline, on the deck this wouldn't have much side-board height as compared to the water. Look it over closely before you choose to load it up on deck, I think the water would be fine just as it's shown in the brochure and web site.

Thanks. Anyone actually use this device? Or something like it?

[James S]

A friend found an old black inflatable life raft off the coast of Guam many moons ago, and gave it to us…..we filled it with sea water and left it along side...it was great….hot.
We were moored out and it was the center of lots of great parties.

[BlueSovereign]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Thanks. Anyone actually use this device? Or something like it?

NOW I've seen everything! What is the world of cruising being reduced down to? Next there will be floating masseuse tables!

Joking aside, I could see a lot of my guests loving something like this.

I hope you receive some feedback to your query.

[Southern Star]

Dockhead, as I recall not long ago one sailboat manufacturer (and I forget which) was proudly advertising the fact that their cockpit could also be used as a jacuzi. Frankly, not something that interests me, but as a location it should be perfect: with plugs in the cockpit drains it will be watertight, it will have been designed to withstand a flooding, it will be above the waterline and hence easy to drain. Someone must sell kits for custom tubs and I would imagine that you will have space in cockpit lockers etc., to install the jets, hoses and pump. Obviously, you need water-tight plugs for the jets when not in use, but that shouldn't be too hard to arrange.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress with the hot tub as well as the relationship - in my experience, a woman who finds sailing a hardship on a boat of your size, is going to find it uncomfortable no matter what gear you have installed.

Brad

[gonesail]

hunter now has a whirlpool hot tub under the rear berth in their new 50 CC model.

[David M]

There is nothing wrong with living comfortably if you can afford it. Whats it matter if others think that sailing should be an uncomfortable macho endeavor in order to remain "pure"? Let them laugh at you while you and your younger, slender, sexy wife wave back from your hot tub.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by BlueSovereign

NOW I've seen everything! What is the world of cruising being reduced down to? Next there will be floating masseuse tables!

.

That's pretty much the way I look at it. It's a truly awful concept.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by David M

There is nothing wrong with living comfortably if you can afford it. Whats it matter if others think that sailing should be an uncomfortable macho endeavor in order to remain "pure"? Let them laugh at you while you and your younger, slender, sexy wife wave back from your hot tub.

That is an exceptionally gracious and kind thing to say, and in general you have all been pretty nice about this.

I would, by the way, never say that sailing should be an uncomfortable macho endeavor. But really, if extraordinary wife-pleasing measures were not urgently needed, everything which makes it more complicated and more expensive and which -- most of all -- distracts from that magical communion with the sea and with nature -- is just counterproductive. I would never have such a thing on board, nor a television, nor anything else of the sort.

My wife is an odd case. On the one hand, she can't stand to be cold, can't stand to not be able to wash clothes, and refuses to conserve water. She gets motion sickness in a car. On the other hand -- the last time I had her on the water, we were chartering in the Windward Islands in the off season, and the very first day we ended up in a vicious wind against current situation, with 20 foot seas, and I was scared sh***less, white knuckles on the helm trying to avoid a broach on an unfamiliar boat. She, on the other hand, was lounging on the aft deck in her bikini and holding on to a stanchion, completely happy. When we got to our destination and I got the hook down, wiping the sweat off my brow and trying to control my shaking, she said: "That was fun! Now I understand why you like this!"

So I can only hope to find some way to bring out the second tendency, while mollifying the first. A seawater jacuzzi might score some points. We'll see.

[Cheechako]

If you have room for the inflatable hot tub... why not! They come with the pump and heater etc dont they?

[David M]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

That is an exceptionally gracious and kind thing to say, and in general you have all been pretty nice about this.

I would, by the way, never say that sailing should be an uncomfortable macho endeavor. But really, if extraordinary wife-pleasing measures were not urgently needed, everything which makes it more complicated and more expensive and which -- most of all -- distracts from that magical communion with the sea and with nature -- is just counterproductive. I would never have such a thing on board, nor a television, nor anything else of the sort.

My wife is an odd case. On the one hand, she can't stand to be cold, can't stand to not be able to wash clothes, and refuses to conserve water. She gets motion sickness in a car. On the other hand -- the last time I had her on the water, we were chartering in the Windward Islands in the off season, and the very first day we ended up in a vicious wind against current situation, with 20 foot seas, and I was scared sh***less, white knuckles on the helm trying to avoid a broach on an unfamiliar boat. She, on the other hand, was lounging on the aft deck in her bikini and holding on to a stanchion, completely happy. When we got to our destination and I got the hook down, wiping the sweat off my brow and trying to control my shaking, she said: "That was fun! Now I understand why you like this!"

So I can only hope to find some way to bring out the second tendency, while mollifying the first. A seawater jacuzzi might score some points. We'll see.

Great story. I am sort of in the same boat with my wife. She likes her life's little conveniences. So with our next boat, we already know will be going the semi-condo route.

[Boracay]

If the reports that I have read are true then parts of the Caribbean are already at hot tub temperatures.
So, the solution is simple.
Don't put a hot tub on your boat.
Put your boat in a hot tub.