The Live Aboard Challange: Not looking like a Float Aboard

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by RainDog

My rules for keeping chaos at bay:

1) Sail every week
2) If you have not used it in 6 months (except spares), its gone
3) Nothing lives on deck (of course stuff often ends up there 'temporarily'), rule #1 helps with this considerably.

Cliff's Notes Version

1) Sail twice a week or more.

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by RainDog

My rules for keeping chaos at bay:

1) Sail every week
2) If you have not used it in 6 months (except spares), its gone
3) Nothing lives on deck (of course stuff often ends up there 'temporarily'), rule #1 helps with this considerably.

Following those rules will keep you lookin' good.
If you walked past my boat, you would not know we lived aboard. then again, that goes for the rest of my pier with at least 4 other live-aboard boats.
A lot of that has to do with marina personnel and how much they will tolerate - in my earlier post.

I love to go through art galleries, what-not shops and flea markets. Living aboard gives me a nice feeling that I can shop without the fear of buying.

[Custom30]

Originally Posted by SVRapture40

And I thought we were the only ones using the car as a storage facility. DANG! I was planning on getting a patent on the idea and buying a bigger boat.

We had always planned to keep one car for storage, and for use when in one place for a while. One day before we made the plunge, the wife came home and said "instead of keeping a car, we should sell all of the cars, and buy a mini-van".

I fell into shock for a few minutes. We had raised our kids and gone through life without succumbing to the mini-van. Mini-vans are ill handling, slow, and ugly. What aliens had kidnapped the wife while she was out?

Long story short, we got one where the seats fold into the floor, and can keep our worldly belongings safe and dry and off the boat while cruising. With everything in it, it's still not stacked up to where it can be seen. We can re-arranged stuff, pop up some seats, and 4 adults can go too. With doors on both sides, stuff you rarely use goes in the middle, then good stuff can be accessed through each side and the back, as well as fom the front.

I know, it's a mini-van. The wife said she could make even a mini-van look sexy, and she's right until I get in.

'

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by Custom30

We had always planned to keep one car for storage, and for use when in one place for a while......

We did that just last month. We sold my Ford P/U truck and my wife's Ford Focus and bought a 2006 Ford E-150.
There are only the 2 front seats and we will be buying a bench seat so we can carry a few passengers. It will double as both transportation and a mini-storage.
We plan to start cruising in about 2 weeks and will have to play leap-frog with the van every couple of hundred miles. As long as I am along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mex., there are Bus Lines to get back to it.

[ardoin]

I'm like RainDog, if I haven't used it in a year and it is not safety gear or spare parts, then it is removed from the boat.
Sailing every week keeps the interior from getting too cluttered.
The car is used to store the 300ft of hose I need to fill the water tanks in the winter.

[TacomaSailor]

Two observations after living aboard in San Diego for the last three some years. We lived here for a year once before but did not collect junk because we knew we were headed for Mexico on an extended cruise.

As mentioned above - GO SAILING EVERY WEEK

We have five levels of storage based on recency of usage:

1 - on the boat
2 - in the dock box
3- In the 8'x4'x8' storage locker at the top of the dock ramp
4 - In the 8'x10'x6' storage locker about 1/4 mile away
5 - In the 20'x8'x8' commercial storage unit about 5 miles away

Once it goes into level 5 it is presumed lost and never to be found again - 'kinda like most of my wife's winter clothing - we know it is in there but can't find it

[Hudson Force]

What am I missing? I have about 5 cubic feet of clothes, mostly folded on a shelf. My wife has a corresponding 6' shelf of folded clothes. We share about 30" of a bar for hanging clothes,- my share is five inches. We have a galley with all the basics, dishes and utensils. I have three pairs of shoes and hand tools. My wife has enough shoes to match my tool space. We each have a laptop and some shelves in the main cabin with a TV, radio, books, some photos an momentos. Under our bench seats are linens, towels, hand vacuum, some personal papers, charts and logs. We have a locker with light stuff,- bulbs, gloves, small line, binoculars, pelorus, spare GPS.... I have a drawer full of photos; spare parts locker; engine oil and other fluids; a couple of bagged sails in the aft cabin, but the aft berths are clear. I keep my life jackets in cases on deck as will as a couple of propane lockers, two kayaks and additional line. The dinghy is on davits. I have some more stuff tucked away on my 41' boat, but I still have four or five empty lockers that have not been occupied since we had the second of two teenagers move off the boat fifteen years ago. Two folding bicycles fit between the aft cabin berths. If I owned a car, I can't think of anything that I would store in it. For the first thirty-one years we lived aboard we did own cars and we did keep work related books and materials in our offices at our job sites, but for the last eleven years we've owned nothing that is not on the boat.

What am I missing? What do people have that doesn't go with you on the boat?

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

What am I missing? What do people have that doesn't go with you on the boat?

Aparently two teenage kids...ha ha ha

[RainDog]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

What am I missing? What do people have that doesn't go with you on the boat?

Mine falls broadly into three categories:

1) Spare parts for the boat. For example someone gave me a brand new fuel tank for my boat. Have not installed it yet, but know i will have to. Storing it saves me the $2000+ dollars it would cost to get one fabricated.
2) Camping and fishing gear. When not on the boat we do a lot of camping. Have no desire to give this up.
3) Catering supplies. I still do a lot of catering, so need to store this stuff somewhere.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

Aparently two teenage kids...ha ha ha

Yes, very funny and likely the true answer! 'though we didn't have any off boat storage before they left!

Rain Dog, Your answer makes sense. I had two 50 gallon water tanks that I had planned to mange some kind of install, but there was no easy fit. I sold them at a loss instead of storing them. 'tough choices!

[TacomaSailor]

We moved out of a 6,000 sq foot house we had lived in for a very long time and there are a lot of things we don't want to have to replace if we move ashore again.

We have a lot of antiques, paintings, sculptures that my wife's grandmother gave her. Someday we will move ashore and my wife wants to keep the things from her grandmother.

We have seven high end bicycles - We have an entire storage unit dedicated to bicycles and serves as a shop as well as storage.

We do a lot of hiking and have shoes, packs, ropes, etc that allow us to enjoy the back country.

We snow ski (downhill and XC) and need a lot of ski equipment and clothes that don't fit so well on the boat....

etc

Just 'cause we live on a boat doesn't mean that we will never return to land nor does it mean that we had to give up all the things we did on land.

Based on the comments I see here - some live aboards have no life other than on the boat and plan to die there!

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by TacomaSailor

We moved out of a 6,000 sq foot house we had lived in for a very long time and there are a lot of things we don't want to have to replace if we move ashore again. ....................just 'cause we live on a boat doesn't mean that we will never return to land nor does it mean that we had to give up all the things we did on land.

Based on the comments I see here - some live aboards have no life other than on the boat and plan to die there!

This is probably the best answer to explain why we have empty lockers and no storage off the boat. We did move aboard straight out of college when all we owned would fit in the back seat of our small car and we've never accumulated a large amount of goods or had a need to downsize. The "no other life ...and plan to die" does sound a little harsh. We had active careers before retiring and we continue many adventures and travels off the boat. I suspect that health will eventually cause us to leave the boat, but I don't see a lack of ownership of a large volume of material as a burden; conversely, we've found a great freedom in non-ownership that allows us great mobility and flexibility. We can be "residents" anywhere for a month with two "carry-ons" and a plane ticket and still poke about on our boat with ease and simplicity.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by TacomaSailor

Based on the comments I see here - some live aboards have no life other than on the boat and plan to die there!

True...and in some ways is the distinction between what I like to term a Live Aboard or Cruiser compared to a Float Aboard.

Now on year 6 of living aboard with the two kids (now 15 and 16) it's not the desire to hold onto material junk that loads our lockers and lately has been spilling on the deck I'm fighting against. But rather controling the extra bits and junk that comes along with trying to live in two worlds. Foootball gear for my son, water polo gear for my daughter, my wife's professional clothes that she wears to work, the focus of the boat isn't sailing or cruising or moving to different anchorages and towns but supporting the life and activities that are taking place just 100ft away onshore.

It's easier for me because I work aboard from the chart table answering phone calls and emails, giving product support and making sales while still wearing my old cruiser clothes. My life has changed very little from Mexico to Morro Bay (ok...except for the good eats). But all around me the signs that we are "not in Kansas anymore" are overwhelming at times. I guess the clutter I'm really talking about has more to do with the clutter of life back in the States than actual clutter of material things. If it was just material things, I could push them overboard when the kids were at school and my wife away at work and no one would reallly miss them.

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

..............What am I missing? What do people have that doesn't go with you on the boat?

My van does not go on my boat. I will be playing leap-frog to keep it with us when we plan to stay somewhere a few months. We are independent when we can be. Without a vehicle we are somewhat dependent on others for shopping, entertainment, visiting friends and family, etc.
Can I fit everything inside my van inside my boat? Yes, but I choose not to.
Every live-aboard boat we have had, starting with the Catalina 25 has never been altered from the designers original plans - no extra shelves and such. We like all the openness we can get in a boat. We store tarps and other misc stuff in the van including out-of-season clothes. It frees up the closets. When working on my boat, I store my supplies that I am not using at the moment in the van. It's a very handy vehicle. I even kept 50cc Scooters in it. No room for them either on the boat.
Usually when we decide to settle in for a year or so we actually rent a mini-storage unit.
Cruising on the coast and inland waterways makes vehicle owning a really nice convenience in life.
Also, when kids and grandkids are visiting, we can empty out some space to increase their comfort. Where does everything go? In the van when it's handy.
Just a somewhat different lifestyle.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by RainDog

We just bought a derelict boat and put it in the slip next to us. Now we pile everything on their decks. When someone asks, we just say they are absentee owners and what a shame it is they are so callous to community standards

genius