Distance from you to your boat?

[belizesailor]

Seasonal cruiser, so depends on time of year. Up until a couple of years ago, the boat was on my dock at home on the Rio Dulce in the offseason (hurricane season). Handy for offseason maintenance. Better yet, I had trained my guys back on the Rio to all the routine maintenance, so I just had to supervise...very handy.

But now boat is layed up in Panama for the offseason...and I will have to do all the offseason maintance and prep when I return...that sucks...sure miss that part of having on my own dock.

[solarbri]

My boat is about 2000 miles away in San Carlos, Mexico. I live in SE Idaho.
All summer I work in Idaho so I can go live on the boat for 4-6 months at a time in the winter.
It is financially stressful!
Works for me, however my girlfriend is losing interest in this lifestyle...or maybe there's more too it than she's letting on.
;(

[Steve W]

12 minutes but I am thinking of changing slips, cutting it down to 11 minutes.

[Freerider]

50ft from the house, in the front yard, not much good for sailing though. We're 250km from good sailing waters.

Should be cruising by the end of the month though.

[xeon_tsd]

I have one in the garage that i never take out... and one in Kemah, 3 hours away. Right now with the kids soccer I dont get to Kemah. During the summer I would work from the boat for a week at a time. If the boat needs work.. unless you can go stay on it and work on it for a week + at a time hope you have the cash to pay some one else.

[J_m]

If you are 2 day drive from the boat you'll need to figure out how to spend blocks of time on it .. think partial seasonal liveaboards... hopefully your job is flexible and you can also work remotely from boat - at least a little. We are in a similar situation and with the right job and advanced planning it works pretty well. It is more difficult to do projects .. especially those unplanned surprises .. and you do need to find a trusted party to help watch your boat while you are away.

Good Luck!

[AllEars]

Why not just sail it south and keep it close to home?
My boat is just half an hour away and at times that's too much.

[nautical62]

One thing I find that matters more than overall distance is whether or not I was able to drive my own car. Driving to the boat in my own car, means I can bring all my tools to do work on the boat, I can run to local hardware or marine stores easily, I can bring with me specialty items that are not available locally and can't easily brought on a plane. I can do some projects at home at my own work bench and transport them to the boat.

Flying to a boat location, places many limits on the ability to do the above. For my last cruise, I flew to the BVIs and sailed my Beneteau back to the states. Compared to trips I outfit from the states, I was under equipped. It just wasn't practical to do or obtain many of the same things.

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by builder dan

Mine is a twelve minute drive Its awesome am quite often working even closer so stop off on way home for a cuppa and a quick nana nap,before heading home to the teenagers and there racket.Am sure its the only thing which keeps me sane.

So true builder dan.
Man Cave, spa for the mind, and sanctuary. I think this could be the main reason land-lubbers think we spend too much time "working" on our boats.

[jongleur]

We lived on our boat and cruised for
several years here in California. Went
to Mexico for a while.

Now we're looking at the Pacific NW
where we have chartered in the past.

I sail on a 14 foot Laser here at home.

Sounds like a person to check in on the
boat would be a good idea.

If anyone has someone in the
South Puget Sound area that they trust
to look after a sailboat in my situation,
could you let me know?

[Bestathook]

I live 2 city blocks from my boat, so my boat is mainly for sailing.

Once the maintenance backlog builds up, people tend to stop visiting their boats.

But many people keep their boats here at the coast both for sailing and as a vacation home. Some never leave the marina at all.

A long distance is rough for sailing, but lots of people keep a vacation home far away from their residence.

It depends a lot on how you intend to use your boat.

[kthoennes]

This discussion is making me think it would be really cool if we could use this forum, or develop an app, to build a network of fellow boat owners to check each others' boats. You know, just a cursory check once in a while, a pair of remote eyeballs. Make sure the waterline is still where it's supposed to be and the bilge pump isn't pumping out its last thousand gallons before it dies.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by zeehag

i live on my formosa full time and cruise it full time,and i keep my ericson in sd, about 2000 miles north of me..i dont see that one much anymore but the caretaker is a good soul. june is my liberation from that boat.

I probably saw your Ericson as I was dinghying over by the Coronado bridge a few weeks ago.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

25 feet. Not recommended. My boat is in my yard and 16 miles from anywhere to launch. Liveaboard would be better.

I had a wooden boat in Seattle and I was transferred to Norfolk. Again, not recommended. Could not keep up the maintenance and had to sell it. Broke my heart.

Hey...You could still liveaboard!

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by kthoennes

This discussion is making me think it would be really cool if we could use this forum, or develop an app, to build a network of fellow boat owners . . .

Not a bad idea. . . My neighbors and I exchange phone/text numbers and let each other know when we'll be gone for awhile. I've also seen emergency phone numbers posted on glass. . . last spring some ducks nested on-deck under my neighbors dinghy. Now that was an emergency.