Is liveaboard lifestyle a dying lifestyle

[SV THIRD DAY]

You will probably be SAFE to assume that every boat you buy has Fuel Tank/Fuel Issues.
Finding a Clean Fuel Tank on a used boat is about as rare as a clean diaper in the morning on a 6 month old.

[sailorboy1]

Guess it depends on definition of "clean" was once a fuel tank is used it is never clean again. My boat is 18 years old, I've never cleaned the tank.

[jkindredpdx]

Admittedly my housing includes 35 foot Sedna and a mountain cabin... because it's hard to snow-ski on the sea. My expenses are still considerably lower than owning or renting a house. I suspect there are others like me that are not full-time cruisers, keep their boat in a marina part of the year, but don't subscribe to a "traditional" lifestyle.

[Hardhead]

I think there used to be a higher bar to becoming a cruiser. Celestial navigation, no TV on board, maybe no real electricity. A lot of varnishing & high maintenance wood boats were self-selecting bars, that only let a certain breed of person through. Take offshore fishing for example. It used to be you would see very few boats all the way out at the continental canyons fishing. Now there are hundreds on a weekend, and maybe 5% could get back to port without a GPS. People who did it acted like gentlemen, now they act like "Wicked Tuna." Same with "cruising" I think. Anchoring was free, and no harassment - now it's swamped with everybody and their brother, and there are a lot of bad apples that serve to speak for "cruisers" as a whole - one derelict boat makes more of an impression than a hundred that are well behaved. Those people who get into it now are just not as committed as someone who bought a wood boat, and learned celestial navigation. More are disillusioned and drop out, because they were disillusioned getting into it, IMO.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Capt.Tom

Fuel Polishing system sounds great ! Not going to talk about the boats I delivered where the owners said ther fuel was clean and after 1 day in heaven seas out of the tropics, the fuel lines were sucked flat... one boat we pulled two 55 gallon drums of bacteria out of the 3 tanks and went through 12 Racore filters, the big ones...
Tough to keep bacteria down in the tropics...

Our boat is slightly south of the tropics but does spend time there.
When we got her the tanks were half full with 3500 litres of ten year old discoloured diesel.
No biocide, no fuel polishing system, no bug.

12 mths later and our fair share of slopping around, we changed the 2020 filters (racor 1000fg x 2) and they were clean.
A further two years on and they are still clean.
Tanks rarely get above half full, no biocide, no fuel polishing system, no bug.

I put it down to proper fuel tanks and no deck fillers.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Hardhead

I think there used to be a higher bar to becoming a cruiser. .......................................... More are disillusioned and drop out, because they were disillusioned getting into it, IMO.

Actually even today I feel cruisers and liveaboard are a very small percentage of boaters. I'm currently in a 250+ boat marina and think there's only 5 boats with full time people on them

[accomplice]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Actually even today I feel cruisers and liveaboard are a very small percentage of boaters. I'm currently in a 250+ boat marina and think there's only 5 boats with full time people on them

I agree, but I don't see it as black and white. IMHO, there is no sharp line between those descriptions.

I am on our boat 18-20 weeks a year. Only perhaps 20 days of that am I passaging offshore. I may spend up to 30 night a year on the boat in the same location. Does that make me a liveaboard, a cruiser, or neither?

[john61ct]

Cruising does not mean offshore, could be the ICW or canals of Europe.

If marina-assisted, it does mean regular travel of some sort.

Liveaboard does not necessarily mean 12 months out of the year, but certainly not just for regular holidays without "occasional" or part-time as qualifiers.

Obviously many liveaboards are cruisers, but stationary ones are not.

Those jetting in to visit their crewed vessel in my book are neither.

[Capt.Tom]

Originally Posted by jkindredpdx

Admittedly my housing includes 35 foot Sedna and a mountain cabin... because it's hard to snow-ski on the sea. My expenses are still considerably lower than owning or renting a house. I suspect there are others like me that are not full-time cruisers, keep their boat in a marina part of the year, but don't subscribe to a "traditional" lifestyle.

How about water skiing ? lol You can do that on the ocean... Not behind a displacement hull sailboat but surely behind one of those foil racing cats... Not sure anyone has tried that. Skiied behind a friends dinghy once...15 hp, glass bottom inflatable. Wouldn't pull me out of the water. Went from sitting on a dock and slingshot me..

Living or staying on your boat is all about the same thing. Many different reasons for doing it. Nothing wrong with a marina. You meet people with similar interests and can walk away from your boat with out worrying to much about it... You cant leave a boat on the hook for months, weeks or even days and not worry about it. ( I'm not talking mooring)
Best to keep your boat at a dock or mooring when you are away and come back to use it as much as you want... Yacht Clubs can be cheaper, but not always...
The lifestyle is what you make of it... Yours is to bop around and enjoy different places... That's your lifestyle. Many might be envious... Enjoy what you can, when you can.

[Sojourner]

There is another interesting definition/point of cruising that was pointed out to me (as a very nice compliment) recently.... If you enjoy and make use of the freedom it gives you.

We were going to sail from Palermo to Greece and explore the Ionians this season, and return back to Palermo for the winter in November, and return and go farther next season. Got to Corfu and fell in love with a tiny marina and the general area, gave up our palermo winter berth for one here, and have been within the same 20 mile radius for 2 months, and won't be going farther than that this season at all. We're not cruising around the world just now, and aren't even moving for many days at a time, but surely are still cruisers in that freedom to be able to decide to change your home country over the course of a single beer. Like I have said many times, I thought motorcycling was freedom. Compared to this, no way.

[Capt.Tom]

Originally Posted by Hardhead

I think there used to be a higher bar to becoming a cruiser. Celestial navigation, no TV on board, maybe no real electricity. A lot of varnishing & high maintenance wood boats were self-selecting bars, that only let a certain breed of person through. Take offshore fishing for example. It used to be you would see very few boats all the way out at the continental canyons fishing. Now there are hundreds on a weekend, and maybe 5% could get back to port without a GPS. People who did it acted like gentlemen, now they act like "Wicked Tuna." Same with "cruising" I think. Anchoring was free, and no harassment - now it's swamped with everybody and their brother, and there are a lot of bad apples that serve to speak for "cruisers" as a whole - one derelict boat makes more of an impression than a hundred that are well behaved. Those people who get into it now are just not as committed as someone who bought a wood boat, and learned celestial navigation. More are disillusioned and drop out, because they were disillusioned getting into it, IMO.

I agree with you.... To many out there that have no clue but point and go.... The modern electronic age has brought that fact to us... Some operate their boat like a video game... Not enough time spent gaining knowledge of how it all works and rules of the road... Its not just on the water this happens... tried to walk around NYC today and people were walking around all over the place, not keeping right and just plain cutting me off. I felt like I was in Newport Harbor, under full sail with 25 knots, on forth of July.

[Capt.Tom]

Originally Posted by accomplice

I agree, but I don't see it as black and white. IMHO, there is no sharp line between those descriptions.

I am on our boat 18-20 weeks a year. Only perhaps 20 days of that am I passaging offshore. I may spend up to 30 night a year on the boat in the same location. Does that make me a liveaboard, a cruiser, or neither?

That makes you a sailor....

[fivecapes]

Originally Posted by Capt.Tom

How about water skiing ? lol You can do that on the ocean... Not behind a displacement hull sailboat but surely behind one of those foil racing cats...

No foils needed, couple of 13yr old videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lqmBJLciEY

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWINygISxDE

at 3:15

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Sojourner

There is another interesting definition/point of cruising that was pointed out to me (as a very nice compliment) recently.... If you enjoy and make use of the freedom it gives you.

We were going to sail from Palermo to Greece and explore the Ionians this season, and return back to Palermo for the winter in November, and return and go farther next season. Got to Corfu and fell in love with a tiny marina and the general area, gave up our palermo winter berth for one here, and have been within the same 20 mile radius for 2 months, and won't be going farther than that this season at all. We're not cruising around the world just now, and aren't even moving for many days at a time, but surely are still cruisers in that freedom to be able to decide to change your home country over the course of a single beer. Like I have said many times, I thought motorcycling was freedom. Compared to this, no way.

BUT... you got stuck before you started hitting the truly remarkable spots just 20.1 miles south.

[Hartings]

I think you need to accept that times change - not necessarily for the worse and things 20/30 years ago were not necessarily better. Always hankering after the ‘good old days’ is a very limiting pastime and runs the risk of making you a grumpy old man. Embrace change and enjoy today.