Just bought my boat!!

[catalina38]

I recently purchased a Catalina 38 to live aboard. We are in the planning stages of things now. Getting to know our boat, researching everything, and making plans. Right now my boat is in marina del rey california. I am looking to do some upgrades and would love any info i can get. I am going to upgrade the electronics, add a watermaker, add canvas, and a new fridge/freezer that runs on 12v. Also looking into solar/wind charging system. Anyone that has any advise or is in my area, I would love to hear from you!!!

[Sabbatical II]

Originally Posted by catalina38

I recently purchased a Catalina 38 to live aboard. We are in the planning stages of things now. Getting to know our boat, researching everything, and making plans. Right now my boat is in marina del rey california. I am looking to do some upgrades and would love any info i can get. I am going to upgrade the electronics, add a watermaker, add canvas, and a new fridge/freezer that runs on 12v. Also looking into solar/wind charging system. Anyone that has any advise or is in my area, I would love to hear from you!!!

Congratulations on the new boat! Best advice I can give is that you don't need to burden your other half by letting her know how much boat stuff really costs. Happy sailing!

[Gelfling]

First and foremost.......GRATZ!

I noticed you were in AZ, and having gone to high school and college in the Phoenix area (my family are still there....btw) I found it interesting that you had a boat. But I see that you have it in Cali.

+1 with Greg. I have found that the 'extras' sometimes seems like more than the boat cost! I often feel like the guy with the $2000 car and $3000 rims.

One thing I would suggest, and others will suggest a cheaper route, but I am totally sold on Sunbrella for both the deck canvas AND the cushion covers. I have two bilge rats (daughters) and the durability of Sunbrella has been awesome!

[catalina38]

thank you for the info, I will check out the covers!! And I am the other half.lol My hubby and I are pretty much a joint partnership.

[Irish rambler]

Hi, Congrats on your new boat, there's as many boats as opinions but you can at least make an informed choice afterwards. I have solar power after dismal results with wind gennys. there's a company in Uk called Shoreline Refrigeration.co.uk who make very reliable 12 volt fridge freezers with a very small current consumption, perfect for your boat. The only advice I would give is KISS, too many boys toys in a salt water environment can only have one result. So buy the best tools on the market for your toolbox. Good Luck and enjoy your new found love.

[simonmd]

Congrats on the purchase, lets hope you get some use out of her this summer and dont spend the entire time fitting out like I did with my boat last year!

A word of caution, the gear you mentioned is going to be EXPENSIVE. I too upgraded my boat to liveaboard (and cruising) status last year and added instruments, watermaker, batteries, solar, wind power, etc, etc. and by the end, the bill came to around 10k sterling, so we're talking 15-17k USD easy.

My best advise therefore is to evaluate what you 'need' vs what you 'want'. The biggest one that jumps out is the watermaker. As you state you will be a 'liveaboard', does that mean you'll be based in a marina or do you intend to cruise alot and live off the hook? If you will be mainly marina based, dont bother with one. A relatively cheap one will cost you 3k + and they need to be used regularly to be kept in working order, something that is not advised in a marina as the water quality isnt good enough.

[ixtlan22]

Also, one good set of advice that was given to me as I was putting together my first boat... was to join the Seven Seas Cruiser's Association (just Google SSCA) small fee to join ...even if you're not going cruising right away. They have a pretty up-to-date survey of all their members and the equipment they installed...what worked...what didn't. Of course, there's tons of information here too as there is a small fee to join SSCA.

[McGinnis]

Congrats on the new boat and future home!

You didn't buy Superstar by chance?

[nautical62]

Congrats on your new purchase. I hope she treats you well for years to come.

[catalina38]

No Superstar sold the weekend before we got there.

[catalina38]

For the first year we will be in the marina, but then we plant to pretty much live off the hook. We are going to sail to hawaii then to the south pacific. We only have a 30 gallon water tank. I'm worried about not having enough. Can anyone give me an idea of how much water you go through with two people?

[simonmd]

Ok then, i'd say dont bother with the watermaker until youre ready to go as once fitted and comissioned, you need to use them regularly. I personally bought mine with the rest of my gear last year but put off fitting and testing it untill May this year for that reason.

Sounds like you will need one for the second year as I dare say that a reliable source of fresh water is not going to be easy to come by in the S Pacific plus you'll have less overall weight on the boat as well as you wont need to carry so much to begin with. (always carry enough reserve for emergencies though as if it packs up, you'll be in trouble)

[McGinnis]

Originally Posted by catalina38

For the first year we will be in the marina, but then we plant to pretty much live off the hook. We are going to sail to hawaii then to the south pacific. We only have a 30 gallon water tank. I'm worried about not having enough. Can anyone give me an idea of how much water you go through with two people?

There's plenty of discussion on the forum regarding water consumption and how to reduce it. I think it's mostly between 1-3 gallons per day per person; depending on how much you shower, fresh/raw water wash, water maker or not.

I go through ~4 gallons a day with the dog and I between cooking, drinking, rinsing, showering, etc. I've got 70 gallons between three tanks which gives me about two weeks worth of water.

I'll be in MDR in about a month if you are around and want to swap ideas.

[catalina38]

Would love it!!! Let me know when your going to be around. We could bbq!

[wingNwing]

Congrats on the new boat!

For water use, why don't you spend part of the year you're in the marina just monitoring what you do use, and figure out where you can conserve if you need to? Like the previous poster we find about 3 gal/person/day does everything except laundry.

We put in a Frigoboat keel-cooled refrigeration system, not cheap but certainly power-efficient. Insulate the fridge box(es) as much as you possibly can, then add just a bit more, that will make the biggest impact on your total usage.

Get a battery monitoring system and find out how much power you need to make your life aboard feel comfortable - and not like camping out - before sizing your wind/solar power, so you don't have any surprises. Your laptop computer, for example, is likely to be your biggest power draw when at anchor second only to refrigeration. (Whodathunkit?)

Enjoy the life!