we want to live on a boat in key west

[gostanggo]

Originally Posted by CSY Man

Huh...?

Ya have not met a CSY 33 with a 51 HP Perkins 4-108 and a wide-blade prop?





Some sailboats are more like tugboats and can muscle through a Catergory II 'cane.

Do not take sailboats lightly...

is this a diesel? 4 cylinder? i bet i can chug thru a lot! i have not owned a diesel something in years!!

[starfish62]

CSY Man--a CSY is not an ordinary sailboat!

[CSY Man]

is this a diesel? 4 cylinder? i bet i can chug thru a lot! i have not owned a diesel something in years!!

Yeah Dum-Dum, it is a diesel....Most Perkins (blue engines) are diesels.
Yeah, 4 cylinder, all of the above.

a CSY is not an ordinary sailboat!

Hmm, in my book they are..Perhaps not a Thinking Man's sailboat, but a Slow and Sturdy Man's sailboat.

[Tempest245]

Given the objective, livaboard, with Bride, ....I'm with Starfish on the Trawler.


Key West is fun for a day or two...I'd also look elsewhere in the Keys.

[starfish62]

Originally Posted by CSY Man

Hmm, in my book they are..Perhaps not a Thinking Man's sailboat, but a Slow and Sturdy Man's sailboat.

Crab-crushing trawlers with masts.

[CSY Man]

Given the objective, livaboard, with Bride, ....I'm with Starfish on the Trawler.

Agree: Shallow bride, go with trawler.

If she is fat with no sense of adventure, go trawler:

Let her sit in there watching VCR tapes and eating frozen Potato Chips gently cooked in the microwave oven, then have her give ya attitude if realtiy sets in and ya have to move the boat or face a weather window.

# 2: kick the bitch of the boat, bride or not...

[Liberty28]

Living aboard a boat seems to be a favorite method of achieving housing in the Keys. Unfortunately, too many think that they can find a cheap vessel and just anchor out. All vessels in the Keys are required to have their household sanitary wastes (toilet water) collected in holding tanks and pumped out by some kind of a state approved collection device. Direct discharge to the water is forbidden anywhere because all of the Keys waters are a marine sanctuary (near shore direct discharge is prohibited in all US waters). The fact of the matter is that the only way low-income sailors can stay anchored out for any length of time is by breaking the discharge law and screwing up the environment.

The other problem is that when a hurricane comes, these less that ship-shape boats are abandoned and become wards of the state for disposal at $10,000 per boat (rumor has).

I'm not suggesting that you or anyone else on this forum are irresponsible enough to contribute to the problems in the Keys. However, choosing to live aboard a boat in the Keys is not cheap. Boot Key has probably the best setup at a cost of around $300 per month tied up to a buoy in their mooring field and having free weekly pumpouts (the last I heard). You still need to dinghy to shore each day (which can be a royal PITA after the novelty wears off) and you need to be total self-sufficient for energy (propane gas for cooking and solar/wind energy for electricity). Keep in mind that a boat still needs costly maintenance even when anchored up which is covered elsewhere in the forum.

And finally, the last I heard, boat still need to be insured if using public berthing facilities which is an additional cost. I'm not going to go into what you will do with the boat when a category five hurricane is bearing down on your anchorage and you haven't developed a hurricane plan for escape.

Good luck with your endeavors and make responsible decisions in your choices.

Cheers.

[procrew4u]

And again a person who wants to buy a boat, Looking for friendly advice on this site and has to endure abuse, What were you thinking CSY Man, Try for once to give advice and bite your tongue when it comes to information requested as dumb as it might seem. Encourage people, Don't discourage them, My town relies on boaters and boat building and to sit here and read some of the comments that are posted just sickens me. A local boat builder who recently launched Il Mostro has closed it's doors and many people will be out of work. I also teach boating and comments like that take money out of my wallet, so be friendly and help not steer people away from what keeps the industry moving forward,

Gostanggo whatever you decide on, just make sure you have a complete survey before you buy, and I had lived in key west for seven years. Stock Island's safe harbor is under a complete rebuild along with many other marinas in the immediate area and should be safer than being on the hook, check around there for what might serve your needs.

[Tellie]

)....its either a boat or an rv but were leaning toward the boat. i am rather fair mechanic.

any help will do!


For the flavor and experiance of each, buy an RV with a diesel and tow a smaller sailboat. Seems like a great and less expensive way to find out which one you prefer.

[CSY Man]

I was rude in one of the above responses.

My appologies. Bad day..

[gostanggo]

Originally Posted by CSY Man

I was rude in one of the above responses.

My appologies. Bad day..

accepted!! it was a bit funny! x-cept the dum-dum comment

[gostanggo]

Originally Posted by Tellie

)....its either a boat or an rv but were leaning toward the boat. i am rather fair mechanic.

any help will do!


For the flavor and experiance of each, buy an RV with a diesel and tow a smaller sailboat. Seems like a great and less expensive way to find out which one you prefer.

i have thought of this, just not sure yet.

[gostanggo]

Originally Posted by Tempest245

Given the objective, livaboard, with Bride, ....I'm with Starfish on the Trawler.


Key West is fun for a day or two...I'd also look elsewhere in the Keys.

i chose key west because i thought there would be a larger choice of employment options

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by gostanggo

i chose key west because i thought there would be a larger choice of employment options

In Key West, like most of the keys really, the majority of the jobs are in the service industry. Bars, resaurants and hotels. There are of course a few "other" jobs like fishing, boat work, and standard jobs any community would have like doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc but no industry or business of any significance.

If the keys are definitely the place you might also consider Key Largo. If just coastal then consider further north on the FL coast where you would have a much wider range of opportunities.

Skip

[boatpoker]

For a boat ... you can stay on a morring ball just outside of Harrison Bight for about $25.00/day last time I was there. The three anchorages are very rough (as are the people that live there) and not for the novice. Docking fees as previously mentioned are very expensive at 3-4$ per foot of boat length per day or about $2000.00 per month.
For an RV in the Keys its not much different ... about $90.00 to $110/night, not sure what the long term lease rates are.

Boats are much more complicated than cars and many fine car mechanics are lost when it comes to boats.

Sorry to burst your bubble but many people dream of this type of thing without being aware of the expense or problems.