When You Live Aboard...

[b-rad]

Do you ever take the boat out for day sails? or does it become to much work and hastle to "play" with you home?

[JusDreaming]

As much as I hate to admit it, when we are not long term cruising, (3 or 4 months), the boat very seldom leaves the dock. As you said it becomes a bit of work, as the boat becomes a shore based home, and stuff just changes on board. But we plan on doing more day sails

[lovsailing]

As liveaboards,we live aboard. We use our boat as a waterfront home in downtown Toronto. We love to travel and have taken our home to the Bahamas twice, for one year adventures. Yes it takes time to move your home, everything must be stowed. But when we do travel our home goes with us.....as does my bed, my toys, my coffee maker, kids toys....etc. We do not day sail much, but we sail a Byte and wakeboard behind our dinghy close to the marina. Make your boat your home and its a blast.

Scott

[sneuman]

Less often than I'd like, but certainly no less than most non-liveaboards. The main problem is that my wife works weekends and I don't, so I am reluctant to take "home" away unless she's there. As a liveaboard, it is possible to make it a snappy affair to cast off. I have tried to maintain a "half hour" rule - it takes a half hour to stow stuff to leave the pier. It's really more like 45 minutes, but we're working on that.

[Sandero]

Cruising mode and live aboard mode are very different despite the fact that the boat is occupied 24/7.

Liveaboards will tend to allow their boat to slip away from "seaworthy". This is not in the sense that it is vulnerable to sinking, but that it is not ready to sail at a few moments preparation.

As a weekend sailor or when I was a cruiser, I could stow some stuff lying about and get the boat going in 10 minutes. When I lived aboard this would take a few hours and I probably couldn't find places to put all the acquired creature comforts and things...

Who is going to work for several hours to sail for a short time and then go through it all again to settle back into mooring mode? Very very few.

[mikeandrebecca]

We only just bought our (first) boat last July and immediately moved aboard her. With that said we went out for day (or overnight) sails frequently as we were trying hard to gain experience.

[Ocean Girl]

Many live aboards are refitting for cruising. I have observed that the closer the person gets to cutting the lines the more the boat is sailed. A few years ago I lived aboard a day sailor style boat that was never going to go offshore, I took her out two to three times a week. If I am refitting/restoring a boat I might take it out twice a month (if that). OG has not gone out yet! I am on the last project on my list titled "what needs to be done in order to sail OG without sinking"

Sometimes it feels as if I am playing dangerously close to becoming a nautical wheeler, but then I remember that cruising is much like a varnish job, 90% of the work is in the prep.

Erika

[Bash]

like sneuman, we maintain a half-hour rule, keeping the boat in such condition that we can be underway in 30 minutes with both of us doing the prep work. it works if you're religious about putting the dishes away after every meal. during the winter months we take it out about three times a month, twice for daysails with friends aboard and at least once every month to anchor out for a long weekend. last month we spent an entire week away from the slip.

winter sailing always takes an extra five minutes because I've got to stow the dehumidifier and strike the rain fly between the dodger and bimini. Otherwise, the biggest obstacle seems to be getting the cockpit cushions organized, since we don't keep them outside when they're not in use.

we've made a conscious decision not to condo-ize the boat. No house plants, no christmas trees, no knickknacks that aren't bolted down. we get our jollies sailing the boat, not prepping it for Better Homes and Gardens.

[Bash]

the longer you let the boat sit between sails, the longer it takes to get ready to sail.

[sneuman]

Originally Posted by Bash

we've made a conscious decision not to condo-ize the boat. No house plants, no christmas trees, no knickknacks that aren't bolted down. we get our jollies sailing the boat, not prepping it for Better Homes and Gardens.

Same here. Living aboard is a wonderful way to force yourself not to overvalue "things" (aside from the boat itself, that is). George Carlin summed it up best:

YouTube - George Carlin Talks About "Stuff"

[Hudson Force]

Like some others posting above, we keep our boat ready for sailing. During the years we've lived aboard, since 1972, we've never kept a dock box or items on the deck. We have "stuff", but nothing that isn't ready for a little "rock & roll". We have always been ready for a sail in the time it takes for our engine to warm. Livng aboard & sailing modes are only different if you choose to keep your boat tht way. 'take care and joy, aythya crew

[Enigma33]

We liveaboard here in UK, we get out whenever we can and very often just local to drop anchor and overnight. Its like -1 or well below that most nights now but with a Tilley Lamp full blast you can still stay snug! We always keep everything in its place and the boat is ready to move in less than 10 mins. We live on our racer (sigma33), we are still getting used to it, its all good though! Even in the British freezing winter, we are definitely heading south as soon as the weather opens up for us.

[forsailbyowner]

When I bought my first boat I'd sail every week. Living aboard I sail more but less often. Instead of 100 miles in a weekend its more like 1000 mi in couple of weeks. Followed by a month of getting to know a new area followed by a couple weeks of sailing, but not too many sails "just to get the boat out".

[Islandmike]

Since landing in Jax Beach last spring our sailing has slowed down to our dismay. However, with the new year we are making a concerted effort to get her our once or twice per month during the winter and hopefully more in the spring. Our boat is basically set up for sailing and only takes 30-45 minutes to prepare to leave the dock. If you are not careful once you get to a dock you can become welded there....

[jkleins]

We had a rule that "everything had to have a place to be brought on the boat" If it didn't have a place while sailing we didn't get it. That was really hard but it allowed us to live aboard in Alameda and sail the Bay every other weekend or so.
We didn't count storage below as "a place" for stuff that was regularly used as it would tend to not get put back.
It also meant that you had to make some interesting compartments and holders for stuff that you did want to have handy. It also made moving off the boat pretty easy. Just two carloads of "stuff".

Jim