Your Home On The Water

[BillAU]

G'day mates,

I was wondering what size sail-boats/power-boats you live aboard full time, and in comfort, and just how much maintaining your boat for cruising costs you per year. It would also be good to know how often you replace sails on a cruising sail-boat. I'm asking because I have my eye on a few 38' sail-boats and power-boats and one 54' Ketch. A nice big Ketch at a realistic price sound good but...I have no wish to buy something I would not be able to maintain in good order.

Bill
Australia

[islander20]

I've yet to make the move to live aboard but I hope to soon. There is no way I would ever buy a 54 foot boat unless I could afford to pay someone to maintain it full time. Just so much work. Not to mention it would be difficult to handle with a small crew. 35' seems to be a good size for two, in terms of space, maintenance requirements and ease of handling. Though many sail on much larger boats, depends on your budget

[boatman61]

For me 35 - 37ft is perfect... the old timers (before me) reckoned 37ft was perfect for the perfect ride... something to do with wave/troughs... brain fart.. can't remember exactly but some one might...
Decent accomodation, storage space and load carrying ability yet easy enough to handle and maintain solo or +1...
Today there's more variety and money so many go bigger... its simple choices... some are happy with an apartment... others a 4bed detatched.. and I'm not saying that applies to the size of the wallet.
The only real exception to this I'd make is a Cheoy Lee Clipper 48... but thats just LUST..

[sailorboy1]

size matters!

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

size matters!

Nice one... its all in the timing...

[Kache Walk]

For me, my 30ft Nonsuch is perfect. I don't live aboard - I only spend 2-3 nights per week - but I find it is as large as most 36 ft boats inside and beamy enough to live on comfortably. It's also small enough that I take it out sailing often. It's a good single-handing boat, which means I don't have to find folks to come along, which also ups the days I take her out. The PO lived aboard.

[skipmac]

Over the years I have lived on 32', 36', 42' and 60' sailboats. The minimum size you can tolerated is a personal matter and varies a lot from one person to the next. For me I would feel a bit cramped on something smaller than about 30'. However I once met four Germans (two couples) living on a 27' in the Caribbean. I'm pretty sure they were all very good friends.

Another factor, at sea bigger is definitely better. The bigger the boat the easier the motion at sea.

BUT, back at the dock bigger is: harder to handle, usually takes more crew, costs more for everything (docking, sails, fuel, anchors, lines, etc).

Right now I have a 42' and wouldn't want anything much bigger and could be very content with something slightly smaller.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by BillAU

G'day mates,

I was wondering what size sail-boats/power-boats you live aboard full time, and in comfort, and just how much maintaining your boat for cruising costs you per year. It would also be good to know how often you replace sails on a cruising sail-boat. I'm asking because I have my eye on a few 38' sail-boats and power-boats and one 54' Ketch. A nice big Ketch at a realistic price sound good but...I have no wish to buy something I would not be able to maintain in good order.

Bill
Australia

It's pretty much impossible for anyone here to suggest how much it would cost to maintain the boat you're looking at. How much could you DIY? How particular are you? What's the boat made of? How old? Has it been maintained or neglected?

Or old 40 foot steel mono was adequate for one or two people. Sails were probably about 20 years old, but in good nick, as they likely hadn't been used terribly much. They were good enough, the boat didn't sail worth a pinch of **** anyway..

we now live aboard a 44 foot cat, the space is great, but our sails get far more use, and I can see them needing replacement at 10 years or less. In some ways the cat is actually cheaper to run. It's newer, so less stuff breaks or wears out. (So far) We motor much less, and we hardly ever go to marina's. But there's a hell of a lot of paint to try to keep shiny.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by BillAU

It would also be good to know how often you replace sails on a cruising sail-boat.

I count on getting at least 10,000 nm out of a sail.

[SimonV]

Full time live aboard and cruiser. 7 foot extra would be nice but I know my boat and keep her up to scratch. I seem to spend about $3000 per year on Maint/repairs. The Unflatable dinghy's yes two, are the biggest pain but just cost glue, patches and my time.

[BillAU]

Thanks mates, as is often found...Smaller is less expensive

[BillAU]

Originally Posted by SimonV

Full time live aboard and cruiser. 7 foot extra would be nice but I know my boat and keep her up to scratch. I seem to spend about $3000 per year on Maint/repairs. The Unflatable dinghy's yes two, are the biggest pain but just cost glue, patches and my time.

Thanks for that bit of helpful information Simon You have a nice boat, Goodonya there mate

Bill
Australia

[bobconnie]

Connie and I started out with 42 ft and 6 of us aboard, well 5 to start out anyway ! LOL We now have a 51 ft ketch for just the 2 of us LOL But we do have a big family that likes to spend as much time as they can aboard. And we have some friends down here that are becoming good sailors crewing for us! So the extra beds do get some use!! If you feel comfortable with a little bigger, it's worth the extra couple of thou a year in maintaince cost !! As we have waterfront property, we have no dock fees, and we spend more then 90% of are time away from home at anchor so seldom have a marina charge! The extra cost in the places we would use a marina, are small because they are way south !! We do have a few tax benes because of Connie being a travel nurse, but that really had nothing to do with the size of the boat we have ! we got it for cheap, and it needed very little work to get her to sea, and the boat itself talked to us LOL As Connie says "Bigger is better"

[Lancerbye]

Too many variables to answer this easily. The size of a boat is only one variable. Of course if you will spend a lot of time in a marina the cost will go up according to size. Do you have a capable crew? Or just rail meat? What kind of control capabilities do you have to help docking or anchoring? What kind of creature comforts do you need? Can you do the maintenance yourself or will you have to hire?The right boat is different for everyone, depending on their skill levels, their expectations of use, the locations they want to favour, etc. Your requirements also change with age and attitude. I have in my senior years the biggest boat I have ever owned, however it is also the easiest to manouver and provides me with the creature comforts I want at this time in my life. I have owned a number of boats over the years. I call this one senior friendly.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by Bash

I count on getting at least 10,000 nm out of a sail.

If I only got 10 K miles on a sail I'd be changing sailmakers! We're just in the process of spec'ng a new main. Old one (radial dacron) is 10 years old, has done a bit over 42000 miles. Still quite usable, but beginning to be slow to windward.

If I wasn't at least a little performance oriented I'm sure that they could go another ten K or so. That said, I'm really looking forward to the new Hydranet sail that I'm leaning towards!

Cheers,

Jim