List all topics --> Living on board a boat --> How is it like to live on a boat?
Anonymous user
02 April 2007 19:20:43 |
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How is it like to live on a boat?
What main materials do you need to go out on a boat and live?
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EDuncan
02 April 2007 19:30:18 |
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Joined: April 2007
Location: Cumberland, United States
Posts: 1
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
| What main materials do you need to go out on a boat and live? |
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~Erica
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Anonymous user
21 June 2007 18:41:07 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
water and food may help :)))
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Anonymous user
25 June 2007 19:16:50 |
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How is it like to live on a boat?
its fantastic - been lining on a boat for 25 years now! when you get fed up with one area you just up anchour and away!
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Anonymous user
30 June 2007 14:48:38 |
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How is it like to live on a boat?
living on a boat is the best thing i have ever done! FREEDOM!
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sailmatch
02 July 2008 12:46:46 |
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Joined: July 2008
Location: Spain
Posts: 6
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
If you wish to give up living on land alltogether it is quite liberating to just live on your boat - like being a gypsy but on the sea. I am a single handed female sailor living on my boat with a cat for company but I meet loads of new people all the time and I am not living in a box going to work like an ant everyday. It's much cheaper than living on land and free from a lot of the regulations forced on us nowadays. Practicly - wooden boats are beautiful but require constant upkeep - fibreglass is much easier to maintain - steel or aluminium are solid boats and easily spotted on radar. Condensation is a pain depending on the climate but easier to manage than many problems that you encounter with house maintenance. Hope this helps - I can give you more information if you want.
Sassy
http://www.sailmatch.com
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 | | linnetwoods
17 July 2008 19:57:51 |
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Joined: July 2008
Location: Palma Nova, Spain
Posts: 11
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
| What main materials do you need to go out on a boat and live? |
You need plenty of clean drinking water and water to wash in (even if it's just a rinse after bathing in sea water). Plenty of food supplies in case the weather gets unpleaant and you don't want to have to go ashore to shop. You need patience, a sense of humour and a willingness to learn how to do things for yourself unless you have a very large amount of money to spend...
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Anonymous user
24 July 2008 18:50:40 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
We want a to buy a 60" ish ketch or sloop to take us to Gran Can for a life change - any ideas?
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| | linnetwoods
24 July 2008 20:02:59 |
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Joined: July 2008
Location: Palma Nova, Spain
Posts: 11
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
A 60' sloop is going to have a very large, and heavy, sail. If you are taking a beefy crew along, no problem but if you are planning to travel short-handed, the ketch is a much better idea. Apart from sails being easier to manage on a ketch, you have the advantage that, in many winds, she will sail herself once you have set up the sails and helm suitably, so you don't need an autopilot.
If the weather is too rough for that, it's probably too rough for an autopilot anyway and on a ketch, you can heave-to (put the staysail over to one side and the helm hard over in the opposite direction and bob about calmly like a cork until the storm has abated) which maks all the difference between gritted teeth and a game of cards in the peace and quiet of the saloon while the winds howl outside...
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The pen is mightier than the sword. Except when the other guy has the sword...
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Anonymous user
25 July 2008 12:30:08 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
fabby - but space is very important to us. we have a min pin (dog) and would like to feel that the boat was our home. I would be very worried about crossing the atlantic or any large ocean in anything smaller...
A 63' Motor Sailor Ketch would be too big for for two strong lads then do you think?
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| | linnetwoods
25 July 2008 12:59:39 |
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Joined: July 2008
Location: Palma Nova, Spain
Posts: 11
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
No, I think a motor sailor ketch sounds ideal!
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The pen is mightier than the sword. Except when the other guy has the sword...
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Anonymous user
25 July 2008 16:59:14 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
What type of Ketch Motor Sailer would you recommend?
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| | linnetwoods
25 July 2008 23:10:34 |
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Joined: July 2008
Location: Palma Nova, Spain
Posts: 11
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
One that is as basic as possible - years of long experience have taught us that the only electronics we really feel we need on a two-masted vessel are GPS and radar. A depth sounder is nice, as long as it goes on working, but it's a good idea to have some stout thin line and a lump of lead as a standby in case a barnacle decides to take up residence on the transponder...
As far as I'm concerned, fibreglass is king - it responds well to treatment but doesn't disintegrate if you're too busy doing other things to do much in the way of maintenance. You are also much more likely to find that what you see is what you get with plastic.
A steel boat can be freshly painted and gleaming on the outside and turn out to be dangerously rusted when you get down in the bilges inside the hull... Wood requires a great deal of caution and care, special skills and very careful handling in rough weather. A sprung plank can mean endsville in quick time...
Concrete boats I would also avoid like the plague - they not only tend to be quietly rotting their steels away within the concrete but they are extremely difficult to sell on if you find a boat you like better, Aluminium is, in my opinion, the most ridiculously unsuitable material to use for soethin that is going to spend it's life immersed in salt water. A coin dropped into the bilge can make a coin-sized hole right through the hull in a matter of days... Still, those are just my opinions...
I have no idea which boat would suit you - the best thing to do is decide what you want from your boat and list the things that ae most important to you as a guide - for example, plenty of storage space is important to some people, others don't care to have a lot of possessions aboard. For some, a sheltered cockpit is very important, for others it is not a concern. Some people feel speed is important at the expense of comfort. Others prefer comfort at the expense of speed.
I'd recommend having a good look around at what is on the market and start short-listing boats that, on paper at least, sound like they may be worth looking at. Every boat is a comprise - that's why you need to decide what you want most from your vessel. It is unlikely that you can have absolutely everything you want out of one boat, so you need to give your priorities some serious consideration.
Good luck with finding the right boat for you!
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The pen is mightier than the sword. Except when the other guy has the sword...
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Anonymous user
28 July 2008 09:40:44 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
Thanks so much for the reply - so did you live on a boat once?
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| | linnetwoods
28 July 2008 21:57:14 |
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Joined: July 2008
Location: Palma Nova, Spain
Posts: 11
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
My pleasure! I have been living aboard a 72' staysail schooner since 1996 - not the first boat to be my home but certainly the last, I hope... Once you have found the right boat, there is no looking back!
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The pen is mightier than the sword. Except when the other guy has the sword...
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Anonymous user
29 July 2008 09:31:36 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
so do you handle the boat yourself or do u have a crew?
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| | linnetwoods
29 July 2008 22:27:28 |
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Joined: July 2008
Location: Palma Nova, Spain
Posts: 11
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
There are just the three of us: me, my man and Sweetie Pie the ship's cat...
____________________
The pen is mightier than the sword. Except when the other guy has the sword...
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Anonymous user
30 July 2008 09:19:17 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
I atke it thats two humans lol?
What made you live on a boat?
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| | linnetwoods
30 July 2008 11:41:16 |
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Joined: July 2008
Location: Palma Nova, Spain
Posts: 11
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
Well, according to Samuel Pepys, a few centuries ago, "A man who likes to live at sea is not fit to live on land" so maybe we only count as one and a half LOL...
Generations of my family have been sailors, some full-time and some part-time, so I have always been around boats. My father taught me to sail a 9' dinghy when I was six years old, on Lake Naivasha in Kenya, dodging the hippopotami and, from then on, I never turned down an opportunity to be out on the water if I could help it.
The first time I lived aboard as an adult was in my twenties and the vessel was a little old river boat, all wood and brass. I worked nearby and lived alone and that's how I learned not to get involved with wooden boats - I seemed to spend all my free time pumping!
The Internet has made it possible for many of us to work without having to go ashore to do so, which is wonderful. I have met people who did all manner of things for a living aboard - buying and selling rom a boat anchored off the coast of France, playing the stock exchange at anchor in the Caribean - you name it and there's probably somebody doing it!
Like any other choice of 'lifestyle' as living is called these days, being a permanent live-aboard has it's upsides and downsides. For me, there is nothing about living ashore that I miss enough to consider doing it...
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The pen is mightier than the sword. Except when the other guy has the sword...
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Anonymous user
30 July 2008 12:11:59 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
you are a star!
I would love the freedom of the seas one day!
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| | linnetwoods
30 July 2008 15:10:57 |
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Joined: July 2008
Location: Palma Nova, Spain
Posts: 11
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
Make a plan, cut it down into one-step segments and then take the first step... if you really want to do it, you'll find a way or die trying (which, to my mind, would be better than living without a goal...)
Everything is possible... I fully expect to meet you out there some day not too long from now... If anyone tells you that you can't do it, the limitation is in them, not you...
____________________
The pen is mightier than the sword. Except when the other guy has the sword...
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Anonymous user
30 July 2008 16:02:55 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
the other half needs to be turned around to the idea! I have always wanted to do it but never had the chance lol
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Anonymous user
12 August 2008 17:48:58 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
i thinik the other half is coming round to it now...
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Anonymous user
13 August 2008 00:42:49 |
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Re: How is it like to live on a boat?
It is important to build up slowly to these things if your partner is reluctant. Make a weekend trip first, in which you agree not to go ashore at all from Friday night until Sunday night and, preferably, not to be where you can see anyone else. Then do it for a week in the best weather possible and so on, so that the accumulation of experiences is pleasurable and the idea of doing it for extended periods seems more and more attractive.
We hide little treats on the boat for each other, ready to bring out just when one of us gets the impression it would be a good idea to cheer the other up... Chocolate, Werther's Original candies, a book of crossword or Sudoku puzzles, a magazine - nothing too fancy or expensive, just a thoughtful offering.
People comment on how unbelievably polite we are to each other but, if we were not, life would be very difficult at such close quarters. I don't mean we are formal but we always thank each other for every little thing, say 'excuse me' if we need to get past one anoher - lifefor us isn't about grand gestures, it's about the endless string of little gestures that make up the days...
We can't give each other expensive material possessions - to do that we'd have to give up this freedom - but we give each other appreciation and that is worth a great deal more to us.
Neither of us would ever want to live ashore again...
Good luck with the persuasion! Cheers!
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