Author: captainbrett@learntoliveaboard.com

I'm the average sailor...converted from a landlubber of course. While I was born with a love of the ocean it has evolved into a love of sailboats and other vessels that ply the open seas and connected waterways. I am probably like most of the people who (hopefully) will read our blog with the exception that we are now doing what we always dreamed of doing and I hope to help others do the same. I am NOT any of the following...a naval architect, a marine surveyor or connected commercially to any builder, distributor or boat sales organization. My opinions are generally my own, although influenced by many years of research.

An Important Tool

This is my favorite weather site….

www.passageweather.com

I have found it to be very accurate when many other sources miss the weather windows or the severity of expected weather….enjoy !!

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Example of our first six months of operating expenses

Occasionally,  I sit down and calculate what the total is for the last six months of owning, operating and maintaining our boat.  At times it is painful…. Keep in mind ours is an older, though upgraded, 44′ sailboat.  There have been a few things we added or upgraded which we probably could have lived without but we decided were essential.

Here’s what last winter cost us, (2014 into 2015) just for the boat and travel, not food or entertainment….

Transient or Seasonal Dockage: $1,700

Insurance: $100/month so $600

Fuel: $500

Equipment replacement or repairs: $5,000  (We had to replace a lot of items that the prior owner wanted to keep and we also added a Garmin 741XS chartplotter which has been fantastic)

Home slip: $150/month…$900

Travel to and from boat: $3,000 ( we have spent a lot of time helping a terminally ill family member over the last year so this will drop significantly)

Radio Licenses: $200

Haulout/Bottom Paint : $1600

Epirb recert: $300

So, we are at $13,700 for a six month period.  ($2,283.00 per month)  Some of these items won’t come around again for three years (bottom job, radio licenses, EPIRB) so the cost can be amortized over a longer period reducing the monthly cost.  Downside is when they need to be done you’d better have had the discipline to save your cash.  The good news is I cleaned our hull in December before we left Oriental, NC and it looked great after a year in the water.  The use of the Petit Ultima SR60 was a good choice.  The bottom looked like it had just been painted except for some growth on the intakes.  I have read a lot of varying opinions on how often to clean the bottom and many claim that the more often you clean it the faster your paint “ablates” and the sooner you have to reapply…this seems to be the case in this instance as ours is holding up very, very well with only two light cleanings a year.

The first six months, granted, will probably be the most expensive of the time periods during which you will own your boat.  Gear, cosmetic changes, upgrades and the inevitable mistakes that break or lose something will be factors that increase this number, so be ready.

This last December (2014), our house batteries decided that they needed to be replaced…(right after our engine starting battery needed replacement $150)…..we have ten….they are Trojan T-105’s that run about $150 a piece (after taxes)…..they typically last five years ….that works out to a manageable $25 per month over the life of the batteries but that sticker shock will keep you awake a few nights when they need replacement….

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USCG considers multi year documentation

Many people don’t realize the value of USCG documentation for recreational vessels that travel internationally.

There are many advantages to documenting a pleasure boat, but this has come about mostly because of the Ships Mortgage Act.   Marine lenders will now typically insist on vessel documentation in order to have a preferred vessel mortgage which gives them an optimal security interest.  Boats used for non-skippered bareboat charter are considered as recreational for documentation purposes.  It is especially important to have documentation for offshore cruising as this offers evidence of nationality and certain protections under the U.S. flag.  State registrations are not recognized internationally, where USCG Documented vessels have international recognition.  The further you are from the US, the more important being USCG documented becomes.  Being USCG documented also means that the boat is US flagged and provides you with some legal rights and protections that a state registered boat would not receive when in foreign waters.  Finally, USCG documented vessels are entitled to aid from the US Consulate when in foreign waters, which is not the case with state-registered vessels.

Coast Guard documentation is required when a vessel is used for commercial purposes or a marine lender wishes to record a ship’s mortgage. In order to become documented however, a vessel must measure more than approximately 24′ in length and its owner must be a U.S. Citizen. The vessel must have also been built in the United States to qualify for certain commercial endorsements.   Coast Guard documentation is also considered to be the most conclusive form of vessel ownership. When applying for documentation, applicants must show convincing evidence that they are in fact the rightful owners. This is not always the case with state agencies where such requirements are sometimes quite relaxed. Documentation is further enhanced by an abstract of title which shows a chronological history of  prior ownership. Such an extensive background history is not available in most state jurisdictions.

Recreational vessels, charter vessels or vessels for hire that remain outside the waters of the United States for extended periods must still renew their documentation.  The current yearly renewal fee is $26.  This new fee went into effect in 2014 and was created by legislation (Section 10401 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-508, Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1388), codified at 46 U.S.C. 2110) requiring that such operations be budget neutral.  It seems that the USCG documentation program was not fully considered when this legislation was enacted.  Currently the USCG is accepting comments about the creation a multi-year documentation.  I, for one, think this is a great idea.  Imagine being in a foreign port when your documentation comes due and you have to depend on what may be a less than reliable postal service to deliver this essential document.  A lot of cruisers spend years away from the U.S. and this extension would be a relief for those on a multi-year cruise.  I have always wondered why the documentation must be renewed in the first place.  Perhaps it would be better and more efficient to allow the documentation to remain in force unless a change in ownership, removal from documentation or other change in the vessel’s status occurs?

 

Here’s a link to the comment and proposed rule page….the comment period is open until June 1, 2015….

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=USCG-2010-0990-2737

Let’s hope the multi-year documentation becomes a reality…..

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What we were looking for in a liveaboard sailboat

During our fifteen plus years of touring, inspecting, researching and eventually selecting our boat we cherry picked a list of design characteristics and features from various boats that we liked.  Once we had our list of preferred details, we were always concerned we might not find a boat with even half of our desired attributes and would have to settle for a boat with the essential basics and then upgrade the rest of the features ourselves, increasing our cost and extending our timeline.  We looked at a LOT of boats.  We seriously considered a couple of very very nice, upgraded, older sailboats.  One (A Gulfstar 50′) had about 75% of what we were looking for but we felt that the overly open design of the interior made it unsuitable for any rough weather crossings and therefore didn’t make the cut.

Here’s the final list that we used to evaluate the boats we looked at…..

40′ to 47′  LOA
6′ or less of draft due to slip depth
ICW suitable mast height
Solid glass hull w full filleted, bulkhead and hull tabbing
Skeg hung rudder
Keel stepped mast
wide side decks uncluttered no lines or tracks in way
Generous engine and/or genset access
Limited, Accessible, all bronze hull bolted through hulls
Center cockpit preferred but not mandatory
Sloop or cutter rigged w furling
Encapsulated lead cutaway keel
Sta-Lok rigging…no rod rigging
Baffled* Plastic/Poly/ Monel water tanks in bilge
Aluminum fuel tank(s) in bilge
Two cabins w convertible settee
Two heads maximum w fresh water flush* and overboard discharge option (Lectrasan or composting heads a plus, We added a Lectrasan)
Separate shower stall in at least one head
Encloseable cockpit and dodger
Large cockpit drains
Anchor windlass
Genset w suitable sound insulation*
Swim platform or transom steps
Transom Deck shower and anchor wash down
Watermaker
Aft arch w solar panels / antenna / radar
Wind generator(s)
S/S framed / Lexan opening ports
Some solar powered vent hatches
Reverse cycle AC/heat*
Solid lifeline rails*
Bow thruster?? Prob only for >45’*
2 or more HP per 1,000lbs of displacement
500 mile cruising range under power alone
NO teak decks

We ended up with all but five of our listed features in Kitty Hawk….the five she didn’t have weren’t crucial items….

*indicates a feature that our boat did not have when we purchased her.

Don’t forget to check out our front page for a list of items with which we can assist you during your search for your new floating home……

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Our First Boat and Our Current Boat….

Our first sailboat....a Hunter 23...I'm not sure why I look so angry in this picture...maybe it was my "pirate face"
Our first sailboat….a Hunter 23…I’m not sure why I look so angry in this picture…maybe it was my “pirate face”

 

CSY_Name_Badge
The original CSY Yacht Corporation Badge. These were affixed to the horizontal wood surface of the forward companionway hatch.

 

Our current “new to us” boat is a 1979 Caribbean Sailing Yacht…more commonly known as a CSY.  Our particular boat is a “walkover” or mid-cockpit design.  This means that the aft cabin is completely separate from the forward area and you walk up and through the cockpit to access the opposite area.  We like it because it makes the cockpit more like the “living room area” although it does necessitate a willingness to travel seasonally to maintain the optimal usefulness of the cockpit area.  Here’s a few images….and a few specs….

 

 

CSY 44 Mid-Cockpit drawing on sailboatdata.comShe’s 44′ LOA weighs in at a total of 44,000 pounds, is 36.33′ at the water line, drafts 4.8′, has a 13.33′ beam, is a cutter rig, has a fully encapsulated 14,000 pound lead ballast, has been re-powered with a 65hp Cummins 4B 3.3 Diesel, She has 100 gallons of fuel tankage,  400 gallons for water and has just over 900’sq of sail area.
There have been a lot of modifications and improvements to Kitty Hawk since she was first launched in February of 1979.

IMG_0958
Notice the hard Bimini top, solar panels, wind generator, radar, the full enclosure and the arch at the stern…This was just after a fresh coat of bottom paint that I applied and was thrilled to save $1500 by doing it myself….

 

IMG_0908
This is us, on the day we made our offer to purchase Kitty Hawk,…a very exciting day

 

I was pleased to discover that the 44′ CSY was chosen as the #11 design in Cruising World Magazine’s reader selected 40 Best Sailboats …….the photo is from the original CSY brochure…text courtesy of CW

IMG_0003

 

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Moving your boat… a.k.a. yacht delivery

We have, since the purchase of our most recent boat in December of 2013, logged about 1500nm just during seasonal movements of her. We have spent the last two winters in Florida and hurricane season in North Carolina. Our insurance requires us to be North of Cumberland Island, GA as of June 1 each year and to stay North of that point until November 1.  Ironically, in 2014, NC was the only area of the Eastern U.S. to have a hurricane make landfall. This has made me seriously question the logic behind the time frame restrictions of that particular policy requirement. That storm was Hurricane Arthur and it arrived the week of July 4th. I got up on Tuesday morning and was watching the news when I saw the reports of the hurricane. I called my wife into the room and said “Well, I’m probably leaving for NC tomorrow morning”. We had been staying away from our boat and close to our family to assist with what we would later learn was a terminally ill relative. Arthur made landfall about 22 miles south of where our slip is located with 100mph winds. What an exhilarating way to test my hurricane preparation abilities for the first time!!! The good news is we had “0” damage. I stayed with some friends nearby during the storm but one of our slip neighbors who spent the night on their boat during the storm said they clocked winds at about 60mph in the marina. I was, needless to say,  proud of my work and the lack of damage. I was also retroactively proud about the selection of the location for our slip. It is well protected up the Neuse river about 22 miles from the ocean and has a large hill across the creek to the East side that apparently does a great job blocking the wind.

That’s the radar image of the Hurricane Arthur about to make landfall…that sailboat icon was us !!!!

IMG_1406

During our first move in May of 2014, I had three friends who accompanied me for the ten day voyage. My friends were of three types, one an avid and experienced sailor, one a very competent mechanic with sailing experience and one a fearless, mechanically competent newbie to sailing. I felt like I had all my bases covered with this crew and I was right. My wife, unfortunately, was stuck at work and sadly missed the maiden voyage. I’ll keep a long story short and say we had an absolute blast. While most of the days consisted of up at dawn and motoring in the ICW until nearly sundown, we managed one overnight offshore hop between Fernandina Beach and Port Royal, SC. Our evenings consisted of  either great dinners on board (or ashore) and the obligatory, celebratory beverages. After all, there is something to celebrate every evening when traveling by sailboat, or any boat for that matter.  We managed to only hit bottom three times during the entire trip along the ICW, two soft rubs that resulted in a tense second or two and one strike just North of the Ben Sawyer Bridge in SC that stopped us dead in the water,  we bounced off the obstruction and managed to float around it to port without delay. I was understandably proud when my most experienced crew member said “If we were on my boat we’d be abandoning ship after that !!” We just motored on…..There’s something to be said for structural strength…..

Our second move was in December of 2014. Now, I know they say to “never say never” but based on this last experience and with any luck I will NEVER move a boat South from NC that late in the year again. We will start much earlier and work our way South so we arrive in Florida on November 1 or I’ll bite the bullet, pay for winterizing, buy some very nice heaters and grudgingly ride it out. My boating and sailing preferences run much the way of my scuba diving preferences…warm water, warm air…and the warmer the better. This move was delayed by obligations to our ill relative and the scheduling of my friend to assist me. We spent several very cold days on board waiting for a gale to blow through in NC. I filled some time by cleaning hulls in the marina and making a few extra bucks.  Once under way we both developed terrible head colds after Beaufort, NC. That made our first offshore hop from Cape Fear to Georgetown, SC a very bad, cold and rough experience. It was nice to see what our boat could handle though, she blasted through 12 hours of confused seas and 8′ swells without a creak or a leak !!! My friend who assisted on this trip was also on the prior trip North…(my most experienced sailing friend) whose favorite saying became “nice solid boat”. Based on this experience I understand why so many people hire delivery captains.

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An important note about attitude…..

While writing this blog, I hope to be honest about the occurrences and emotions we experience during the ups and downs of our journey.  Some of these, I understand, may not paint me in the best light or make me look like the most skilled or adaptable sailor…but what good is this blog of our journey without honesty?  It seems that, in this day and age, too many people are concerned about sharing their failures and foibles for fear that no one will take them seriously or respect their opinions. If anyone pretends to have never had a bad day, an oops moment, a low speed (or high speed) dock collision or a “duh” day….they, in my opinion, are more worried about their image or reputation than they are about making sure others are comfortable learning as we all do….by making mistakes.

When you own, or are living on a boat of any kind, backups to your systems are not the same as they are on land.  If your furnace at your house goes out, just grab a space heater at Home Depot, turn on the fireplace or stay with a neighbor for a day or two.  On a boat, you are extremely dependent on your hardware to keep you “afloat” both literally, figuratively and at times, more importantly, emotionally.   A failure of emotional confidence can end a cruising or boating dream as fast as any real failure of gear.

Your feelings and confidence in your floating home are as crucial as the reality of the condition of your boat.  If you don’t have a fair amount of confidence in your boat and your abilities to maintain and care for your systems you’ll be less likely to take that trip, venture into (or out of) that inlet, brave that rough sea or drop anchor in a rough or unfamiliar anchorage.  I, for one, have experienced the feeling of depression and failure that comes with a perceived breakage or ruination of a system or major on board component.  These feelings can be exacerbated when they happen in a series, potentially costing you a lot of money and time especially if you are on a tight cruising/boat budget.  Do not despair!!!

Recently, while performing some maintenance on our boat and patchwork on our dinghy (that’s another story about why the dinghy needed patching) and removing a damaged…(haha!! to call this sail “damaged” is an extreme understatement….let’s just call it a destroyed or shredded) sail….(yet another story)…. we had a power failure to our inverter and charging system.   I was caught completely off guard by this failure and after having recently replaced our house batteries (which set us back about $1500) I was literally inconsolable when I thought our $1800 inverter now needed to be replaced.  This was on top of not knowing if our $3500 dinghy was going to require replacement and losing a $1000 sail to a random windstorm.  Our particular inverter unit is an OLD Trace U2512SB inverter/charger (so old that I couldn’t find anyone at Trace/Xantrex tech support that worked there when this unit was being sold……it will probably need to be replaced in the next few years (fingers crossed that it lasts longer) but now is not a good time for that.  I started with the simple things…check the on/off switch, check the built in breaker, check the shore power connection at the boat and on shore, check the shore power breaker and yet nothing obvious presented itself.  I, mistakenly, began to assume the worst….a bad idea when dealing with boat systems.  Take my advice and don’t fall into this trap.

So, we went to dinner and had a good time, despite the fact we were Googling every inverter manual and troubleshooting guide we could find during our meal.  We found no answers that made me feel any better during dinner.  We returned to the boat and while I was taking a look at our dinghy patch job, I noticed the smallest gap in the shore power cord and the 110v pigtail connection that was plugged into the dock outlet…despite the fact that these components have locking tabs, a separate locking collar and the power indicating light was on….. they were loose….I reconnected them and all was functioning normally……duh.  So much for ruining our dinner by worrying about it.

The lesson I learned from what will forever be known as the dinghy/house battery/inverter debacle is that just because things look or feel like they are failing all around you does not mean that they are.  Don’t get discouraged.  Sure, at times, things might “pile on” and your dream will feel as if it has been skewered on the petard of abject failure and bad luck, but don’t assume the worst or give in to that mindset.  A little patience (and luck) will go a long way to making your dream a reality.  HANG IN THERE!!!

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Our new home…

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Why we do what we do….

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Screen shot 2015-02-08 at 5.05.40 PM

the link above the photo is a video of a dolphin pod….takes a moment to load

 

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This is a photo that was taken after a couple of rough offshore hops….reminds me of why we endure the trying times…..

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If we can do it, you can do it…..but we all need a little help sometimes

The road so far……

It has been 24 years since my first trip on a sailboat of any type. My first was a group charter trip on a 1979 Solaris catamaran on a ten day trip to the Bahamas.  That one experience has influenced the course of the remainder of my life as I am sure it does for many, many people.  My wife and I have spent the last 15 years researching, touring, inspecting and sailing on as many sailboats and with as many people as we could find to expand our knowledge base and to eventually live on board our own sailboat.

We spent many years hitting the Annapolis Sailboat Show.  We quickly realized that our boat was probably on display there, but long before we started to attend those shows.  Initially, we had hoped to buy a 5 to 10 year old catamaran in the 42 to 44 foot range, which would have cost us in excess $250k.  We wanted to live aboard and sail sooner, rather than later, so we decided to keep our initial investment under $150,000.  In an effort to find an affordable, well maintained vessel we drove the East coast of the U.S. around the tip of Florida and then North up the Gulf Coast on more than one occasion touring every boat we thought was remotely suitable.

We decided that a blog in conjunction with a sailboat cruising and selection consulting service would be the best way to incorporate our love of boats and sailing into our everyday life.

 

We hope to assist others interested in the cruising lifestyle in these areas:

A small selection of marine services…hull cleaning, painting, light maintenance, wiring and sometimes just providing an extra set of moderately skilled hands at a very affordable price.

A journal of our experiences, failures, successes and issues during our search and transition to life afloat

A candid discussion of the boats you are currently considering; design, construction quality, seaworthiness, safety, speed and comfort along with resources for research

Answers regarding suitability of various designs

Analysis of your total overall cost of ownership: purchase, refit, outfitting, maintenance and resale value

Additional boats for you to review based on your cruising plans, itemized lists of criteria for your new floating home based on your desires

Evaluation and forwarding of listing and selling prices of comparable vessels utilizing information from various sources and personal experiences

Referral to a qualified local marine surveyor

An in depth review of your individual survey with detailed recommendations for post-survey price negotiations

Evaluation of equipment needed for offshore passage making

Advice for choosing USCG documentation or state registration, offshore flagging and/or tax implications

Recommendations for insurance coverage

Gear tests and real world performance

Thanks for visiting and if we can be of assistance please contact us for advice!!

Capt. Brett and Admiral Kim…..

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