Gear – Page 4 – Interested in Learning How to Find, Select and Eventually Live On Board Your Own Sailboat? You're in the Right Place….

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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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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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…..