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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-18-2006, 06:18 AM   #21
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Re: Living on a boat

I owned three boats, one at a time of course, all sailboats. My trailer sailer was a 26'sloop. I dreaded comming into the ramp on a weekend to haul her out. The weekend yahoos were intollerable... rude, crude, and dumb.....baddd combo when there are spinning propellers....some of them scared me with their death wish behavior.

The best night's sleep I ever had was on a boat rocking gently until some drunk turned up their music on their muscle machine in the middle of the night and thumping up the dock...sigh

The life style can be fun but you have to be tolerant of small spaces and learn to handle your boat, make wise decision, and be conciderete of others....

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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-18-2006, 06:24 AM   #22
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Re: Living on a boat

Here is one of the more interesting ways I've seen someone living on their boat:



They pulled the boat into a camping spot in a state park.* Plugged it into "shore power".* Used a collapsible ladder to get in and out.* Note the air conditioner mounted on top of the cabin.

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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-18-2006, 06:25 AM   #23
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Re: Living on a boat

Quote:
Originally Posted by AFloat
Our boat is a 1983 Defever 44. It is a power boat with 2 diesel engines. It's 44 feet in length, has a nice queen size walk around bed, shower, wi-fi, dish-tv, furnance, washer/dryer, etc. Basically everything a small apartment would have except a dishwasher. It's very comfortable but small. We figure it's around 550-600 sq feet of living space. Keeps you from buying a lot of junk. And did I mention that we have 3 cats living with us? It's cozy but fun.
Fuel for those engines must be interesting at today's prices.

SWR
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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-18-2006, 03:28 PM   #24
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Re: Living on a boat

Quote:
Originally Posted by audreyh1
They pulled the boat into a camping spot in a state park.* Plugged it into "shore power".* Used a collapsible ladder to get in and out.* Note the air conditioner mounted on top of the cabin.
looks like some sort of trailerable trawler or tug design. that's actually kind of interesting & offers great access to nature because not only can they use it to live in parks as you noted but while traveling they can go coastal cruising or drop her into any lake or river with a boat ramp. bet it even goes to the bahamas if you wanted. very nice.

Quote:
Originally Posted by AFloat
Our boat is a 1983 Defever 44.... furnance, washer/dryer, etc.
love defevers though i'm partial to the protected props of single engines. when considering florida, even in winter, you might want to consider air conditioning. dec-feb is best nov-march is tolerable, but we hit the 90s two days in a row already and it's only april.
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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-18-2006, 05:21 PM   #25
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Re: Living on a boat

Quote:
Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum
looks like some sort of trailerable trawler or tug design. that's actually kind of interesting & offers great access to nature because not only can they use it to live in parks as you noted but while traveling they can go coastal cruising or drop her into any lake or river with a boat ramp. bet it even goes to the bahamas if you wanted. very nice.
This was in north central Florida. They had been cruising the local (small) rivers. They were having a blast!

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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-18-2006, 06:06 PM   #26
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Re: Living on a boat

Quote:
Originally Posted by audreyh1
This was in north central Florida.* They had been cruising the local (small) rivers.* They were having a blast! Audrey
here's the site of a couple doing similar. they've done a gr8 job sharing this...

www.geocities.com/bill_fiero
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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-23-2006, 11:11 AM   #27
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Re: Living on a boat

Quote:
Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum
here's the site of a couple doing similar. they've done a gr8 job sharing this...

www.geocities.com/bill_fiero
El and Bill Fiero are an incredible couple, and I'll second the above suggestion. I highly recommend reading the pages they have written about their exploriations; they are an inspiring example of the adventures that are possible with ER, and are great folks to boot.

Shameless plug ahead: El and Bill are routine contributors at The C-Brats, a C-Dory owners group I run with a friend. If you find El and Bill's adventures inviting, you can pop in to our Pub and discover why these boats have such a fanatical following. The C-Dory 22 Cruiser used by El and Bill is a very unique package - small enough to easily trailer, economical to operate, very seaworthy for their size (many have done the Inside Passage to/from AK), and the best part - they come with an active owner's group that has fun all over the country. Particularly in the Northwest...two of our members own a brewery, and those gatherings are not to be missed...
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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-25-2006, 01:01 PM   #28
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Re: Living on a boat

I'm not sure where I pulled this from --
but there's a lot of truth to it.


Whatever is big enough to live on is way too big for one person to
operate, safely.....AND DOCK.



Try it for yourself......THE LIVEABOARD SIMULATOR!




Just for fun, park your cars in the lot of the convenience store
at least 2 blocks from your house. (Make believe the sidewalk is a
floating dock between your car and the house.


Move yourself and your family (If applicable) into 2 bedrooms and 1
bathroom. Measure the DECK space INSIDE your boat. Make sure the
occupied house has no more space, or closet space, or drawer space.
Bring a coleman stove into the bathroom and set it next to the
bathroom sink. Your boat's sink is smaller, but we'll let you use the
bathroom sink, anyways. Do all your cooking in the bathroom, WITHOUT
using the bathroom power vent. If you have a boat vent, it'll be a
useless 12v one that doesn't draw near the air your bathroom power
vent draws to take away cooking odors. Leave the hall door open to
simulate the open hatch. Take all the screens off your 2 bedroom's
windows. Leave the windows open to let in the bugs that will invade
your boat at dusk, and the flies attracted to the cooking.


Borrow a couple of 55 gallon drums mounted on a trailer. Flush your
toilets into the drums. Trailer the drums to the convenience store to
dump them when they get full. Turn off your sewer, you won't have
one.


Unless your boat is large enough to have a big "head" with full bath,
make believe your showers/bathtubs don't work. Make a deal with
someone next door to the convenience store to use THEIR bathroom for
bathing at the OTHER end of the DOCK. (Marina rest room) If you use
this rest room to potty, while you're there, make believe it has no
paper towels or toilet paper. Bring your own. Bring your own soap
and anything else you'd like to use there, too.


Run you whole house through a 20 amp breaker to simulate available
dock power at the marina. If you're thinking of anchoring out, turn
off the main breaker and "make do" with a boat battery and
flashlights. Don't forget you have to heat your house on this 20A
supply and try to keep the water from freezing.


Turn off the water main valve in front of your house. Run a hose from
your neighbor's lawn spigot over to your lawn spigot and get all your
water from there. Try to keep the hose from freezing all winter.


As your boat won't have a laundry, disconnect yours. Go to a boat
supply place, like West Marine, and buy you a dock cart. Haul ALL
your supplies, laundry, garbage, etc. between the car at the
convenience store and house in this cart. Once a week, haul your
outboard motor to the car, leave it a day then haul it back to the
house, in the cart, to simulate "boat problems" that require "boat
parts" to be removed/replaced on your "dock". If ANYTHING ever comes
out of that cart between the convenience store and the house, put it
in your garage and forget about it. (Simulates losing it over the
side of the dock, where it sank in 23' of water and was dragged off by
the current.)


Each morning, about 5AM, have someone you don't know run a weedeater
back and forth under your bedroom windows to simulate the fishermen
leaving the marina to go fishing. Have him slam trunk lids, doors,
blow car horns and bang some heavy pans together from 4AM to 5AM
before lighting off the weedeater. (Simulates loading aluminum boats
with booze and fishing gear and gas cans.) Once a week, have him bang
the running weedeater into your bedroom wall to simulate the idiot who
drove his boat into the one you're sleeping in because he was half
asleep leaving the dock. Put a rope over a big hook in the ceiling
over your bed. Hook one end of the rope to the bed siderail and the
other end out where he can pull on it. As soon as he shuts off the
weedeater, have him pull hard 9 times on the rope to tilt your bed at
least 30 degrees. (Simulates the wakes of the fishermen blasting off
trying to beat each other to the fishing.) Anytime there is a storm
in your area, have someone constantly pull on the rope. It's rough
riding storms in the marina! If your boat is a sailboat, install a
big wire from the top of the tallest tree to your electrical ground in
the house to simulate mast lightning strikes in the marina.

...Gotta go dump the holding tanks, back in a bit.


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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-26-2006, 09:05 PM   #29
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Re: Living on a boat

I was trying to get a rise out of Nords who can usually be counted on to follow one of my risque comments with something clever, but I guess even he wouldn't touch my post with a ten-foot pole.
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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-27-2006, 07:43 PM   #30
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Re: Living on a boat

You convinced me-no living on boats for me. Of course, I am the one who gets seasick if I don't wear a patch on cruises!

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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-27-2006, 07:58 PM   #31
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Re: Living on a boat

Quote:
Originally Posted by BunsOfVeal
I was trying to get a rise out of Nords who can usually be counted on to follow one of my risque comments with something clever, but I guess even he wouldn't touch my post with a ten-foot pole.
Eh, it's been done-- http://early-retirement.org/forums/i...84935#msg84935

My copy has been floating around from the '80s and its predecessor probably came off a mimeograph machine.

I'm just wondering if I've been plagiarizing off you or vice versa...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jarhead*
For a guy that spent a good part of his life underwater in a "Nuke powered Dildo", you
done good.
I wasn't going to rise to this "long & hard & full of seamen" teaser, either, but apparently Al's beaver has the day off. So to speak.
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Re: Living on a boat
Old 04-27-2006, 08:08 PM   #32
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Re: Living on a boat

My DW gets seriously seasick, but it only happened twice in several years aboard, when we misjudged weather and got caught for a couple of hours in a rocking and rolling condition. 100% safe, but not fun. Usually we had no problem avoiding such, but both times we proceeded because of impatience. Had we stayed put another day, we'd have been fine.

We'd still be aboard except we felt that being with family was far preferable at this point in our and their lives.

And fwiw, we moved aboard with no prior boating experience.
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