Cape Dory 30' as a Liveaboard?

[Russell Skinner]

I have a CD30c and have thought about this a good deal. And I have distilled my thoughts down to this. If it were me alone the 30 would be just about perfect, however I'd remove the door to the head and the folding door to the vee birth. The 30 is big enough to go anywhere yet small enough to handle alone just fine. If I had my wife with me to live aboard, I'd go up to a 33 or 36. The extra space to move about would go a long way toward domestic harmony and two of us could handle it with ease.

[rtbates]

How much discomfort are you willing to put up with in order to live on a sailboat? Go to this link for one extremehttp://www.towndock.net/shipping/2004_0 ... chive.html

This family would love to have all the space on a CD30! Others may not.

Maybe as a test you could put all your belongings in your smallest room in your house and live in it for awhile to see how it goes. Or camp out in the backyard for a year in a small tent.

randy 25D Seraph #161

[Guest]

Hey Randy, have never seen that one, nice story about there family...winthrop

How much discomfort are you willing to put up with in order to live on a sailboat? Go to this link for one extremehttp://www.towndock.net/shipping/2004_0 ... chive.html

This family would love to have all the space on a CD30! Others may not.

Maybe as a test you could put all your belongings in your smallest room in your house and live in it for awhile to see how it goes. Or camp out in the backyard for a year in a small tent.

randy 25D Seraph #161

[Neil Gordon]

was thinking along these lines: Get the liveboard, get her to a marina, and start living aboard. Meanwhile, rent a smaller boat go to sailing school and get my skills up to speed. Then, gradually, start sailing the "house".

Doing this would avoid one cycle of "buy and sell" of the smaller boat and give me time in dock to get very familiar with every inch of the floating house.

Is there a community sailing program where you are? You'll learn to sail dinghy's in no time and it's a fairly easy transition from there to 30 ft. It will save you buying a smaller boat for learning. Take the Coast Guard course, too, while you're at it.

One major trade off in living on board and expecting to sail has been mentioned. Unless you maintain strict discipline, you'll have stuff tossed everywhere in a most unseaworthy manner. Packing up for a sail will take hours. The larger the boat, the harder it will be to keep it properly stowed.

Roxy and I lived on board from early spring through most of the summer. It was comfortable as a liveaboard and far from confining and/or claustrophopic. That was warm weather, though, and the cockpit was like having an extra room. Winter is different, depending on where you live. Liveaboards in New England spend lots of time hanging out in the marina office.

As for getting to know your boat, sailing it is a lot better than living on it in the slip. You'll find the nooks and crannies soon enough. Knowing how all the stuff you store there will bounce around as the boat heels, etc., is something else.

[rtbates]

Oriental NC has a poliferation of unusual craft and folks passing through. Their web page is always interesting.

randy 25D Seraph #161

[winthrop fisher]

thanks

Oriental NC has a poliferation of unusual craft and folks passing through. Their web page is always interesting.

randy 25D Seraph #161

[Jim Lewis]

If you decide to buy a CD30, take a serious look at the CD30K........
a 30 is easiest on budget dollars, anything smaller costs about the same, larger costs rise considerable. If you decide you really like cruising and not just sailing get the biggest boat your budget will allow...............good luck on your adventure......

[Russell]

As many have said, the 30 being a good liveaboard depends mostly on you. I live aboard and cruise full time solo in a CD36 and find it adequate space wise, though wish I had more. The size is great for solo sailing in any conditions I can handle the boat without being overwhelmed. Living space its great, but its storage I am constantly struggling with, on a CD30 I do not think I personally could manage. But I am set up for long term and distance cruising, with spare parts for everything imagineable and just installed a watermaker which killed a ton of my storage.

But my needs are different from others. People have circled the globe in 25' boats. You will find out what your needs are as you sail more.

Your idea of living aboard and learning is a tough one. Once you move aboard in a slip and your boat is your home its very easy to fall into the problem of keeping your boat sailable. Often you will find it takes 2 hours or more to get the boat ready to go, which will make it harder and harder to get it out. My personal suggestion would be to buy a smaller boat (or the 30, my first boat was a 30, but I knew how to sail already) and stay living on land while you learn to sail, then buy the big boat when your closer to ready to go sail and cruise. The big thing is, I assume this boat would represent a signifigant investment for you, and being you do not know your needs now, it would hurt a lot in the long run to find out you bought the wrong boat once you did learn to sail and find out what you need. Cape Dorys are not cheap boats, though they hold their value better then most, you can count on not getting all your money back if you have to sell it. I would buy a cheap, non cape dory, or small cape dory to learn on first, something that wont kill the pocket book. Then ultimately when you buy the big boat you will know better.

[s.v. LaVida]

Keep it simple sailor.........

the more stuff you take, the more it will crowd you off the boat.

if you can live simple, a 30'er will do for two.

if not you'll have to deal with "boat-itis" (sp) a dreaded infectious disease that afflicts the mind and pocketbook. Its usually accompanied by many long years of spending and longing.



Mike
GLF

[Mike C]

I have seen many people do this only to leave and never to return. so unless you plan to stay at the dock with a power cord it is not a good plan. Yes of course some will live on a much smaller and say its great, but go and see how they live two or three years down the raod then make your disession. Liveaboard only to be connected to the shore power cord is "Esacapism", it is just a bit bigger than a jail cell, and after a while you feel as trapped as if you are in a jail cell.

[Neil Gordon]

... see how they live two or three years down the raod ...

I have a friend at the marina who has been living on a CD30 for three years. His eyes say that he's among the happiest 80 year olds I've ever seen.

[David Wade]

I lived aboard a CD 28 for a year, and found it to be a great experience. Of course, everyone has their own definition of "living aboard." In my case, it was at a nice city marina in Florida with great weather, good jetties, a lounge with cable TV, a picnic area, security, on-shore shower facilities and laundry. Frankly, anyone should be happy under those circumstances. It was great!!! The only problem that I encountered was keeping the inevitable musty odors out of my clothes (I kept my weekly clothes in the trunk of my car, and had an offsite storage locker for extra items). I also sailed the boat 2-3 times a week, and worked a regular 9-5 job.

Actually, I would have been happy even with a smaller boat. After owning this boat for 10 years now, there are still storage compartments, out of the way spaces, and drawers that I have not really gone through.

Also as others have said, the boat is fairly forgiving for single-handed sailing. While living aboard, I sailed in relatively fair weather, but rode out a (cat 1) hurricane in the marina.

David

[Neil Gordon]

After owning this boat for 10 years now, there are still storage compartments, out of the way spaces, and drawers that I have not really gone through.

No kidding. I'm pretty sure that the surveyor peeked into places I haven't been able to find since.