DIY

binch said:
Proposition

Real live-aboards build their own boat

In my experience only one couple who self-built have turned back. Lady was badly sea-sick

All others stayed in their boat for >10 years
Click to expand...

I think real live aboards are those that live aboard, what they did before they moved aboard has got nothing to do with it. Building your own is a huge undertaking that you will only fully appreciate once you actually start.
Most folk that set out to build their own never make the transition from boat builder to live-aboarder.
 
binch said:
Proposition

Real live-aboards build their own boat

In my experience only one couple who self-built have turned back. Lady was badly sea-sick

All others stayed in their boat for >10 years
Click to expand...

That reminds me of a story I heard back in the early 80s when ferro building was in vouge.

The husband spent several years building a Hartley in the back garden and pestered his wife to agree to home school the kids move aboard and sail over the horizon. After much arguing cos the wife and kids didn't want to go but were eventually bullied into it by hubby. The launch went well and off they set .

The husband was violently sick and was scared sh--less and begged that they should return to shore life as after all he was only concerned for the family's safety . Stuff that said the wife and kids who dropped him of in Spain and they then sailed over the horizon
enjoying every minute of it .

I'd love to think that was true !!
 
When I was thinking of building a boat someone quoted this old adage;-

"Fools build boats for wise men to sail"

The Pardeys are the obvious exception. Other wise there are too many instances of people not completing the boat or getting too old/ill/frightened to sail it.

EG http://www.thebigsailboatproject.com/ Read it then the blog on their first voyage.

I can think of several others who never made it to the water.
 
Last edited:
Jassira said:
I think real live aboards are those that live aboard, what they did before they moved aboard has got nothing to do with it. Building your own is a huge undertaking that you will only fully appreciate once you actually start.
Most folk that set out to build their own never make the transition from boat builder to live-aboarder.
Click to expand...

Dunno, my boat was an empty hull, when I bought it, just started camping in it.
 
Origami boats steel or aluminium

Dozens and dozens of these built on the west coast of Canada and north west USA.

Almost all have sailed the distance offshore.

origamiboats yahoo group
 
binch said:
Proposition

Real live-aboards build their own boat

In my experience only one couple who self-built have turned back. Lady was badly sea-sick

All others stayed in their boat for >10 years
Click to expand...

Though sometimes the opposite might be true. I've met a couple of boats heading down to Gib who were a bit freaked out. They had years of relative stability building the boat, but were then thrown into the uncertainty of cruising. Wonder how many never get to set sail, always one more thing to do.
 
Conachair said:
Though sometimes the opposite might be true. I've met a couple of boats heading down to Gib who were a bit freaked out. They had years of relative stability building the boat, but were then thrown into the uncertainty of cruising. Wonder how many never get to set sail, always one more thing to do.
Click to expand...

It is a big step from boat builder to sailor. I know, I did it! There were a lot of boat builders in the seventies and they often made the mistake of building a large cheap hull (concrete!) and then never having the funds to fit it out. It can take a very long time if you're working as well, so long that the builder is overtaken by events, often in the form of a family!
I launched basically a bare boat after spending four years building. Then found skippering more stressful than I'd expected, especially with the minimum of fixtures and fittings. However patience won out in the end and I'm still doing it 35yrs later!!
 
Er, real live-aboards REbuild their boats perhaps?

Is there a correlation between number of miles and years aboard enjoyed and sailed and the raising of the boats waterline?

Ime I believe that the freeboard goes down and down and then the longtermers start to reduce the amount of **** they lug around and so the freeboard and performance gets restored! Or they buy a cat.
 
I think the idea of this thread was to instigate a discussion...all we can say for sure is that real live aboards do it slowly :D
 
I've only met one liveaboard who built his boat from scratch. He was an Australian who lived nowhere near the sea on a farm. He read a book about ocean sailing and decided to build a boat. He made everything himself, hull, rigging, stanchions, interior etc. Obviously he had to buy an engine and electronic kit. He was no diiferent from any other liveaboard, by definition all liveaboards are real liveabords.
 
Story

Clyst's story is quite true.
We came across them.
They got a lot of help to start with from Spanish fishermen, but soon coped on their own.
This is one of my wife's favourite stories about living aboard.
Who's captain then?
Oh, and by the way, I know of many who never launch. I was not including them as most had never had any intention of going.
One we met in Ampuriabrava, had been building for 19 years. The joinery was wonderful.
He was yearning to go. That was 30 years ago, has he gone? We think he never would. Sad, really.
 
Yes ,I have met several who had the same experience . Definitely true, in their cases.

clyst said:
That reminds me of a story I heard back in the early 80s when ferro building was in vouge.

The husband spent several years building a Hartley in the back garden and pestered his wife to agree to home school the kids move aboard and sail over the horizon. After much arguing cos the wife and kids didn't want to go but were eventually bullied into it by hubby. The launch went well and off they set .

The husband was violently sick and was scared sh--less and begged that they should return to shore life as after all he was only concerned for the family's safety . Stuff that said the wife and kids who dropped him of in Spain and they then sailed over the horizon
enjoying every minute of it .

I'd love to think that was true !!
Click to expand...
 
I launched mine 30 days after the steel arrived. However, it was a bare shell. As I had done much of the detail a year in advance, and scrounged much of the rest, it took me another ten days to detail her, ten more to paint her and two to rough the pre-cut interior in ,then another ten days to rig her. I was exhausted for a couple of years after. I have lived aboard 33 years since ,and cruised many Pacific islands in her, 11 months a year.
However my methods, and having built over a dozen for others by this time, drastically reduced the time.
95% of the people I have built boats for finished them, and lived aboard, thanks largely to much more advanced building methods saving a huge amount of time and money.
 
Resurrecting a six year old thread :)

Still it is an interesting question.

We have a 2001 Moody 54 that we have built in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Does that count?

And we have lived aboard for two years as we prep for a circumnavigation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

W
Downsizing to your boat.
2
Replies
28
Views
714
Wansworth
W

Share this page

Top