I will live-aboard. The clock is ticking
- Thread starter Zanziba
- Start date
Zanziba
New member
I thought I would read back through some of my early posts (and yours) and it was a real education. I'd forgotten much of the good advice but it's good to realise that I had subconciously taken it to heart.
The quote above is from page 2 of my thread and show's my thoughts last year. Now that I am on my own old yacht I thought I'd comment on them.
1) The westerly has this I believe, it is very roomy for a 31'r
2) Kids still not coming onboard yet. When they do I am thinking of putting two in the forepeak and then me and the other one in the saloon bunks.
3) Check!
4) Check! Although you have to have an autopilot (Got mine working YAY!) as you need to go to the mast to hoist / adjust the main.
5) People may argue that she is not suitable for long distance but her history would argue she is. She's done the Atlantic, Scotland, Med and around Norway. I'll probably get a bigger yacht one day if I can continue to save.
6) It has a shower that I have never used. Shore ones are great and I park my car next to them so it takes no extra time to use them.
(7) She's a tiller, I have got used to it.
(8) Check!
So, It's funny how things have seemed to work out... Need to get her jobs sorted over the winter (nothing major) and find people to sail with and gain more experience now.
I'm itching to try a cruise over to the Isle of Man.
Ninpo
New member
Well done!
You managed to get the ball rolling and keep it going until you hit the mark with this one!
You managed to get the ball rolling and keep it going until you hit the mark with this one!
Grunter
New member
Just read through the entire thread, a very informative and inspiring read with a happy ending. I am trying to tread the same path from a similar starting point, it will be great if I can manage it in the same timescale as yourself. nice one!
Zanziba
New member
Well, the wind is BONKERS tonight. 
Just struggled to stand up on deck to tighten the foresail up, tie a rope around the flapping main sail bag and attach two more lines. Worrying amount of wear on my bow line so backed it up with another one and then thought adding another stern line would be a good plan.
Bang bang go my lines on the mast... a sound I now enjoy.
I sleep through it all, I love being on her as she rocks about in the gale but I did have to take a stugeron at work today for land sickness. Woozy head makes me realise that there's yet another reason not to be on land.
Merry x-mas for the season people. Apparently I have a tiny tree on it's way to me as I am a Bah Humbug.
Just struggled to stand up on deck to tighten the foresail up, tie a rope around the flapping main sail bag and attach two more lines. Worrying amount of wear on my bow line so backed it up with another one and then thought adding another stern line would be a good plan.
Bang bang go my lines on the mast... a sound I now enjoy.
I sleep through it all, I love being on her as she rocks about in the gale but I did have to take a stugeron at work today for land sickness. Woozy head makes me realise that there's yet another reason not to be on land.
Merry x-mas for the season people. Apparently I have a tiny tree on it's way to me as I am a Bah Humbug.
lenseman
Active member
- Joined
- 3 Jun 2006
- Messages
- 7,077
- Location
- South East Coast - United Kingdom
Well, the wind is BONKERS tonight.
. . . . .
We had similar last night but it will only be Force 9 tonight in Portsmouth Harbour!.
If you look at the Met, you will se that it is Hurricane Force 12 a few miles to your west! Good luck.
Shipping Forecast - Issued: 1725 UTC Tue 13 Dec for Rockall
Gale warnings - Issued: 1557 UTC Tue 13 Dec
Westerly hurricane force 12 decreasing severe gale force 9 imminent
Wind West severe gale 9 to violent storm 11, decreasing 6 to gale 8.
Sea State High or very high.
Weather Squally wintry showers.
Visibility Poor.
I nearly popped in to see you a couple of days ago on my way south but time was against me.
Chat soon, Happy Christmas.
BrianH
Active member
But do your neighbours? Or perhaps you do not have any other liveaboards near you.
Unfrapped halyards are the bane of my life when living aboard in my Italian marina. No one seems to have been instructed in this basic nautical courtesy. I spend a lot of nights flitting from boat to boat tying off slapping lines on metal masts that cause a terrible cacophony as the wind gets up.
I remember when I was first granted a harbour mooring in Whitby a lifetime or two ago. I had a firm lecture on the importance of not disturbing the local inhabitants by mast halyards - and that was before metal masts were near universal. I can almost understand it when others say they like the sound on a wooden mast - but the clanging of a metal one? Surely not.
Ninpo
New member
Thats a sound that one day i hope to hear for myself whielst sitting aboard my own little yacht
V1701
Well-known member
I can't believe anyone could enjoy that horrible ropes against the mast clanging for any length of time, very easy and a courtesy to others to just tie them off...
Amity
New member
Great thread
Hi Zanziba, have been reading your thread and it sounds great that you are doing it earlier than planned, I myself am moving onboard my centre cockpit Jarkan 35 this Christmas after spending 6 months in the planning stage, that biggest hassle I have had to deal with is the amount of material things one accumulates over the years, I bought a small shipping container which is at my dads place and filled it with my furniture and belongings what didnt fit in was unceremoniously dumped. A couple of odd jobs on my townhouse and I will be ready to rent it out, still nervous about moving aboard as I will be sure to miss my homely comforts but I know I must do this because it is my dream to be free of the rat race and that melancholy that infects the western world. Just recently sailed solo from Brisbane to whitsundays and back and loved it and the people I met on the way, so good luck Zanziba and hope to share a beer one day with you in some faraway place.
Hi Zanziba, have been reading your thread and it sounds great that you are doing it earlier than planned, I myself am moving onboard my centre cockpit Jarkan 35 this Christmas after spending 6 months in the planning stage, that biggest hassle I have had to deal with is the amount of material things one accumulates over the years, I bought a small shipping container which is at my dads place and filled it with my furniture and belongings what didnt fit in was unceremoniously dumped. A couple of odd jobs on my townhouse and I will be ready to rent it out, still nervous about moving aboard as I will be sure to miss my homely comforts but I know I must do this because it is my dream to be free of the rat race and that melancholy that infects the western world. Just recently sailed solo from Brisbane to whitsundays and back and loved it and the people I met on the way, so good luck Zanziba and hope to share a beer one day with you in some faraway place.
Zanziba
New member
I can't believe anyone could enjoy that horrible ropes against the mast clanging for any length of time, very easy and a courtesy to others to just tie them off...
I like the sound now, that's no lie. However when the first winds blew I did try tightening them but thius actually made them worse. I could tie them to the mast without climbinging it and doing it all the way up. I did try pulling them away with bungies to the spreaders but this didn't work.
Neighbours? I have no live-aboard neighbours. They only clang above force8 anyway and the creaking against the pontoons is also quite loud.
I got used to it, I genuinly enjoy the "sound of the marina".
Zanziba
New member
Fantastic! Hope you have as much fun as I am having.
I can guarantee one thing. Nothing that goes in that container will be needed over the next 12 months... take my advice and just sell it all on eBay...
I left my home and took about 2 cupboards worth of stuff. I moved aboard and took and a quarter of that with me. The other 3/4's has never been looked at and I am preparing to get rid of it all. You don't need nick-nacks in my opinion anymore.
BrianH
Active member
"bungies", "spreaders"? I can well imagine elastic cord not working. One uses a lanyard for such a purpose - looped to the halyard then drawn tight out to a shroud and secured when the halyard is well away from the mast. Easy, peasy.
Zanziba
New member
I can well imagine elastic cord not working. One uses a lanyard for such a purpose - looped to the halyard then drawn tight out to a shroud and secured when the halyard is well away from the mast. Easy, peasy.
Yes, but I honestly think there is no need. Four lines up the mast would need doing to stop a noise that I like and I have no neighbours to annoy. Even if I did do it then it would not stop any of the the other yachts from clanking away around me.
BrianH
Active member
One lanyard each side around two halyards - the standard configuration on most boats, including mine.
Perhaps it doesn't matter where you are now but as you have announced your intention to circumnavigate Britain, which will entail visiting many different ports, you should be practising such basic courtesies for your future neighbours. They may well be old curmudgeons like myself and just as disturbed by thoughtless owners who leave their halyards unfrapped to make such a raucous racket in any sort of wind.
Swagman
New member
Zanziba
New member
Okay, will do! Could you post a picture of the setup to silence?
BrianH
Active member
Errm, are you serious? You need a picture?
Well, my boat is 700km away from where I'm currently living so that's out.
Okay, I'll bite - I can't believe I'm taking this seriously, but here's one from September when I ventured right upriver from the Adriatic to the town of Aquileia in north-east Italy, drying out on a 1m tide. I found out then that when my depth meter reads 0.8m it means I'm aground. I've ringed the lines holding out the halyards.
Scotty_Tradewind
Active member
Hi all, my old rig has nothing going down inside the mast other than electric cables. Therefore a lot of flappy halyards to tame.
Luckily I have maststeps so I can tie a few lines around things up there fairly quickly.
I found on my last boat, that tight halyards gave me a musical instrument with the tightest halyard giving me a middle 'C', therefore I tended to let them come right away from the mast and tied back fairly loosely to silence them.
The topping lift sometimes also gave me a humming vibration going right through the boat which meant that playing with mainsheet tension and even a bit of kicker tension was needed.
The other thing that used to happen was that the mast used to get the 'shudders' in certain wind strengths whilst at a mooring. It just seemed to find a resonant frequency and it sounded like an underground train from inside, as if it were just leaving the station and then subsiding again. I tried changing the shroud tension a little to see if it disappeared and it did improve.
Luckily I have maststeps so I can tie a few lines around things up there fairly quickly.
I found on my last boat, that tight halyards gave me a musical instrument with the tightest halyard giving me a middle 'C', therefore I tended to let them come right away from the mast and tied back fairly loosely to silence them.
The topping lift sometimes also gave me a humming vibration going right through the boat which meant that playing with mainsheet tension and even a bit of kicker tension was needed.
The other thing that used to happen was that the mast used to get the 'shudders' in certain wind strengths whilst at a mooring. It just seemed to find a resonant frequency and it sounded like an underground train from inside, as if it were just leaving the station and then subsiding again. I tried changing the shroud tension a little to see if it disappeared and it did improve.
Zanziba
New member
Thanks, I appreciate your advice (or at least future neighbours will) so I'll have a play this afternoon.
