captainslarty
N/A
Hello all
Whilst awaiting the hospital food I thought I would start a thread about OUR thoughts and changes in the areas of comfort and safety, hopefully anyone thinking about true liveaboard may get some ideas and it may focus their type of boat requirements... also, it would be good to hear from other liveaboards of their changes or plans...
First thing I believe is that there is virtually no production boat in the 33-45 foot range that is comfortable for long time use.. take the saloon for example. Many many boats have seating designed to be made into a bed so they can can boost its supposed sleeping capacity. This leads to fairly flat seats due to the pseudo bed, and often back cushions that form the fill in.
NOT a design for comfort. We are changing all the seating on ruddles to angled, lower bases, deeper cushions, angles backs based on design formula for aircraft and car seating. Often the design of the boat, if it includes grp internal moldings, precludes this. Luckily our boat is the solid shell type with 2 structural bulkheads, the rest of the furniture is not structural. Ian Anderson, the designer, has been extremely helpfull in answering any questions re mods.
We bought a faily cheap shower stack in a sale, took all the body jets, power head and auxilliary shower head from the grp frame and these are being fitted to one of the bulheads in the shower area of the heads.
We use carpet on the floor in the saloon, kitchen floor tiles in the galley and carpet in the fore and side cabin.
Extra bookshelves have been added for not only our keeping library, but our stock of swaps.
SSB is accessible from the comfort of the saloon, we dont have a nav table, waste of time imho.
At sea the chart, when we use paper, is on the saloon table as the table is not much use for anything else at sea. Removal of the chart table area allows more comfortable seats, the seat design we are using over the winter is similar to a sofa, and chairs with comfortable arm rests, padded of course.
We have removed the interior steering, again, waste of time for us, and are replacing it with a raymarine joystick controller for the AP. Instrumentation is to be fitted to the panel where the steering internally was, other instrumentation in the teak surrouns of the pilot house front., again, all visible and accessible from the comfort of the saloon seating or standing.
Electronic charting is used extensively, along with pilot guides and Mk 1 eyeball, we have paper as said, but as backup and to maintain a plot.
Electric winches have arrived, lewmar, for the primaries, we have a 60 Lph Schenker watermaker and a new D4 eberspacher also on the winter to fit list.
Special backrest cushions are in the cabins to allow comfortable reading in bed.
Matresses are of the tempur type, but sources in spain, can be trimmed with an electric kitchen knife to size, 8" deep, memory foam, fantastic. and cheap !
All leaks into the living accomodation have been sealed, along with all deck fittings (Re sikaflexed), now dry, we only ever had the odd drip but darn annoying to say the least.
The sink in the heads was behind the bulkhead of the galley (Mid ships) so it is now gone, in its place are floor to ceiling shelves with slide out plastic container boxes for spares, eg, medical, electrical, plumbing, engine etc, above these is storage for power tools and items such as grp repairs, fluids, chemicals etc.
We have just obtained a Goiot quick release main wheel, this frees up space in the cockpit for seating if entertaining, cockpit cushions add more comfort, bimini is a large beach umbrella coutesy of coka cola...
For safety, many many handholds have been added (Tip, get pissed as a newt in the cockpit, then stagger down the companion way, every time you reach out to steady yourself, fit an grab rail /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif).
Guard rails around the boat have been raised by 8" to apx 3 feet and gates fitted, we had the genny cut higher to accomdate, added bonus is the ability to see forward more easily under sail with no noticable loss of performance.
Two 3" cockpit drains were added directly through the transom and 2 deep drains glassed over and removed. Scuppers were added and the old deck drains removed and glassed over.
Hydrovane self steering added, comfort AND safety, this also has its own st1000 AP. An st4000 ap on the wheel as backup and a rotary underdeck drive as main AP... we DONT do steering lol. there is also a radio remote for the AP (Raymarine) and dual heads (6002), 1 inside and 1 at the helm.
For electrical comfort we have 6 trojan t105`s under the saloon floor, 2 truck batteries as engine bank, 130 AMp Balmar alternator, 50 Amp sterling mains charger (Intelligent) and a Balmar alternator regulator. We carry a small petrol genny as backup but never needed. We have an Ampair towed genny and another Ampair wind genny.
Also we have 3 inverters. 350W Halfords cheapo in each cabin - runs the pc´s etc great, and a Studer 1200 W pure sinewave unit for any heavy loads. We have 3 laptops on board, 1 for games (I like flightsims etc) Its a Dell XPS 1710. 2 Samsung Q30 lightweight patops for bed movies and general use, and a desktop server to own own wireless lan. The server stores all our backups, movies and music and allows access from any other pc or laptop on board over wifi, this is all backed up to bluray disks. We also have an Epson LCD Projector for movies to a pull down 60" screen, not used often, but great when we do.
So, for anyone thinking about full time live aboard, make sure the boat you get can accomodate what YOU want, some like minimalist approach, more power to their elbows, I like comfort, safety, AND me toys..
What have you done or are planning to make your life more comfortable ??
Joe n Jayne
Whilst awaiting the hospital food I thought I would start a thread about OUR thoughts and changes in the areas of comfort and safety, hopefully anyone thinking about true liveaboard may get some ideas and it may focus their type of boat requirements... also, it would be good to hear from other liveaboards of their changes or plans...
First thing I believe is that there is virtually no production boat in the 33-45 foot range that is comfortable for long time use.. take the saloon for example. Many many boats have seating designed to be made into a bed so they can can boost its supposed sleeping capacity. This leads to fairly flat seats due to the pseudo bed, and often back cushions that form the fill in.
NOT a design for comfort. We are changing all the seating on ruddles to angled, lower bases, deeper cushions, angles backs based on design formula for aircraft and car seating. Often the design of the boat, if it includes grp internal moldings, precludes this. Luckily our boat is the solid shell type with 2 structural bulkheads, the rest of the furniture is not structural. Ian Anderson, the designer, has been extremely helpfull in answering any questions re mods.
We bought a faily cheap shower stack in a sale, took all the body jets, power head and auxilliary shower head from the grp frame and these are being fitted to one of the bulheads in the shower area of the heads.
We use carpet on the floor in the saloon, kitchen floor tiles in the galley and carpet in the fore and side cabin.
Extra bookshelves have been added for not only our keeping library, but our stock of swaps.
SSB is accessible from the comfort of the saloon, we dont have a nav table, waste of time imho.
At sea the chart, when we use paper, is on the saloon table as the table is not much use for anything else at sea. Removal of the chart table area allows more comfortable seats, the seat design we are using over the winter is similar to a sofa, and chairs with comfortable arm rests, padded of course.
We have removed the interior steering, again, waste of time for us, and are replacing it with a raymarine joystick controller for the AP. Instrumentation is to be fitted to the panel where the steering internally was, other instrumentation in the teak surrouns of the pilot house front., again, all visible and accessible from the comfort of the saloon seating or standing.
Electronic charting is used extensively, along with pilot guides and Mk 1 eyeball, we have paper as said, but as backup and to maintain a plot.
Electric winches have arrived, lewmar, for the primaries, we have a 60 Lph Schenker watermaker and a new D4 eberspacher also on the winter to fit list.
Special backrest cushions are in the cabins to allow comfortable reading in bed.
Matresses are of the tempur type, but sources in spain, can be trimmed with an electric kitchen knife to size, 8" deep, memory foam, fantastic. and cheap !
All leaks into the living accomodation have been sealed, along with all deck fittings (Re sikaflexed), now dry, we only ever had the odd drip but darn annoying to say the least.
The sink in the heads was behind the bulkhead of the galley (Mid ships) so it is now gone, in its place are floor to ceiling shelves with slide out plastic container boxes for spares, eg, medical, electrical, plumbing, engine etc, above these is storage for power tools and items such as grp repairs, fluids, chemicals etc.
We have just obtained a Goiot quick release main wheel, this frees up space in the cockpit for seating if entertaining, cockpit cushions add more comfort, bimini is a large beach umbrella coutesy of coka cola...
For safety, many many handholds have been added (Tip, get pissed as a newt in the cockpit, then stagger down the companion way, every time you reach out to steady yourself, fit an grab rail /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif).
Guard rails around the boat have been raised by 8" to apx 3 feet and gates fitted, we had the genny cut higher to accomdate, added bonus is the ability to see forward more easily under sail with no noticable loss of performance.
Two 3" cockpit drains were added directly through the transom and 2 deep drains glassed over and removed. Scuppers were added and the old deck drains removed and glassed over.
Hydrovane self steering added, comfort AND safety, this also has its own st1000 AP. An st4000 ap on the wheel as backup and a rotary underdeck drive as main AP... we DONT do steering lol. there is also a radio remote for the AP (Raymarine) and dual heads (6002), 1 inside and 1 at the helm.
For electrical comfort we have 6 trojan t105`s under the saloon floor, 2 truck batteries as engine bank, 130 AMp Balmar alternator, 50 Amp sterling mains charger (Intelligent) and a Balmar alternator regulator. We carry a small petrol genny as backup but never needed. We have an Ampair towed genny and another Ampair wind genny.
Also we have 3 inverters. 350W Halfords cheapo in each cabin - runs the pc´s etc great, and a Studer 1200 W pure sinewave unit for any heavy loads. We have 3 laptops on board, 1 for games (I like flightsims etc) Its a Dell XPS 1710. 2 Samsung Q30 lightweight patops for bed movies and general use, and a desktop server to own own wireless lan. The server stores all our backups, movies and music and allows access from any other pc or laptop on board over wifi, this is all backed up to bluray disks. We also have an Epson LCD Projector for movies to a pull down 60" screen, not used often, but great when we do.
So, for anyone thinking about full time live aboard, make sure the boat you get can accomodate what YOU want, some like minimalist approach, more power to their elbows, I like comfort, safety, AND me toys..
What have you done or are planning to make your life more comfortable ??
Joe n Jayne
