MapisM
Well-known member
Fair point J, and I fully agree that maneuvering alone isn't a good reason to restrict the size (well, within reason of course - let's say that up to 24m or so I wouldn't be too worried).I do not get your 18m size limit...
But it's the whole boat maintenance that grows proportionally with size/volume: not only the amount of external surfaces, rails etc. as you said, but also interiors to clean, bigger engines and gensets to feed, mooring/lifting/service costs... The full monty.
In fact, we don't feel too restricted by our current 53 footer also for living aboard, and we are considering a change mostly to get rid of wood-specific maintenance.
Otoh, while we are at that, of course we could use a bit more space (I bet you also would, as any other boater, no matter how large the current boat is... ), but only as long as the size increase is marginal, to avoid jumping from the frying pan into the fire in terms of maintenance, so to speak.