Your First Liveaboard Boat

[Pasarell]

If this is to be your first boat it almost certainly won't be your last as you will quickly learn what you like, find essential, what you don't need and how much space you need.
I'd sailed a long time with several boats under the belt but then found myself moving out of the family home. My Moody 33 mk1 became home and worked very well indeed for a year or so. It had heating, hot water and a shower, and I added a fridge. Also a proper sprung mattress rather than foam cushions. I then moved overseas and it became my UK flat for trips back, always kept simple and ready to go sailing.
10 years later and I've moved onto my current boat in the Med. Now a Moody 44 that is very comfortable and spacious, and a great sailing boat too. Do I need this boat? No, but I certainly enjoy it and can see it being home for a quite a few years now.
My advice would be to buy something simple and cheap to learn with. Not too small - I think 33ft is about right but some will disagree. Then reckon to move on in a couple of years when you know what works for you

 

[capnsensible]

There are a lot of advantages in having a yacht that fits on a ten metre berth as the years aboard march on. It's cheaper.

After twenty years, I reckon the wonga we have saved in that size yacht would have bought another one! But we are very happy with what we've got. You really don't need half the stuff that people go on about on scuttlebutt for long term cruising. Hava a look at boats with people actually doing it rather than the well intentioned dreamers.

A short look around our part of the marina tells a story. A few people living full time aboard yachts from 27 to 33 feet. Our next door neighbour has spent a number of years on his Sabre 27 having sailed her from the UK to the Canaries. Very happily.

We see a lot passing through during an average year around this size. Same applies.

I'm sure it would be nice to have a bigger yacht stacked with goodies....I've delivered a fair few. But without going all hairy shirt, it's possible to live an economically viable lifestyle whilst still being well turned out, smart and personable. (Smileys not working)

Good luck with whatever you choose and as much as I like catamarans, you will get charged up to twice as much to moor.....

 

[Star-Lord]

It may depend on how young you feel! Unwraping a fouled prop by yourself off shore for example is a useful skill. A single hander imo can relax more with a full keel. Lots of snags and logs between UK and the Algarve. I met a chap sailing a Hanse in Northern Portugal who lost half his rudder in Cardiff when he hit a log. He discovered his rudder was not all there a week or two later because it still worked. The problem with older full keels is there is lots of work replacing or upgrading almost everything. Btw lifting an engine out of an old yacht for a good service is not a bad idea and easier than you may think. Clean fuel tanks are also important.. many boats do not have easy to access to clean the tanks. I think the best second hand bargains are to be had in places like Sweden where people only use their boats a few months a year. And many are kept inside over winter.

 

[[3889]]

These people were in a similar boat to you (heh), it is one of the better overviews from Youtube:

If you go to Youtube and look under the video he has listed the spend pretty well, you can make your own adjustments - they did not cruise for 12 months, etc. It indicates that you can buy a sound boat for 5.5 grand, ish and may need to find a similar figure to keep going each year.

PS

From memory I think their boat is a Colvic 28 bilge keel. Looks good and seems to have proved a very sound buy.

.

I delivered that boat for the previous owner. £5.5k was not a bargain by any means.

 

[doug748]

I delivered that boat for the previous owner. £5.5k was not a bargain by any means.

Thing about bargains is that you can search forever for them. Some people seem to like planning and looking at sailing projects better than sailing. That pair looked at boats that would do the job now, made a shortlist and bought one.

They have the best part of 1000 miles done in their first season and they still seem to like the boat. Extra points from me for fronting up with what they paid.
.

 

[GrantD]

My wife and I have almost cracked 20 years of living on our 1977 Moody 33. UK, western Med, two transats and now in the Canaries.

So I reckon a 1977 Moody 33 is top banana.

Hi

Moody 33/34/355 is on my candidate list as the Goldilocks choice

Any advice or gotchas about them?

They seem to be about 20 to 30k?

Or are asking priced always inflated!

Cheers

Grant

 

[cherod]

if you cant afford or manage a catamaran then a Moody is a very good choice , afaik they have always been famous for more room per foot , not expensive now and nae bad boats either . i remember i was helping build the marina in Dartmouth when they came out in ' 76 , Moody Blue was one of them , cant remember the other names, 3 or 4 of them came into the Dart for some promotional thing , i think .

 

[capnsensible]

Hi

Moody 33/34/355 is on my candidate list as the Goldilocks choice

Any advice or gotchas about them?

They seem to be about 20 to 30k?

Or are asking priced always inflated!

Cheers

Grant

Ours is quite an old lady now. I reckon you can get them with the original engine quite cheap. That's the snag. The old marinised British Leyland engine can be kept going forever......I got quite good at that! Problem is the Thames Marine Products gearbox. Salt water cooled. Mine blew a big hole in the side of it. Endex engine.
We fitted a new Yanmar. Loads more room in the engine compartment (which is a bit of a pain to keep weatherproof) but also means new shaft, prop, support bearing, etc.
They are a bit prone to osmosis but really that can be ignored unless it gets really bad.
Get one that's already been re engined, add water and I reckon you are good to go for another twenty!

Going a bit newer, friend of mine sold his centre cockpit 376 of the next generation last year. He lived on it for lots of years and circumnavigated.

I like Moodys!

 

[Kelpie]

We looked at a few different Moodys before settling on our 39.
The 346 looks great on paper but the usable galley area is small- there is extra countertop but it's down in the walkthrough, without standing headroom.
The 376 solves that problem, and seems like a tidy design all round, but we were a bit disappointed by the locker space.
The 39 made sense to us mostly because of the huge amount of stowage. It's not perfect of course, and I wish it had another sea berth to starboard.
There's loads of technical backup available from the MOA, worth joining.

We also seriously considered some Westerly yachts. Similar offering to Moody, and in fact we put in an offer on a Sealord, but it wasn't accepted.