Long-term living aboard

With the global downturn and seemingly ever-increasing taxes and bills, more and more retirees are contemplating liveaboard cruising. Butis it for everyone. Jim and Linda Collier share their thoughts.

Plenty of people talk about casting off the shackles and drudgery of a shore-side existence for life on the water, but relatively few do for one reason or another. We are among those who have made the change, and 18 years on we are still delighted that we did and have no plans to move back on land. However, our lifestyle is not all smooth sailing, and we freely admit it is not for everyone.

Returning to the River Tamar, northern Tasmania, in 2002 after spending 10 years sailing around the world, we were a little unsure as to what the future held or what directions our lives would take, but neither one of us wanted to move ashore, even though we own our own home (still rented out today).

Our floating home

Our floating home has been the John Pugh, modified Moonwind 10m steel ketch listed on the Australian Shipping Register as “Liberator of Launceston”, more commonly known as just Liberator. Over the 30 years we have owned Liberator we have worked towards making her not just a vessel capable of extended cruising but a homely and comfortable vessel in which to spend most of our lives. The Moonwind design called for a centre cockpit but during Liberator’s construction this was altered to provide a fully enclosed wheelhouse with an aft cockpit, the wheelhouse proving a real boon to us during our long cruising careers because — like most serious sailors — we hate getting wet. At sea and in harbour life on board revolves around the wheelhouse, often described as our “sunroom,” a place where we spend most of our waking hours, whether at sea engaged in sailing or in harbour on personal projects. At sea the wheelhouse becomes the nerve centre, containing all the navigation and communication equipment as well as our settees/sea berths equipped with lee cloths.

Below

Stepping down a couple of steps from the wheelhouse, we enter the saloon/cabin with immediately to port the minute galley with its gimballed stainless-steel three-burner stove and oven, close by the sink and freshwater hand pump. Continuing along the port side is a small settee/berth fronting on to a bookcase and bulkhead separating the saloon area from the focs’le.

The starboard side of the saloon contains a conventional but comfortable dinette with a full-sized table converted twice daily in harbour to daytime saloon and nighttime sleeping cabin.

Another bulkhead separates the dinette from the head containing the Porta Potti, a cupboard, small hand basin and the Taylors diesel heater.

This UK-made heater is affectionately known as “Sir Humphrey” and is an essential requirement for permanent living aboard in Tasmania. The area used to contain a shower but this had to be sacrificed to install the heater.

Forward of the head is the focs’le containing all the sorts of paraphernalia needed for full-time liveaboard or serious cruising: tools, spare parts, lines, sails etc. A hanging locker is on the starboard side and the chain locker right up in the bow.

Liberator is most cozy and homely, mainly as a result of Linda’s handiwork, which is reflected in the tasselled brown velvet curtains and matching bunk cushions.

The cabin sides are lined with tongue-and-groove varnished pine decorated with ancestral and voyage highlight photos, a white panelled deckhead held up with cedar beams providing a pleasing contrast. Miniature busts of Verdi, Chopin and Tchaikovsky gaze down on us, indicative of our love of beautiful music. It all combines to give the diminutive living area an atmosphere reminiscent of a Victorian drawing room, albeit a very small one.

Power generation

It helps in terms of day-to-day living that Liberator is virtually self-sufficient by way of power generation, mainly thanks to solar panels providing 175W, an Aquair 100 wind/water generator and as a back-up to our renewable energy sources a 2000W Honda portable generator. If all else fails, the main engine is utilised for battery charging purposes. An 800W inverter in the saloon provides access to 240V supply from the batteries when required for such items as computers and Linda’s keyboard.

Few mod cons

Apart from a TV and a small 12V fridge, we have no modern conveniences such as washing machines (we use nearby launderettes) or dishwashers. We don’t even have a microwave and certainly no car. We walk everywhere, catching a bus or cab when walking is not a viable option.

We have a couple of small folding trolleys on board to help us avoid those arm-stretching exercises such as lugging gas bottles, jerrycans of fuel and water and provisions because, like everyone else, we still have to stock up at the supermarkets.

Having no outboard, we do a lot of rowing and one major downside of living aboard is rowing ashore when the weather has turned bad and you have some unavoidable meeting or appointment. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does we wonder if we are really quite sane.

Condensation, of course, can make life difficult in the cooler climates, as can mildew in the tropics.

We admit that while we are free of many of the irksome restrictions of a shore-side life our lives are just as much regulated by other forces like tide tables and weather forecasts.

Marinas or anchoring out

Both of us dislike marinas and will go to great lengths to avoid them, much preferring a mooring or anchoring out, where Liberator feels so much more comfortable swinging to the breeze and currents and where privacy is assured, something we value highly. However, we understand there may be no choice for those who have to go to work every day or keep regular appointments and living in a marina does have the compensation of being able to step ashore whenever you please and have ready access to showers and washing machines.

We  take great delight in being able to up anchor and change location whenever the urge comes upon us to do so.

We are not “social” sailors and are more than happy by ourselves in a secluded anchorage up one of our local creeks with just us and the wildlife, but we acknowledge the average human being tends to be of a more gregarious nature with a need to be close to their fellow humans.

Despite having her own home ashore to move into whenever she wishes, Linda feels that after so many years living on board she would feel hemmed in and isolated between four brick walls, finding her current lifestyle most satisfying, fulfilling her need to be close to nature and wildlife, especially the native waterbirds and seals, an essential requirement for her mental wellbeing.

Economics

The economics of living aboard is often a question of personal choice and depends a lot on one’s own standard of living. Our annual income is approximately $28,000, and we find we can live fairly comfortably on that. However, our needs are very basic and others would find it impossible to exist on such a low figure. We anchor out most of the time and, thankfully, this is, unlike some other parts of the world, still free in Australia.

If you think you will need to live in a marina, be aware that marina rates vary greatly and some marinas no longer accept full-time liveaboard vessels.

Slipping, daily standing rate and regular maintenance costs have to be budgeted for, regardless of whether you opt for a marina or to anchor out.

Regulations

There are no regulations or restrictions regarding living on board in Tasmania, but we have heard that authorities in some other states do not encourage the practice. This may just be very localised because full-time liveaboard friends cruising in the Whitsundays area have not encountered any such problems. Nevertheless, it obviously pays to check with the maritime authority in the area you plan to cruise/live before sinking all your money into a boat and cutting your ties with land.