That's what I was thinking like a Gibson or a Holiday Mansion but I saw a trawler and fell in love. I want something that I can take on the ocean too. If I'm to do this I want to do it right. This is going to be my home and I don't want anymore boundaries. I guess I just want to know what my heart is stating to get me into. like monthly costs and what does maintenance for a boat mean exactly? like maintenance on a car? You see to say I'm new to the idea of boat life is a gross understatement.
I know how you feel. I am looking to make the move from sail to power, and even though I have spent my whole life on and around sailboats, there is still more that I don't know than what I do know.
Maintenance means a lot of things, but I tend to break it down into three areas, Propulsion, hull, and other systems.
Propulsion would be your engine, fuel system, and running gear (prop, shaft, transmission). Even is you stay at the dock most of the time, you have to change the oil, keep an eye on the condition of the fuel, change coolent, etc...
I think of Hull as the basic structure of the boat, both above and below the waterline. Cleaning the bottom, repainting as necessary, making sure there are no leaks on the topsides which can cause a lot of problems with your boats structure etc... I think of boats as a container with a lot of holes it that water of all kinds is desperately and determinedly trying to get into.
Other systems include your waste system (have to treat it or hold it and dump it and marine toilets take regular maintenance unlike land based gravity toilets), electrical system (normally a mix of 12v DC and 110v AC) needs to be monitored and depending on the battery system the batteries need caring for. Water system involves water tanks and pumps in most cases unless you hook up a permanent connection to your dock water. Then there are the Nav systems like radios, chart plotters etc, which are normally not much of a maintenance issue until they break.
Think of something as simple as taking a shower. In your land based apartment, you step into the shower, and turn on the water and don't think about anything else. On a boat, you first have to ensure that you have enough water in your water tanks, that the water pump is turned on and the DC system that runs it is turned on, that your water heater is turned on and that the power supply that heats the water tank is connected and turned on. You then have to turn on your shower sump pump, make sure that the seacock for your shower drain is open (unless you have a gray water holding tank). Then you get to take your shower. After your shower, since most boats that you likely would be getting into don't have good ventilation in the heads, you need to do a really good job of wiping down the inside of the head to get rid of the moisture. Moisture control inside a boat is critical.
I am sure that I am forgetting a lot that the full time cruisers and live aboards here will fill in or correct me on. So I suggest that you keep asking questions to get a good picture of what it is like.
Another consideration that I am completely ignorant on, is winter. You have cold winters in MA and I don't know the status of year round slips.
