Another potential "liveaboard."

I have been lurking here for years, and kicking around the idea of buying a trawler to live on and enjoy. I now find myself in a position where I can actually buy the type of boat I want-a late 70's/early 80's diesel powered trawler in the 40' range-and follow through with my dream. My budget is $70,000. I am sort of getting cold feet, though, and for a few reasons.

1) I worry about the difficulty of having a large dog on the boat. She is very well-behaved, but I don't know how hard it will be to get her on and off a floating vessel every day. Also, this will mean that every single restroom visit for the rest of her life will be with me on the end of the lead. I've done it before, but it's a big responsibility. There are times when opening a back door and letting the dog out is such a nice luxury.

2) Will I get claustrophobic? I am not sure how I will feel living in such close quarters with other boats. The interior space is fine for me insofar as size, but I don't know if I will feel somewhat cooped up because of the surrounding boats everywhere. I like a little privacy. I know getting out on the water will offer freedom from that, but I also realize I will spend much time in the marina.

3) Should I even buy a boat without a slip lined up? There are waiting lists (I am in the Puget Sound area), and it would really stink to buy a boat and have nowhere to put it. I have called around to a few marinas, and they will not tell me how long the waiting list may be, only that there are people ahead of me and that I can pay to get on the list. Also, and I will not mention any names, I have found a few of the people I talked to a little snotty. I don't like that sort of thing, and hope I won't have to deal with that in the marinas. Are the people running the marinas generally nice to liveaboards?

I have many more questions and thoughts, but I will leave it at that for now. I am basically trying to decide if I want to do this or not. I really like to think things through, and can't take a purchase of this nature lightly. I won't even get into my concerns of finding the right boat!

BoatDog; Your dead on concerning the dog issues. We have 2 dogs and I took them for three walks every day when we were living aboard. Rain or shine!! If you can find a boat with side doors in the hull it will make it much easier to get them ashore when you are tied ta a dock. When you are anchored out you will want to have a boat with a door in the transom.
Many of the marinas don't allow liveaboards, so you will be limited to where you can stay. You will also want to make sure the place you want to stay has room to walk the dogs. You didn't mention what your boating experince is, but maybe you should buy a boat, continue to live on land, and use it on weekends and short trips, just to see what it's really like. But then you have a boat and a house to maintain.
There are many vacancy's right now in the marinas, especially in the north sound area. I think you will find that most of the boats that will be moored around you will have no one aboard them 90% of the time. Good luck

We have a Aussie rescue that is deaf & mostly blind, she stays on the boat with me most of the time. We walk her on a leash twice a day every day once in the morning and again in the late afternoon. We have a transom door so she can get on & off the boat on her own, we have also went over the gunnel (steps molded into cockpit) when we had to usually have to pick her up & set her on the dock. My main job is to make sure she doesn't walk off the dock into the river between the boat & the shore. She adjust very well to staying on a boat & is happy to be wherever I'm at. When out we use the center console to get her ashore for her walkabout.

We're summer live- aboards. I carried our aged Airedale off and on the boat for two summers...many times per day and night. Happy to do it for the old boy, but it was a relief when it ended.

Avoid adjacent live-aboards like the plague. I don't care how nice and friendly they are, it will eventually grow old having them looking into/onto your boat. Further, we find it incredibly confining when inside the boat if all you can see outside for weeks and months on end is the same fiberglass wall on either side....no sky, just boat. We've therefore asked the marina management to park either express boats or sailboats next to us, whether transient or permanent....but no live-aboards...period. He didn't like being "managed", but eventually saw it our way (he has understanding bosses above him and we're excellent tenants who pay on time, keep an extra clean boat and slip, are connected in the community, and who are seldom seen and never heard). We lease our slip from the city, so there is some leverage.

Bottom line, have an understanding with marina management up front. They often forget who is funding their paycheck.

(BoatDog- sent you a Private Message re your questions.)

BoatDog said:

1) I worry about the difficulty of having a large dog on the boat. She is very well-behaved, but I don't know how hard it will be to get her on and off a floating vessel every day. Also, this will mean that every single restroom visit for the rest of her life will be with me on the end of the lead. I've done it before, but it's a big responsibility. There are times when opening a back door and letting the dog out is such a nice luxury.

Click to expand...

Can't comment on your other questions, but yes, this is a big one. We previously had a pair, a Great Pyr and a Golden. Lots o' work. Fun, but lots o' work. We now have a single Golden. Still lots o' work.

Not just the 3x, sometimes 4x, per day walkies... but also the 0530 wake-up (if I'm lucky), the walk down the dock in the dark... and if living aboard, the walk down the dock in whatever your winter is like...

And then there's the anchoring thing. Which in turn means a dinghy. Which in turn may mean an outboard motor. And which all in turn may need a dinghy davit, crane, mount, whatever.

It helps to buy the boat with dog in mind up front: swim platform (for access to/from dinghy), transom door (ditto), stairs to flying bridge instead of ladder (or banish the dog to the lower helm), and so forth.

Only you can decide... but it does bear some thinking.

-Chris

Buy a boat after you change dogs.

Pretty easy to teach a pup to use the astroturf at the bow .

Then toss the astroturf overboard (line attached) for a rinse.

Can be trained at home .

Puppies are easier to train to the boating lifestyle. Our 125 pound Newfy would poop and pee on the bow pad area on a piece of turf as FF mentioned. She would do this on command, taught from her puppy days. The dogs that need to pee on everything will be a problem (ugh). They get accustomed to the water / dinghy rides etc.... very fast. She would stop and pee every time we approached a dock. It was so funny, she knew !