Fitting out Rosa for living aboard

Under Construction

Choosing a boat

We started the process of figuring out what sort of boat we needed to live aboard several years ago. Figuring out our requirements required a lot of reading and some experience in different boats. We Chartered a Dufour 30 in the Ionian, A Juneau 38 in Croatia and a Bavaria Holiday 36 in the Aegean. These all had their advantages and foibles and gave us more idea of what we valued and what we did not.
Among the most important lessons was that you get what you pay for. In particular the Bavaria was a lot of boat for the money but at only 3 years old was deteriorating badly. The significantly older Juneau however was still in very good condition.
There were several major questions to answer before we got down to details: "Cat or Monohull", "new or second hand" and "how big" ?
While chartering we met several people on cats who let have a look inside. The quantity and particularly the quality of the accommodation was impressive. Unfortunately, it seems, so are the fees demanded for mooring. Cats also sail faster as they remain upright, presenting the best sail angle to the wind. The catch is that they don't tell you they are getting into trouble so if you make a wrong decision and leave too much sail up - a disastrous capsize or even a pitch-pole is on the cards. A monohull by contrast heels more and more - making the crew as uncomfortable as the boat and the sails less efficient so a capsize from wind alone is almost impossible.
So we decided monohull.
Having tried 3 different sized boats and imagined ourself living aboard permanently, we knew that 30' is way too small. Both the 36 and 38 seemed to have the space we would need and were manageable with just the two of us so we decided that we would buy somewhere in the range 35 to 39 foot. We didn't want to go over 40 foot because of substantially more expensive mooring fees, restrictions on many moorings and just being too much to handle for two old fogeys.
New or used was a harder question. You obviously get more boat for your money second hand, it will generally be loaded with more goodies and the teething troubles will be long gone. On the other hand, with a new boat you get to modify the specification and fit up to the minute toys of your own choosing. The warranty should cover teething troubles (don't laugh). We kept an open mind but were leaning on the new side if we could afford it (see finance in this blog).

So now we were faced with a choice of over 50 boats - mostly doing a similar job. How do you choose? The Southampton boat show is a really useful tool. We spent 2 days just going round all the boats that seemed sensible and writing down what each salesman thought was great about his particular model. Boat reviews in PBO were also very helpful. Out of all of this came the idea that the unusual thing that we would really like is a shallow draft boat but we didn't want to compromise on sailing performance or sea-kindness. This would allow us to go easily through the inland waterways to the Med and give us an edge in very crowded moorings where we could get closer to the beach than most other boats. Performance dictated no bilge keels or shallow draft wings so we decided that a lifting keel or centreboard was the answer.
We saw three solutions to this problem - Feeling, Ovni and Southerly. The Feeling solution involved a winged stub keel with a projecting centreboard. We eliminated this quickly as, despite the salesman's protestations, it just didn't look stable to me and I wouldn't trust it on land. The decision between Southerly and Ovni was really difficult. They are both thoroughly capable seagoing boats.
There are really only three classes of things that can go seriously wrong at sea: Something biological( disease, pirates, etc.), You can hit something and sink or you can capsize and sink. Neither boat has anything particular to offer on the first problem.
The aluminium hull of the Ovni was initially very attractive. It is very strong indeed and there is a good chance that hitting something ( a container, a whale, or even a rock) will bend the hull but not break it - where a GRP hull would have a good chance of shattering. that put Ovni on top. So I turned my attention to capsizing. I asked both companies for the GZ curve. Now the GZ curve is by no means everything but it is a reasonable indicator of how likely she is to capsize and not self right. It also gives some indication of how badly she will roll in a seaway or anchorage. Southerly came straight out with very impressive curves. With the keel up she's good and with it down she has a curve like a lifeboat. Ovni wouldn't give us their curve! I was surprised and very suspicious. When I got a curve from an old review in PBO I could see why. It was difficult for me to see how it got a Class A Ocean going rating. It is true that you don't hear of Ovni's capsizing all over the place - and the French certainly do take them everywhere - but nevertheless it was a serious black mark.

So now we were faced with a choice of two roughly equal boats and needed to look at the details. Both had an option for the main sheet track to be mounted out of the cockpit, both were thoroughly competent lifting-keel solutions. We loved the Ovni arch, the internal space and layout. We liked the Southerly stability, high standard of finish and the fact that it would be built, delivered and warranted in Chichester rather than in western France. When Northshore volunteered to make us an Arch and to deliver the boat 6 months after ordering rather than 18 months, that clinched it and we started serious discussions with them.

Initially we liked the 110 for its stern cockpit, size (35') and layout. There are many more models now but back then it was pretty much a choice between a 110 and a 115. We went for a test sail and were very impressed. She behaved like a thoroughbred beating, reaching and running with great ease. When I was deliberately misdirected so that I ran her aground, the salesmen just pressed a button, up came the keel, and we were off again! I was convinced.
We took another year to get our finances into shape so that we could order her and then went back to Northshore for another look before ordering - and they had a new design - the Southerly 35. Same size as the 110 but with a completely different layout inside and on deck. She had a self-tacking jib which I was very keen on having used them frequently on the Broads. Inside, she has a raised saloon so you can sit inside in those glorious places we all go to - and actually see out! Our initial impression was that the accommodation was rather bitty with a couple of steps in the saloon. However, we were offered a sail from Chichester to Southampton for the boat show - and we were converted! The self tacking jib was a dream!

We placed the order expecting to wait for a few months before anything happened - but Northshore had a gap in their schedule and wanted to lay down the hull moulding early - to which we agreed even though the full set of options and designs had not been fully bottomed out.

A couple of months later we were sitting in the office, about to sign on the dotted line, when I noticed there was no option for the main sheet track to be on the coach roof. "Oh no", said Gary, "that's not an option on this boat". I hit the roof (see First Charter in this blog for the reason). I'd asked the salesman and he'd said yes it was an option, and the deck moulding (which is the same as the 110) clearly had a groove where the track would go. The reason it turned out was that with the small 90% jib, she has to have a huge mainsail to get enough power. That raises the spectre that with the wind from 45 degrees astern, she will not turn further down wind unless you dump the main sheet - and that's dangerous.
Luckily the salesman backed me up that he had sold us the option and to their great credit, they went into a huddle for an hour and came back with the solution - a "German Main Sheet" layout. The main runs from a winch on the port quarter (where you would normally expect a Genoa winch) then runs alongside the coach roof, up to the gooseneck, along the underside of the boom then down to the track which is in front of the spray hood. It then goes back up to the boom, along to the gooseneck along the starboard coach roof and back to a second winch on the port quarter. The helmsman can easily reach either winch to dump the main in an instant. Of course this is all more expensive than the standard arrangement - more pulleys, bigger boom to take the stress and two extra winches. To their credit, Northshore did it all for cost price.
We took delivery in May 2006 and have lived (almost) happily ever after. - see Fitting Out if you're interested.

How we financed the lifestyle

We aren't rich. Having spent a lifetime with a reasonable job and a big mortgage and three teenage kids, we got into our late fifties with a house, some pension entitlement and not much else. So how were we going to make it happen?

Under Construction

First Charter

So 3 months after (barely) qualifying as a day skipper and with the theory still very hazy, we got off the plane in Corfu and made our way to Gouvea Marina to join a flotilla. We had hired a Dufour 30 called Artemis for a 2 week voyage round the Ionian. As L stepped off the plane, one of her fillings fell out!
Keith and Emma - two lovely Ausies - were the flotilla leaders. And nothing ever fazed them. While I sorted the kit out on the boat, they took her to an Austrian dentist who sat her in a hi-tech chair in the centre of an enormous marble-floored hall and fixed her up on the spot.

And that afternoon we were off to Sivota on the mainland. Keith told us about a conspicuous conical peninsula where there was good snorkelling and we decided to go for it. When we got there, I couldn't remember how to work out how much chain to put in - so decided to use all 25M in the 18 feet of water we had below us.
And in we went. No line rigged, nobody on board, nothing.
Sure enough, in a few minutes, a gust of wind came through, and we realised the boat was moving. Poseidon was on our side and we swam rapidly to the boat, climbed aboard and tried to start the engine - but it wouldn't start. It just kept turning over. Things were starting to get serious. We were drifting slowly towards the rocks which were only 20 feet away by now.
We rolled out the sails and I went to pull the anchor in while L tried to sail us off the rocks. We were very thankful for all that experience in engine-less cruisers on the Broads. The anchor was unbelievably heavy - and that's when I realised, I had misread meters for feet. We were in 18M of water! The depth meter on the day skipper boat had been in feet and I never thought to check (and on a Greek boat - doh).
Well we got away with it, I got hook back on board and L got us away from the shore. Then we figured out what happened to the Engine: when you pull the knob to stop the engine, it's a great plan to push it back in again.
Keith was there on the quay to welcome us into our first bows-to Mediterranean moor.
We had a wonderful meal of prawns thrown whole into a half oil drum of boiling olive oil. They came out incredibly tasty and with all the bits you usually throw away - legs, head, shell - crisp and wonderful to eat. We've never seen that dish since, but have always remembered it and have done our own many times.

We had several days of relatively uneventful and blissful sailing - rapidly falling in love with Greece. Gaining confidence, we were sailing goose-winged between Paxos and Antipaxos. No attempt at rigging a preventer as we hadn't even heard of one at the time. Artemis had the main track mounted in the companionway and the Genoa sheet winches on the coach roof. L reached across from the port side to adjust the starboard sheet when a sudden wind change caught the sail and we gibed. The main sheet caught around her neck and rammed her head-first into the cockpit side. Disaster!
The gap between the islands is narrow and we were now close to the lee shore. L was dazed but concious but with blood pouring out of her gashed head. I tried to get the engine started to get the boat under control - and the key broke off in my hand! It could have been very nasty indeed but by pure chance she wasn't seriously hurt and I had time to get the boat sailing safely and could then attend to her.

The reason I tell this story is that this incident made a significant difference to our eventual choice of boat. We swore than that we would never have a boat where the main sheet is in reach of the crew. Rosa has a German Mainsheet system with the track on the coach-roof - specially designed for us by Northshore instead of the standard arrangement with the track in front of the binnacle.

We had many other learning experiences on this holiday - how to retrieve a tangled anchor, how to unblock the heads, how to moor with a long line ashore and the meaning of Schadenfreude. I won't bore you with the details.

The main thing we learned though is that we loved Greece, the Mediterranean and sailing with each other. We were on our way.

Getting Qualified

From contented middle class landlubbers with 3 kids, a mortgage and a dog to live-aboard sailors is a huge transition which we have made over more than 10 years. And it hasn't been easy!
Before we could really commit, we had to be sure that we both really did like sailing and just as important that we liked doing it together. We decided the best way was to do some chartering in the Med.
To be allowed to skipper a charter a yacht, you need to have a qualification and I decided to go for RYA day skipper (actually L decided and presented me with a booking on a course). Being a fairly arrogant sort of bloke with a lot of confidence in my maths and engineering skills, I bought the RYA course book, took one look at it, and decided I could figure it out and didn't need to do the practical course! So off I went to a weeks live-aboard course with 5 other students and a skipper.
The others were all less than 25 with years of experience and mostly there to get a ticket to sail daddies boat. I was fat and fifty and while I had done plenty of sailing in inland waterways, had never been on board a sailing boat on the sea. On top of that, I knew how to navigate theoretically but had never actually done it. The skipper told us he wasn't there to teach us, just to polish and assess.

I'm sure you can imagine, it was not the best matched crew that has ever sailed the Solent, in fact, the week was among the most stressfull of my life. It probably wasn't the easiest for the rest of them either. Among other adventures, I mis-read the chart and nearly ran us aground under full sail onto Beaulieu spit!
To cut a long story short, after a very stressful week, a huge amount of learning - a lot of it the hard way, The skipper passed me - but emphasised that it was an only just pass. I needed a lot more experience before I could consider myself safe and confident.

Since then I have done the yachmaster theory and L has done dayskipper theory. I thoroughly recommend anyone planning to become a sailor to do things the other way round, but to do them. While experience and reading since then has taught us even more, the grounding that the courses gave us saved our bacon on many occasions.

The Goal

I'm a very rare person - I got a life changing idea from management training!
A wonderful trainer called Chris Croft told us about a study done in the 1950s where a whole class at an American University (Harvard I think) was interviewed every 10 years for 30 years.
Only a small fraction of them had a clear set of life goals in 1950. By the time the study was complete, that small fraction had over 50% of the total wealth of the whole cohort. Of that fraction, an even smaller number had written down their goals and periodically got them out and studied them. That tiny fraction had over 80% of the 50%.
Allowing for the fact that 79.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot, that's a lot of wealth! Wealth of course does not equate with happiness but as Gertrude Stein said, "I've been rich and I've been poor. It's better to be rich"!
I can think of two rational explanations for why people who write their goals down end up rich:

1. Anyone anal enough to do it will have the traits needed to succeed.
2. Every day we make hundreds of decisions, most very minor. Every now and again, we make a bigger one and occasionally we make large ones. If we have no goal, we will end up with a drunkards walk where we go this way and that at random but keep on circling the same lamp-post. If we have a goal however, we will occasionally make decisions that push us in that direction. We still take a random walk, but now it gradually and almost effortlessly moves us towards the goal.

I like the second explanation.

So what was life changing about that then?

I was so impressed that I talked it through with Lindsay. We are fairly adventurous and enjoy spending long enough in other countries to get some real understanding of them. Lindsay spent 9 months on her own in New Zealand just before we got married and we took our whole family to the USA for 5 years in the 80s. We also both enjoyed sailing on the broads.
We decided that once the kids had flown the nest and before we got too old, we wanted to spend some years travelling. Doing this on land would be very expensive and it's easy to just see hotels and shops so we decided to go Sailing.
We looked at several options but the best combination of manageability (we would be well into our fifties) cost and warm weather seemed to be the Mediterranean.
So that was the goal - once the kids were flown, we would spend some years sailing round the Mediterranean.

And we wrote it down and looked at it next year and the year after that.

It's worked - we set sail in 3 months time.