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Maintenance
Many
people have asked me what it takes to maintain a
liveaboard boat. They
want to know if it’s more involved than maintaining a
house. They
ask about the differences between house maintenance and
boat maintenance.
I’ll
be up-front by explaining that I’ve never owned a house
(Candide is the first place I’ve lived in that I can
call my own). However,
I did grow up in a normal three-bedroom, two-bath house
with a two-car garage on a half-acre of land.
I also grew up with ruthless parents who, from
shortly after I learned to walk, expected me to perform
nearly all of the maintenance on this house.
I jest, of course, but I was expected to pull my
weight by taking out the trash, mowing the lawn, painting,
performing minor plumbing repairs, maintaining the
lawn’s sprinkler system, etc., so I know a bit about
what it takes to maintain a house.
I will
state unequivocally that it takes more effort to properly
maintain a boat than it does a house.
The reason for this, I believe, is because boats
are constantly in a very harsh environment…water.
On a boat, you’ll constantly be doing battle with
Neptune as water seeps in through the roof or propeller
shaft. You’ll
have to deal with water-based varmints like barnacles.
Unlike a house, your boat will most likely need new
paint every year…at least under the waterline!
If you have a boat with lots of varnished teak
(like Candide), you can expect to do a bit of sanding and
varnishing every week during the summer months!
As
with a house, there are some obvious (or at least, SHOULD
be obvious) tasks of taking out the trash, cleaning the
toilet, and keeping the place vacuumed.
There are other things that I’ve discovered since
moving aboard four years ago that aren’t quite so
obvious. I’ve
divided these into four categories:
- Continuous
Maintenance. These
are the things that must be done on a regular basis,
even if the boat never leaves the slip.
- Periodic
Maintenance.
These are things that must be done from
time-to-time, and probably more so if the boat is
regularly taken out on the water.
- Painful
Maintenance.
Many boat parts have limited life spans.
Some things last for a year or so, while others
will last for 15 or 20 years.
This section explains about these generally
big-ticket items that must be replaced or repaired if
the boat’s to be kept in working order.
- Catastrophic
Maintenance.
There are a few things on a boat that may
eventually require considerable expense and trouble to
repair. This
category includes things that generally cost MAJOR
bucks to fix.
So
follow the links on the left of this page to learn
everything you want to know about properly maintaining a
liveaboard boat. As you'll see, this section of the
website is very comprehensive. My goal is not to
scare you with a sense of overwhelming tasks, but to be
honest about what it takes to keep a boat in proper
working order. So, grab a glass of wine and happy
reading! 
Please
drop me a line at:
robert@sleepingwithoars.com
©
2007 by Robert Doty
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I
always hated mowing the lawn.
I grew up in Florida with a “St. Augustine”
grass lawn. The
name is a misnomer, because there’s nothing saintly
about this thick, tough, turf.
I mowed that yard many, many, many times under
the hot and relentless Florida sun.
As a teenager, I remember telling my father
that when I moved out on my own, I would never mow
another lawn again for as long as I lived!
That was 15 years ago, and I’ve kept my
promise. Definitely
one of the advantages of living on a boat!
By the way, two weeks after I moved out, my
father bought a riding lawn mower.
The lawn had always been “too small” for a
riding mower when I was doing the work.
I guess that half-acre seemed a lot larger
without my presence. |
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I
remember several years before moving on board that a
mother was telling me about her son who lived on a
sailboat. “He
eats lobster every night because it’s so cheap to
live aboard!” she said.
I would dread to have her son as my neighbor.
Most likely, he’s living on a junk boat that
is probably infested with cockroaches, an eyesore to
the rest of the marina, and very possibly sinking!
I’ve seen people who live like this on board.
They’re the equivalent of “trailer trash”
folks who simply don’t care about their habitat.
Believe it or not, certain marinas more or less
cater to people like this.
You can recognize such a marina by its
collection of poorly maintained boats, the mounds of
beer cans in the trash (or maybe even on the docks),
and their rock-bottom slip fees.
If you’re planning on living in a
“decent” marina, you’d better be prepared to
spend time and money keeping up your vessel.
Living aboard is NOT cheaper than living in a
house!
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