Habitable boats

what makes a boat "habitable". That is, GOOD to "live" in, not merely a standard vanilla cat that you're happy to leave after your cruisings over, and go back to your home. what about if it was to be your home?

i think most cats are "unfit for habitation". even the big jobbies. stinky rabbit warrens.



xarax said it exactly for me

space

a bit of freedom to fit it out and live how you want to live



i chose to build my own cause most cats are full of junk (shiney! impressive! junk) and feel like rabbit warrens, n i hate this feeling. reminds me of yachts.

i also think most yachts and cats are built by people where it's cold.

for the tropics there's nothing worse than a yacht full stop.
damp, airless, smelly, fumes, sweat like a pig all day and all night.

good ventilation? sold the yacht.



so i've got hulls closed over for max storage (surfboards, bicycles, air compressors, wet suits etc etc etc toys basically)

and just one HUGE empty area, with a huge back deck.


cheers all,
mal

 

why does richard get all the replies?

i'm genuinely interested. doesn't anybody else feel that same? yachts ARE stinky. they DO smell bad, and why put up with this if you don't have to?

but for other people it may be a pool table, sauna, whatever.

to me it's like cars theses days. every single possible engineering thing was done decades ago, the rest is just marketing drivel. so the only real new frontier is comfort.

does the car have 4! valves!? with overhead knob thingies!? in TITANIUM!!!?? i just couldn't care less.

style? sorta like fashion. comes and goes. created by magazines to flog NEW! IMPROVED! stuff. for the young and inexperienced really.

am i the only person here that puts life before engineering?

comfort and fun. the new frontier

 

I'm a newbe on this board but your question is an interesting one. I'd say space and power would be my choice. Something big enough for a gen set to power a heat pump and a watermaker. You'll never get enough ventilation in the tropics through the vents and hatches and as far as the stink goes most holding tanks don't have enough size to the vent lines. I solved the stink problem in my Cape Dory by changing the 3/4 vent line to an 1-1/2 line teed at the overhead to vent on both sides of the hull right under the rubrail. If that's not the stink you're talking about the watermaker will let you take more showers, but you will never solve the cave syndrome of living aboard a sailboat, just get it in your head that it's womb like rather than a rabbit hole. The problem is all between your ears.
Mike

 

And for what do we need two threads on one topic? Was the original one too professional?

 

richards' was about developing legislation
"UK government official definition of "habitable"
"not a hypothetical question"

i'm certainly not interested in legal definitions.

the post by xarax i thought was spot on though. most cats on the market fail to satisfy his criteria, and
is the reason for designing and building my own. rather than buying. i am just not happy with the cats on offer.

but i can see by the lack of interest in this topic that most people think the current offering of insanely large, insanely expensive foam cats (that have no feel of sailing to them, (boom 7 feet in the air etc)) are real good, and xarax and i are the outsiders.

i was going to close the thread right now due to lack of interest, but since you've replied, it has to stay open.
(unless you remove your post, n then i'll remove mine, and the thread will disappear completely.)

 

sorry Oceannavagator,
i didn't see you there.

i really do think it's interesting.

i was thinking most people were normal, and living in the "cave/tunnel" thing was appealing for some reason.
(i did play football, and my head has seen better days . . .)

sounds cold where you live.

cheers all,
mal

 

Give it a whirl.

Life IS engineering Bob, either you're here to occupy space, consume and spout, or you're here to solve problems. I prefer to be a member of the second club. You may not care about "overhead knob thingies" but I imagine you don't mind getting 30 mpg as apposed to 10. The subject of making a boat more livable is a great exercise for people who don't mind thinking. I don't mind breaking a sweat on occasion, give it a whirl sometime.
Mike

 

wallpaper, toaster, a woman & children, a chaise longue, drapes

 

Feeling a tad bitter, Bob?

Speaking of "overhead knob thingies", Mike, I miss the ones in the old '80s Dodge Caravan. You know, the ones above the front seats that opened the back windows with a little cable, simple and reliable. In the '90s they made this function electric, thus it cost five times more and never worked properly. Now you have to crawl into the cargo bay and flip the lever by hand. Progress indeed.

Back to habitable boats:
I tend to agree with you about the condomarans, Bob. But remember, natural ventilation isn't important when your genset is running 24/7 to power five air conditioners (because, obviously, a boat in the Med should be kept at the same temperature as a winter hunt cabin in Canada). And sailing performance, bridgedeck clearance, etc. aren't that critical for a charter boat that only ever does 40 mile hops on bright sunny days. Try to take such a boat offshore, or into bad weather, or onto a race course, and you are of course asking for a miserable time. They are built for a specific purpose- to provide lots of luxurious space for lots of guests at a Caribbean or Mediterranean beach. They serve that function well.

For practical habitation, at least among cats, there appear to be some good ideas and design features coming from the likes of Bob Oram and Chris White. Still, such boats can become rather expensive rather quickly, and a key part of being "habitable" is that you can actually afford it....