I have long been intrigued by the idea of living on a cruising sailboat.
Not so much where I live currently, in Minneapolis, but perhaps someone further south where they don't have the hard water problem that makes sailing so difficult for so much of the year.
And now I have a boat.
It's Allan Vaitses' take on L. Francis Herreshoff's Meadow Lark - a 37-foot shoal draft ketch.
It needs work - it was something of a project boat for the previous owner - but not that much. Mostly it needs the Yanmar serviced - it runs but the raw water pump doesn't work, and the navigation lights were removed and tossed. There are new lights in boxes in the cabin, but they need to be mounted and new wiring run. That's an easier job than it sounds, because the masts are in tabernacles, and can be raised and lowered single-handed.
Then the trailer needs new tires and lights. (As big as this boat is, it's trailerable without permits - 8-foot beam, and the peak height, with the masts down is about 11' 8".)
I tell people I don't have plans, I have vague intentions. That I'll follow this path until it no longer interests me.
There's a lot I'd think I need to do to this boat, to get it ready to live aboard, beyond just getting it ready to sail. But I figure I'll put off on making decisions about any of that. I'll get it ready to sail, put it in a local lake next spring, and sail it for a season. Next winter I'll look at making upgrades to make it more livable. I don't know enough, yet, about what I'd need, to make the right decisions.
Maybe season after next I'll trying living on her for a couple of weeks at a time, and see how it goes.
And maybe in three or four or five years, I'll have her down in Mobile, putting on some saltwater bottom paint.
Not so much where I live currently, in Minneapolis, but perhaps someone further south where they don't have the hard water problem that makes sailing so difficult for so much of the year.
And now I have a boat.
It's Allan Vaitses' take on L. Francis Herreshoff's Meadow Lark - a 37-foot shoal draft ketch.
It needs work - it was something of a project boat for the previous owner - but not that much. Mostly it needs the Yanmar serviced - it runs but the raw water pump doesn't work, and the navigation lights were removed and tossed. There are new lights in boxes in the cabin, but they need to be mounted and new wiring run. That's an easier job than it sounds, because the masts are in tabernacles, and can be raised and lowered single-handed.
Then the trailer needs new tires and lights. (As big as this boat is, it's trailerable without permits - 8-foot beam, and the peak height, with the masts down is about 11' 8".)
I tell people I don't have plans, I have vague intentions. That I'll follow this path until it no longer interests me.
There's a lot I'd think I need to do to this boat, to get it ready to live aboard, beyond just getting it ready to sail. But I figure I'll put off on making decisions about any of that. I'll get it ready to sail, put it in a local lake next spring, and sail it for a season. Next winter I'll look at making upgrades to make it more livable. I don't know enough, yet, about what I'd need, to make the right decisions.
Maybe season after next I'll trying living on her for a couple of weeks at a time, and see how it goes.
And maybe in three or four or five years, I'll have her down in Mobile, putting on some saltwater bottom paint.