Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to live on the water. Even in my smallest boats as a little boy, prams, a fishing skiff-rowboat. No surprise I found myself in the design/build world building houses for myself and then clients.
When my partner (newly married) and I bought a 28' Cape Dory sloop, we had some cruising in mind. In our mid 30's, the wanderlust was strong (and still is). Like everything I touched I quickly went about making the boat more home like.
Off we went for nearly a year for what I think was sort of a shake down to more extensive cruising. We didn't sell our home life in Vermont instead renting out, putting cars away, etc.
That 28' sailboat went through a re-design before, and during a year sailing down the east coast to the Exumas. After returning, having a baby (followed by another a year later) going back to work (fully refreshed and renewed beyond what I expected), we decided to do it again on a more limited basis.
By then the 28'er had the port settee removed and a small dinette built in it's place. Built mostly for two, and for that it worked perfectly, the permanent dinette adapted to our small charges for several years. The fixed table served as a nav station to spread out charts, storage(much needed in 28') was built in forward and below. Here, our son then about 2 in a clip on high chair:
More drastic re-design was needed for four berths. But two of those didn't have to be very big, yet. I removed the stock pilot berth over the settee on the starboard side. I built a new half pilot berth that served as a berth for one pint sized sailor above with a full settee berth below. Both with curb and lee cloth served well for several years. That half sized pilot berth could slide out for a full sized (track in the photo below). Or with the half pilot only, the settee could pull out and with back cushions we had made, the lower berth was a "couch" of sorts that along with the dinette seats, was a comfortable cabin for the four of us.
This is our daughter asleep in the lower with the upper pilot in 1/2 mode. That 1/2 pilot served as a storage bin as well as a full pilot berth (lower settee slide inboard) for our son as they kids began to grow.
That first cruise (and in part the second) was life changing in many ways. We wouldn't trade those days for anything.
For me it was a fulfillment of a life long itch: I had no desire to sail off over the horizon. It may have been the miles and days of plugging along, mostly under power, to get up and down the coast. The cruising itch scratched, I found myself starved for sailing.
Our 28'er served us well but in turning it more into a home than a sailboat, it naturally became less of a sailboat. The boat got better as we removed stuff (weight mostly I suspect). Using the boat more as an outpost on the coast of Maine we enjoyed short stints on the small boat. As a family, we were well adapted now to switching from land to sea for memorable sails to new harbors. I started to sail more, again. I was bit, again, by the sailing bug as the idea of long term cruising faded away.
Now with a bigger boat, I resist my ideas (I've had many-I never stop designing) to turn Xmas into more of a home.
I've come to appreciate the boat for it's ability to take us away in an instant. There's a cost to this lightness of a sailboat when I made it more home like. Snug berths, tiny galley, no flat screen or big comfortable chairs, it lacks these things.
We do
live on the water these days, in an old house, a short walk and row to our boat. The sailboat takes us away.
