Living
on Sailboat Full Time
Living on sailboat full time takes quite a lot of time in preparation. Many great cruisers start off as true armchair sailors, and that’s a pretty comfortable way to cruise. It’s a sad fact of life that there are many television documentaries and You Tube videos on cruising sailors or sailing influencers, and about sailing or the sea in general. It’s often about great wrecks and sinkings, recovery of lost treasures, and sharks, sharks and more sharks. Now these are all pretty negative images when you’re trying to get the wife or partner around to the idea of living and going cruising on a small boat. It is essential that it isn't perceived as privation, suffering and camping on the water.
Collecting and making the cruise file is a great way of introducing the subject to your prospective sailing partner, also it gets rid of piles of magazines that have been cluttering up the house, and you get a well organised database to take away. Nothing beats visualization like pulling down your Pacific file. If you are ever going to make it you have to do an awful lot of visualization. Buying yachting magazines and reading every last article and story, trouble is over years the magazine collection can become enormous and now it is easier as many offer free monthly digital editions. Even with the advertising component it is still worthwhile. I copy cut and paste each article of interest into a new Word file for later reference and store it on my boat tablet. More useful information about living on board.
Provisioning,
Storage & Weight Management.
Structuring provisioning into fresh, semi‑perishable, and long‑life categories to maintain predictable rotation and reduce spoilage risk. Mapping storage locations by access priority, motion exposure, temperature stability, and humidity behaviour to protect stores and equipment. Managing weight distribution fore‑and‑aft and port‑to‑starboard to maintain trim, reduce hobby‑horsing, and preserve steering balance. Securing all stores against heel, shock loads, and repeated motion using disciplined stowage, lashing, and container logic. Tracking consumption rates across food, water, fuel, and consumables to maintain accurate endurance estimates for passages and remote anchorages. Maintaining ventilation and moisture control in lockers to prevent mould, condensation, and packaging degradation. Applying a continuous audit cycle and stock checks, rotation, expiry control, and locker inspection to keep provisioning reliable and predictable. Provisioning, Storage & Weight Management.
Galley Operations
& Liveaboard Cooking
Designing efficient galley workflows that minimise heat, motion risk, and energy use while maintaining safe footing and handholds. Managing cooking under way: gimbal awareness, pot‑rest use, controlled heat, and secure stowage to prevent spills and burns. Planning meals for passages with emphasis on low‑prep, high‑calorie, stable foods that tolerate motion and variable appetites. Using provisioning logic to balance fresh, semi‑perishable, and long‑life stores while maintaining weight distribution and rotation discipline. Managing refrigeration and cold‑storage efficiency through organised packing, minimal door‑open time, and temperature‑aware food placement. Implementing safe food‑handling practices in warm, humid environments: contamination control, water‑quality awareness, and rapid spoilage detection. Adapting cooking methods including pressure cooking, one‑pot meals, thermal cooking to reduce fuel consumption and heat load inside the cabin. Maintaining galley equipment: burners, regulators, solenoids, gimbals, latches, and ventilation systems to ensure reliable, safe operation. Galley Operations & Liveaboard Cooking.
Water Systems & Conservation
Understanding freshwater system architecture from tanks, pumps, accumulators, filters, heaters and how pressure, flow, and contamination risks interact. Managing tank hygiene through disciplined disinfection cycles, sediment control, and early detection of taste, odour, or microbial growth. Operating water‑makers efficiently: feed‑water quality awareness, membrane protection, flushing routines, and energy‑to‑output optimisation. Monitoring daily consumption patterns to maintain a stable water budget across drinking, cooking, washing, and deck use. Reducing usage through efficient habits: low‑flow rinsing, saltwater pre‑wash routines, and heat‑management to minimise hot‑water draw. Maintaining plumbing integrity: hose inspection, clamp security, leak tracing, and pressure‑system troubleshooting. Planning reserves for passages, remote anchorages, and system failures to ensure continuous access to safe, reliable freshwater. Water Systems & Conservation.
Mechanical
and Electrical Repairs Resource
If you are headed somewhere remote consider the need to expand your knowledge base or have an information resource on board. Why not get a copy of my book The Marine and Electrical and Electronics Bible 4th Edition. By and for yachties, with everything from batteries and charging, solar and wind, diesel engines and marine electronics and so much more. Your complete systems guide. 650 pages of practical advice. In Australia and New Zealand order a copy through Boat Books. UK and European boats can buy the UK Edition Here. US and Canadian boats can get the US Edition Order Here. Marine systems are my profession so let me help you. By a liveaboard boat owner for other boat owners
Living
on Sailboat Full Time - Planning the Cruise
Some say there is no point in going cruising if in fact you simply do not know where to voyage to. That is a load of X&$#! Planning and dreaming is all part of the magic. Some are content to coastal cruise in their respective countries, and this can absorb a sailing lifetime, especially in countries like the Australia, where a circumnavigation is some 25,000 miles and 2 years ormore is reasonable. Or the USA where an East to West voyage takes you via Mexico, and The Panama Canal via the Caribbean, or in the UK where the European continent is just a short hop away and down to the Med. Ocean voyaging is a different matter altogether and some want to achieve an ocean crossing. If you are going to build or do major refit of a boat then you simply cannot have enough information, or talk to enough people. With all that information and advice floating around it is still amazing how so many people screw up so much.
“The planning stage of a cruise is often just as enjoyable as the voyage itself, letting one’s imagination loose on all kinds of possibilities. Yet translating dreams into reality means a lot of practical questions have to be answered” Jimmy Cornell
Living on Sailboat Full Time - The Boat
Understand and inventory the boat you might buy. Understand what is there before you start planning the upgrade. Make a list of all items you want to install in your boat, the ultimate wish list if you like. Then take a deep breath and prepare a budget. Next, make a list of the same items with next best available equipment, a "B" grade list if you like. Generally, the difference is enough to half build a boat. Better a well-found smaller boat than a badly found larger one. Bearing in mind there is no such thing as the perfect boat and best get used to that word “compromise”. While you are building or renovating your boat every second person who has a boat will probably say, sometimes tactfully or often as not, how they would have done things. It’s your boat, so do it your way to suit you, always listen for that useful nugget of information though. Bearing in mind that keeping it simple and traditional is often a safer course to follow. Don’t try and reinvent the wheel. So many newcomers to yachts and boats decide to experiment on their project, usually they have to do it right a second or even a third time, and usually it spells disaster and they join the 90% who never get away. Living on sailboat fulltime requires a lot of knowledge.