Hi Cathy,
I concur completely with your comments about how much stuff you can get in a boat.
About 12 years ago I gave up my house in Worcester and transfered my home to my boat which was then in Lincolnshire. Back and forth I drove with my van full of 'things', how many trips is now lost to history, but it all got put away somewhere! It was winter and the boat was out of the water. She was shipped to Scotland on a lorry. Last year I returned to living ashore and emptied out the boat. She now floats about 2 inches higher, and goes quite a bit faster!
It is almost unbelievable how much storage space there is - I suppose it's the result of turning that rounded shape on the outside into a collection of rectangular shapes on the inside.

Hi Ben. Bit of a change from Lincs to Scotland! What persuaded you to go back "ashore"?

Hi Cathy,
Put simply, I met a lady that I wanted to spend my life with and two of us permanantly on the boat was a bit much!.
When you spend a lot of time sailing around here it's difficult to avoid spending a fair bit of time in Tobermory, it had become a sort of summer base for me, and eventually I met Anna there.
The odd thing was that she used to live not so far from me when I was in Worcester. (It was my boat that was in Linconshire). We now live in a village of about 42 houses and there are two other families from Worcester here and I did not know them before!

Know what you mean-when I bought my Coaster 33 almost two years ago previous owner had I think just got fed up-and Im still finding things in lockers-Eg.having bought a first aid kit found "the first aid kit"neatly stowed in a locker which I had not noticed. Likewise when I was bringing boat up from Clyde the furling genoa got ripped and whist I knew there was a locker full of sails never thought it included the old one!-only found out last winter again when removing stuff from boat-mind you my garage workshop is a bit the same!
Phil

It's a good idea to take the whole lot out at least once a year, and think quite carefully about what you put back. It's amazing how much difference it makes to sailing performance when the boat's not weighed down with lockers full of "might come in handy one day." Then you can give the lockers a quick sponge out, which will also make everything smell fresher. And of course if you have an inventory, even if only inside your head, of what there actually is in there, it will stop you buying yet more expensive rope, when there was already some lurking forgotten in a corner that would have done the job perfectly!

At the mo we have a 3 bed house, #1 bed is ours, #2 bed is the sail and mattress locker and #3 is the wet weather gear come outboards, come coolpac come tools come everything else room. But as you say when it all goes on the boat at the start of the season it all seems to fit.

Know exactly what you mean. Currently we have engine steps being varnished on the dining table.....

Talk about varnishing on the kitchen table! It pays to have a very tolerant wife, (if she is not a sailing person that is). It's handy if as much as possible of the boat interior can be dismantled, then a proper varnishing job can be done in a comfortable environment at home. I've done plenty of that!

When I was a child my father didn't let the fact we were sleeping in the beds distract from him storing stuff in our rooms!

Boat weight is such a funny thing. There is one skipper I know who got so paranoid about the weight of his vessel before a previous Fastnet race, that he only bought Pot Noodles aboard for the crew to eat, as they were about the lightest thing he could find! Not very healthy I'm sure.

After a long passage I am always surprised at how much rubbish we manage to make, and how we manage to fit it in the cockpit lockers to keep it out the way. Does make for a smelly cockpit by day 13 though.

I'm just fitting out a 21 foot sailing yacht that I bought with sails, outboard and anchor as the only inventory. My spreadsheet is currently at 65 items from Red Ensign to fenders and its growing at about 5 items per week. I've not even thought where to stow them all yet. There's so much in the garage I have had to build two more rows of high shelves to store clothing, sails, lifejackets etc etc. Its just as well that I will be single handed for the first half of the season!

I drew up a packing list when we went to collect our current boat from the Hamble. It wasn't a smart spreadsheet, but it ran to two complete sides of A4 in two columns! It's not just the obvious things like safety gear and galley equipment. There's the essential collection of spares. Have you got softwood plugs and jubilee clips on your list? And that vital "string bag" with odds and ends ready to do duty as sail ties, tiller lashings, clothes line, etc etc?

So far only the major items listed. I daren't think about the others yet, I've got 5 weekends but I do have thinking time in the week (like today when things are running smoothly in the IT suite). Perhaps I can find a website with a fitting out list on it. My caravan days were just the same, arrive at your first destination then go off to the shops to buy all the things you left behind.

It's a good job I've got a double garage so besides the car the rest is taken up with boat gear, everything brought home for the winter. There is also gear in cupboards in bedrooms and tucked away in odd corners. That can be a problem, I forget were things are!! And mine is only a twenty foot boat...