If it looks good from a drone, it’s good enough. Go small, go simple, go now.
Discussion
Tbf it's the insides which are the biggest concern atm - there's moderate external storm damage and general maintenance that needs doing but yeah...thinking of putting her in a marina and gutting the internals this year...it's not had a rebuild since 1998 😆
Yeah, she’s probably due. Get as much done as you can before you move in. But, if you wait until you’re ready, you’ll never go. At some point, you’ll have to be good with food enough and just go. There is no such thing as a perfect boat!
I've been on her for a while but back in January she broke off her mooring in a storm and smashed against the shore, made a right mess of things - I'll strip her out then start afresh, effectively camping on her if needs be
That’s how I started out. A camp stove and battery lanterns. Little by little, I made improvements and Love Magic (25’ MacGreagor) became my home away from home.
I loved it so much, I sold the actual home and bought Star Fire and made her my full time home. With a little patience and a lot of hard work and some luck, I found a quality boat in ready-to-sail condition for a decent price. I haven’t looked back since.
That's really cool 😎 Could you ever see yourself going back to city life?
I started off with a 26' Snapdragon which, as you can see from the image below, I managed to destroy with fire;
Now I'm on a 26' Colvic and in truth she's never been as good as the snapdragon, but I needed a boat fast so I grabbed her and started work on her. Unfortunately she's now been storm damaged twice but...I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. Waking up bobbing on the water is the most peaceful I've ever felt. Gutting her and starting over will be well worth the effort.
Oh my god! I’ve never slept as well as I do on the water. Not even close. Get a 3” memory foam mattress topper and cut it to fit your vbirth (or quarter birth).
As far as living in a city, only when I’m anchored near one. I’ve never like large groups of people. There’s way, way too many self important people trying to force unnatural outcomes. For the benefit of paying for things they have already consumed. Cities are interesting to visit, but I could never live in one.
Before the boat I could never lay in bed, I wake up early and that's it, I'm up...onboard I've been quite happy rolling over and falling back asleep till 10, 11am 😆
I'm considering a pure minimalist approach when I redone the insides - I don't know what the weather's like where you are but any kind of mattress gets ruined by the damp here, so I've got used to sleeping on 6 blankets folded over, so effectively a dozen blankets beneath me, which I can then hang and dry on the boom.
Personally I love city life but I like being able to walk away from it when I'm done and get back to nature and beautiful views 🌄