Our Dream Retirement Boat

[Greene]

Oh Baby is this sweeeeeet!  Perfect aerodynamics, full functioning second story hot tub, swinging captains seat and a room with a view.  Eat your hearts out guys, someone is already living the dream.



 

[Bob23]

 I AM SO JEALOUS!!! And I'm stuck with a Compac 23! Life is so unfair. And did you notice the fish cleaning table on the 2nd floor deck? You can clean your fish while in the hot tub! Man, what a life! And made of treated lumber -built to last! I want one! Santa- forget the Porsche 912- get me one of these instead!
Bob23

[HenryC]

While sailing on St Joseph's Sound, between Anclote Key and Tarpon Springs, I once ran across a similar craft.  We first noticed it as a square sail on the horizon, and as it approached, we came alongside and chatted with the crew.  It was a large, homemade houseboat, propelled by a square sail bent to a long yard  hung on a tripod mast stepped way forward:  It pivoted around on a circualr rail runner/track so that it could only go downwind in light air, but  it had a 50 horsepower outboard  for when the wind was not cooperating.  The crew were a retired couple who routinely sailed this contraption along the Gulf coast, pulling into protected harbors to pick up their retirement checks and groceries, and for repairs, and moving North and South along the coast when the forecast was good and the wind favorable.

Their houseboat was impressive, pontoons fashioned from 55 gallon oil drums, and a large square deck house with huge windows well provided with mosquito screens and jalousie windows.  An old-fashioned wringer washer was on the fantail, and laundry was drying on a clothesline on the roof of the superstructure.  A TV aerial poked out of one side of it, and two rusty old bicycles were lashed to the rail.

It was wonderful.

[brackish]

Wow! if only the Admiral would open her mind to the possibilities.......

[don l]

... and ...

[esterhazyinoz]

So now we have evidence were Ll'l Abner retired to.

[kickingbug1]

   where did you get the picture of our house?

[Greene]

After studying the craft I can't believe what a perfectly designed beauty she is.  Other than a "slight" blind spot from the tiller of maybe 60 to70 degrees she is graceful and fair.  Maybe I would also match the stripe on the hull to the captain's hanging seat.  I love the nearly straight tree branch they mounted to fly the flag or burgee as well.  Now I have to figure out what kind of sail plan to make her.  I have visions of her heeling into the fresh breeze cutting a smooth wake through the gulf.   Look out Bahama here we come.

Mike

[Billy]

HenryC,
St. Joesph Sound is where I sail. We should meet up some time! What kind of boat to you have?

[brackish]

... and ...

...and I could wake up every morning, look outside and see that the grass still does not need to be cut. 

Looks like the perfect craft for a year long cruise of the Atchafalaya basin

[HenryC]

HenryC,
St. Joesph Sound is where I sail. We should meet up some time! What kind of boat to you have?

Thanks for the offer, Billy, but I haven't lived on the Gulf Coast since the 90s, and the event I described was in the 70s! In those days I owned a San Francisco Pelican.

I now live in Fort Lauderdale and I no longer own a boat.  My last boat was a MacGregor 22 I owned when I lived near San Francisco. In fact, the last time I even went sailing was when I reviewed the Com-Pac 19 for Good Old Boat magazine (Sep/Oct 2009 issue).  Now that I'm retired from my civil service job,  I am considering getting something around that size, but I haven't gotten around to it.

At the rate things are going in my life right now, the improvised houseboats we are talking about here seem to be more my speed!

[Salty19]

I am especially enamored with the nice thick boot stripe and matching gas tank/hot tub.

All it needs is a tiki candle or two for nav lighting.
Seeing how inventive the captain is, surely he'll find a way to mount the candles right next to the gas tank in a
safe and seamanlike manner.

[rip]

Hey Salty, You sure the captain is a "he". I think I see curtains in the "ports".

[Bob23]

Yeah...that might be a she-captain sitting there!
   In any event, that craft puts some of the party barges around here in NJ to shame. But it does get the design wheels turning, doesn't it. I wonder how much it would cost me to build one. I'd prefer the soft top design myself...no need for a 2nd floor deck. It might be a bit unstable in rough seas.
   Upon a closer look, I don't think that's a hot tub but rather a gravity fed 300 gallon fuel tank. Man, that baby is set up for long distance cruising!
Bob23

[mrb]

The real beauty in that boat is the owner is out doing what they want to be doing.  Much grog to whomever has the fortitude to find happines in the doing ,  as is the person on that barge  I'm sure.  Once when I was cruising in the San Juans of Washinton state I came across a very old lady spending the last of her life on a home made house boat her son had made for her.  She lived on it by herself and occasionally her son would drop by and move her to the next location she wanted to visit.  She was native to Washington and out visiting places that had changed unimaginable in her life time but she still saw the beauty through the development


May the new year bring but fair winds and following seas