21ft Sailboat - How to Manage Living?

[Billnpr]

Composting toilet, bucket w/lid. Started with Sagan moss and saw dust then changed to odorless cat litter. The wife says wonderful.

[s/v Breakaway]

I vote for keeping it simple. Get a cooler, not a fridge. Any one or two burner stove will do. A boom tent is much cheaper than a bimini, but I think you will wish you had a bimini on sunny days. I think you can buy premade biminis pretty inexpensively.

Enjoy!

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by s/v Breakaway

I vote for keeping it simple. Get a cooler, not a fridge. Any one or two burner stove will do. A boom tent is much cheaper than a bimini, but I think you will wish you had a bimini on sunny days. I think you can buy premade biminis pretty inexpensively.

Enjoy!

I believe he is making sense. I, for one, think 21' is a bite to small.
JMHO

[GrowleyMonster]

Originally Posted by Occam

At the end of summer I picked up a one-off 21ish foot sailboat which has similar lines to the Sam Crocker Stonehorse 23 but with a fairly different keel shape and some other differences. The interior space is almost the same - mine has sitting headroom, a v berth, a sink, and a porta-potty up in the bow. I plan on living on Rosy next summer and doing some light coastal cruising around Buzzard's Bay, Martha's Vineyard, and maybe out to Nantucket. There isn't much room for gear so I was wondering what you thought were the true essentials. She already has a basic electrical system with lights that's powered by the Yanmar 10hp Diesel onboard but I think I will add some sort of solar array to help charge it - probably one which is easily storable. I think a boom tent would be a good idea to add some more sheltered space when I'm moored or at anchor - and maybe give friends a place to sleep if I have them on board. Refrigeration is pretty much out of the question but I feel I could probably get by with a quality cooler and a fairly constant supply of ice. The porta potty is in a difficult to access place so I'll likely end up using a 5 gal bucket with a detachable seat. For navigation, I've got a small Simrad laying around which will be plenty for staying in sight of land. Cooking will be done with a small duel-burner camping stove that came with the boat.

What do you all think? - Is there anything else I need or would find extremely convenient?

Here's an image of Rosy:
https://imgur.com/KGSBmEZ

The dual fuel stove... what fuels? Your best option is a kerosene/diesel stove like a backpacker stove, mounted in a gimbal like a Sea-Swing or similar. You could have a mount inside and also out in the cockpit. Remember to ventilate the boat while cooking. Please don't use a propane camp stove down below! If you must use propane, get a Magma Kettle grill and mount it on your pushpit rail, and store cannisters topside. Regular marine propane stoves are bad enough but at least they have some safety features that reduce the risk of disaster to more tolerable levels. A camp stove does not. Alcohol? You can starve to death waiting for an alcohol stove to cook something LOL been there, done that. White gas, unleaded gasoline, Coleman fuel, all are sort of dangerous, on a boat, due to the heavier than air fumes. Don't use them for cooking. For an outboard, at least make sure that the tank vents overboard, and any jugs are kept topside or in a topside locker with no access to bilge. Speaking of bilge, make sure you have some means of ventilating it. A proper blower is great, and a wise investment if you have any gasoline aboard, even topside. An explosion proof fan pointed down there with the access hatches up is better than nothing.



Don't rely 100% on cell phone for comms. You NEED a VHF to hail other vessels since you don't know their phone numbers and their phones probably are not on, anyway.



Try to find room for two decent anchors and plenty of chain for each. As much chain and anchor as you can lift by hand is probably a good amount for your boat. Half inch nylon for the rest of the rode. You will probably anchor a lot. Set up a snubber to take the strain of the anchor, rather than let the anchor rode chafe in a chock. BTW, rubber hose or fire hose make good chafing gear.



Rowing is practical for a boat that size. So have oars for backup propulsion, practice using them, and set up some convenient and easy to use oarlocks. Take it from me... oars ought to have lanyards on them.

[edexter]

Hi, we have a Rhodes 22 and putter about the Chesapeake. Yeah, it's like camping in a pup tent, with the added advantage of maybe drowning. Since the Captain likes her comfort, we have many fine things not yet on your list:
- Maps and the tide charts - especially up there, LI sound runs an 8 to 12 foot tidal variation. For example, in Smithtown Bay, there is a nice channel in to Stony Brook Harbor - but you can anchor next to the channel a half mile offshore and still be high and dry at low tide.
- You didn't mention a radio...get one, at least a hand-held, so you can monitor 16 and check the weather. A thunderstorm in a little boat can be exhilerating, but much better if you don't get caught with your pants down or too much canvas up when the squall line hits. A guy the Captain has met with another Rhodes like ours got hit with 70-knot winds in a squall on LI Sound, got knocked down three times and broke two stays, but managed to sail it back to Mamaroneck harbor after the wind died down to 30 knots (!!).
- Cruising guide to the marine neighborhood so you know how to contact the many fine marinas and restaurants with docks - as was noted above, a cell phone often works to get info on how crowded the transient dock is, when the fuel dock closes, etc. Plus they have info on harbor entries etc.
- If you are cooking you will need plates, silverware and cookware, and pots and pans. Camping stuff that fits inside each other when not in use works nicely - make sure there's a colander for pasta. Ours has a water tank">fresh water tank and pump for the sink, but you can use seawater if you don't mind the plankton on your plates.
- don't forget sleeping arrangements, sheets and a sleeping pad of some kind, and a small 12V fan for the occasional hot night - I am from Long Island and it does happen sometimes.
- The "Boom Room" tarp is handy - don't forget bungies to hold it out - you might want to work out where to attach it before you head out.
- Switch out your old incandescent lights for LEDs both inside and out, to preserve your battery life.
-Throw a nice little LED lantern or two aboard - nice if you have to go on deck at night to readjust the anchor or whatever, and if that old anchor light gives out just when you need it - had to do that this summer, damn thing worked the last time we used it but didn't come on when we were in a busy mooring area, so I ran the lantern up one of the signal halyards.
- We have a built in ice-block type fridge but bring along a smallish portable Yeti cooler for the perishable food, it stays colder for longer than any other one we've tried.
- An old second-hand I-pad can be used as a navigation aid, you don't have to reactivate it's cell service but it still has GPS, you can load up maps etc. from a PC or whatever, and they are cheap.
- Reading material for the three-day frontal passage.
- Chargers! When you do get further out your phone cranks up its output to stay in touch with the cell towers, and they go flat faster. I installed USB charging ports running off the starting and bilge pump backup batteries. Also floating chargers to keep those guys topped off when you are in port.
- Lastly, we have an 8' Jacques Cousteau-type inflatable but never use the thing, it's too heavy to get aboard and too big to stow. So we have gone with a nice two-person inflatable kayak, inflates with a 12-v pump and is ready in 20 minutes, and only weighs 40 pounds so landing the thing is doable.
Good luck and have fun! And remember...B.O.A.T. = "Break out another thou$and".

[thataway41]

I would get a 100 watt or at least a 50 watt solar panel. It will keep your batteries topped off, and keep the cell phone, smart pad/phone for navigation charged. You don't need much of the way of lights--but LED, including the anchor (riding) light. If no mast head light, then a LED (solar rechargeable) lantern to hang in the fore triangle (the way we used to use kerosene lamps.)

One burner stove is plenty. We currently cruise with one burner, and my wife has gotten very deft at moving the several pots around. I store back up propane cyl. in the 4' PVC pipe--as noted.

Make sure you have a comfortable place to sit--cushions, foam etc, to get the ergonomics right.

Although I grew up sailing in the late 1940's/early 50's with a galvanized bucket as a head--that will just not cut it today. Pretty good chance you will get stopped by GC or local LEO and inspected. I would keep the porti-potty, just to stay legal. We do have a composting (air head)--and we do compost it--Wiith two of us, it takes a month to "fill", and we then put the mixture (no odor) into a black plastic bag, which is turned at least 2 x a week. In the Florida heat, this is sufficient for the good bacteria/fungae to take over, and kill the pathogens. Heat is the key for decomposition, we also put in bacteria which are a "starter"--up where you are--you would be dumping into a dumpster--something I don't see as being desirable. The line between desiccation and composting, involves temperatures, nitrogen carbon ratio as well as amount of moisture. Either can (but often does not) lead to death of pathogens in the accumulated material.

Size: There was a class of boats called the "Teak Lady". They were about 21 of them built in Hong Kong, in 1937 to 1940 and then in the 50's. One cruised from San Francisco to Hawaii and then on thru the South Pacific--with a couple and no engine--the boats were 17 feet long. I was told that one had sailed from Hong Kong to San Francisco--but I believe that story is "lost". The son of a friend, sailed a Montgomery 15 to Hawaii. So by those standards a displacement boat like the OP's is luxury.

I would vote for an inflatable kayak. I am not a big fan of "Sea Eagle"--but they do have some fairly impressive inflatable kayaks. A friend did the "Great Loop" and that was his only dinghy--took a dog ashore 3x a day. With the draft of the boat you have, there are times you will want some way to get ashore when anchored. Also there may be times a stern anchor may be have to paddled out---or heaven forbid--you have to run a kedge out to help "unground" your boat. [clue--you can use a spinnaker halyard (if you have one) to heel the boat and reduce draft, by setting a kedge abeam, and toward the deeper water. I always carry at least 3 anchors. You have already been advised that a Fortress or Guardian is the best for your boat. I got an FX 7 at a garage sale for $5.

Have a great adventure~!

[skenn_ie]

A friend sailed a Hurley 22 from Ireland to StMaarten, and lived on it there for 2 years. Not my idea of fun though. I don't like my own company so much as to live with myself in 20square feet.

[mako]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Margaret and her husband Frank cruised extensively on a 16ft Wayfarer dinghy with a boom tent.

Years ago I was backpacking through Nicaragua and ran across a Canadian who was floating down the river in an inflatable raft like you get at WalMart. Camping on shore at night. I saw some really big crocs on those river banks down there.

The OPs 21ft sailboat is starting to sound better the more I think about it [emoji3]