Liveaboard in a West Wight Potter 15

[akprb]

I owned a West Wight Potter and sailed her here in Alaska.

I've also lived aboard for many years, the smallest being a J24.

I would not choose a Potter to live on.

Sailing? It's basically like sailing a dinghy because it IS a dinghy. Not fun or safe for long hauls.

Living? You will end up having to mooch off others for the basics. Not saying there is anything wrong with that. Just gets old for the moochees.

Storage? None.

Do you anticipate having a girlfriend? :-)

My advice (cause you asked) if you have 3k. Find a 20-25 foot something with a little head and galley and you'll be on your way. There are PLENTY out there that need a home with dreamer owners who have not touched them in years, perhaps decades.

If you want to sail the "Americas" may want to save that for your phase 2 boat.

I'm all for doing what your doing. Just a thumbs down for the Potter unless.......by an old RV and tow the Potter from place to place :-)

One final thought. Since you are in college and appear entrepreneurial noodle up a way to create an income stream the works without you being present. Read the 4 hour work week by Tim Ferris.

So many focus on the expense side of the ledger (doing everything super cheap) as opposed to focusing on the income side of the same ledger.

All the best!

[medevicerep]

Love your spirit! Consider starting with an overnight trip. I have a WWP19 that actually has a porta potty. The 15 does not. You would have to keep a camp potty in the cockpit and poo only when it's dark. The 15 does not have enough storage space for all of your gear. I would recommend buying the WWP 15 and experimenting with short trips to see what you need. You can't live aboard but you can camp aboard. Send pictures!

[RNWilson]

If you are anchoring out in any water with a tide you will want a dinghy that you can drag on the beach/rocks so you can keep it out of the water while ashore and get it back in the water when returning to the boat. This would eliminate the mother ship for use as a dinghy no matter how small the mother ship was. Also a dinghy is needed to get ashore unless you want to pull the anchor and re anchor every trip. I would go with a bit bigger boat for all the reasons mentioned in other posts plus a bigger boat would less affected by the towing of the dinghy. Also be sure to get an easy towing dinghy. Have fun!

[newhaul]

https://www.seaeagle.com/MotormountBoats/SE9
Works great and you deflate it and store on bow deck when not needed. Towing a dingy behind a small sailboat is not good for speed. Will cost a half to a full knot of speed.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

Sailing author Bruce Bingham lived on a 20' Flica for quite some time, & I'm sure folks have done it on smaller boats. But it is nice to have a little bit of living space, especially if you have, say, a date

And somewhere to keep one or two nice outfits, even if but neatly packed as if you're going traveling comes in handy. You also probably will want some but netting. Enough for all of your hatches, & probably to enclose the boom tent. Since the cockpit is one of your primary living spaces.

Otherwise, if you've ever been backpacking, then you have an idea of what it's like to live in a small space, with very little. Like when you & a buddy are stuck in a tent for 3 days while it pours.

Unless someone is docked with facilities, a date is unlikely.

[RNWilson]

Originally Posted by newhaul

https://www.seaeagle.com/MotormountBoats/SE9
Works great and you deflate it and store on bow deck when not needed. Towing a dingy behind a small sailboat is not good for speed. Will cost a half to a full knot of speed.

Would there be room for that on the fore deck of the WWP ? Or any boat in the 20 to 22' range?

[boeing1]

I agree with the previous post on looking for a larger boat, with all the gear you want to carry I think 15wwp would be too small, Good luck

[Adelie]

Even on my 20' boat I'm wrestling with how to store a dinghy.

The best I've found for solo-sailing is the micro-folding dinghy. I haven't built one yet but am planning to.
http://www.microcruising.com/ding1.htm

With my wife it might work.

With the kids we're going to have to bring the inflatable which will have to be moved repeatedly during the day because there's no good permanent spot.

[Aswayze]

Here's what I would suggest.

Get out and look over some boats that have been fitted out for cruising. Look over and discuss the solar installations, talk about "paper" vs real power use and generation. Look at how stowage space can and does get used and talk dingy options.

Do all of this physically ON a boat so you can gain a full appreciation of what people are telling you.

Once you get a good understanding of you want/need try to buy it locally so you have some time to fit it out and optimize it to suit your needs. You can start in Illinois and go anywhere you want, the inland waterway system will get you there.

I have a Parker Dawson 26 that is set up for long term cruising just waiting for the next opportunity life hands me to get out there. I am in Kansas City and I am sure that I am not the only midwesterner with such an escape pod in waiting.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by RNWilson

Would there be room for that on the fore deck of the WWP ? Or any boat in the 20 to 22' range?

I would assume there would be room for an se9 or simmilar rollup inflatables.
I personally used to carry an se15 hard transom rolled up and laid athwartships in front of my mast on my islander bahama 24.
While the 15 is no longer available the link is for a similar one
https://www.seaeagle.com/SportRunabouts/14SR

[somanyboats]

Hi Ivan, I owned a 15' potter, NO storage. I hated that I had to crawl to get inside the cubby. Notice I did not say cabin.
I now have a Flicka. Love it.
Lots of storage, it is comfortable and is truly a live aboard.
I'm sure there are a lot of boats out there that will work for you.

[Classicsailboat]

Locally a Morgan 41 just sold for $8,000 and it floats and the engine works, and its all there, albeit in rough shape.

[SC28]

I would suggest not getting hung up on any one model of boat. Its easy when you're starting out to see a boat you really like and get totally enamored with that one, but realistically you should figure out what you want to get out of your boat and your budget and look from there. Cost is always an issue, but there are tremendously seaworthy boats out there for very little money. Look at a Contessa 26 for example. I bought my Southern Cross 28 for $1800 bucks with a brand new suite of sails on a trailer because someone had left a hatch open and the boat had filled with about two foot of water. It caused some damage to the interior and the boat was super moldy but a couple of weeks of serious scrubbing and a few minor repairs and I had a solid boat that I could actually stand up in. Going small is great, but consider your options at least.

[SC28]

Originally Posted by Adelie

Even on my 20' boat I'm wrestling with how to store a dinghy.

The best I've found for solo-sailing is the micro-folding dinghy. I haven't built one yet but am planning to.
Micro Folding Dinghy

With my wife it might work.

With the kids we're going to have to bring the inflatable which will have to be moved repeatedly during the day because there's no good permanent spot.

Have you looked at portabotes? not sure what kind of sailing your doing but if its coastal cruising with one of those you could fold it up and attach it to the lifelines

[fahtcha]

Like some of the posts above, I'm not seeing all this stuff fitting on a 15' boat. Eliminating all the electrical stuff on the list would be a good first step, plus I'm missing the need for an amplified ukulele on a small boat. Maybe towing a second boat with all the stuff would make it work, if you add a motor. I'm probably just not sufficiently creative.