Maintain-ability. I’ve been thinking about this a bunch lately. Building systems or designing particular items so that they can be maintained as needed.
Okay, I certainly get that space is tight on boats. But shoehorning equipment into places — or picking equipment without a thought about how it will need to be serviced — is just asking for trouble. Necessary maintenance won’t be done if it’s nearly impossible to do (see Cory’s story about just that).
We have always prided ourselves on keeping our boat in great mechanical shape. She may not always be the prettiest boat, with shiny brightwork, but everything works.
But man, sometimes designers make that hard. Three things come to mind. One we’ve figured a way around; one caused an injury and one was just hard as hell to work on.
This isn’t a rant. Honestly, it’s not. It’s more of “things to look at as you’re looking at boats.” Considering maintainability when comparing a couple of boats may make one suddenly look a lot better than another. And overall ease of maintenance will make your cruising much more enjoyable, both as it will take less time and things will work the way they should.
So, you’re wondering, what are the three things?
Battery compartment. There’s the battery compartment on our Gemini catamaran. Batteries go in under the nav station, then are slid forward under another locker. To put batteries in, you have to sit on a step and then lift them straight out in front of you. Not easy with something that weighs 50 to 70 pounds. Then, once they’re in place, one is impossible to reach to add water.
Literally impossible. The only way to add water would be to disconnect all the batteries, remove two from the battery compartment and then slide the third one out where it could be accessed. Then put them all back in and dreconnect them. Not gonna happen on a monthly basis.
Now, we got around the watering problem with a wonderful watering system that makes adding water to all our batteries about a 5-minute job (read about Easy Battery Watering). But if friends hadn’t told me that such a thing existed, we would have had to go with AGM batteries (lithium would be another choice now).
Engine compartment. I swear, the engine had to be installed and then the cockpit installed around it. The sides of the engine are accessed by removing side panels to the engine compartments. Fine except that to do any work you have to lean in over a quarter-inch piece of fiberglass that digs into your ribs. It still hurts after putting a pillow over it. And when Dave last went to change the zinc on the heat exchanger, he moved just wrong and badly bruised his ribs.
There’s a designer out there who never thought about how you’d get to many of the engine components. So you have to think about these things before you plunk down your money. How will you change the oil? Transmission fluid? Tighten the alternator belt? Change the alternator? Go right on down the list.
Same for pumps, water hoses, wiring. Can headliner be easily removed to get to things hidden behind it? Wall panels?
Steaming light. This one we discovered over the past few days. Now any light is going to need the bulb changed periodically. It’s a given. And we all know that doing any work up the mast dramatically increases the difficulty. First, it can be hard to have any leverage or get to “just the right spot.” Screws and nuts can be dropped — and the smaller they are, the more likely. And there’s no table or work surface up there — you’re usually using one hand to keep you in place, so there is only one hand for the work.
Well, our steaming light was out. Seems simple enough, just change the bulb. But guess what? To change the bulb, you have to remove the fixture from the mast, then remove two tiny screws from the back of it so that the lens can be removed. Actually, when you remove those screws, the lens just falls off — hope you had your hand in just the right spot to simultaneously grab the screws and the lens!
Again, this thing is sold as a masthead light. It’s not like they didn’t know someone would be in mid-air trying to change the bulb. I realize that it has to be waterproof, but I think it could be designed a lot better.
Bottom line. We like our Gemini catamaran, and part of its attractiveness is its price. And every time we discover something like this, we repeat “The Gemini was built to a price point.” In other words, $5 here and there adds up and choices were made based on cost.
But maintain-ability was sacrificed. It’s something to look at in comparing boats. And every used boat is different in what previous owners may have done, so you can’t assume that all boats of the same make are good, or poor.
It’s important to note that most surveyors don’t look at maintainability. If you’re buying your first boat, you might want to specifically ask the surveyor their thoughts on access, or even pay a mechanic for their assessment.
No boat will be perfect. But it’s nice to know where the challenges will lie.
Carolyn Shearlock has lived aboard full-time for 17 years, splitting her time between a Tayana 37 monohull and a Gemini 105 catamaran. She’s cruised over 14,000 miles, from Pacific Mexico and Central America to Florida and the Bahamas, gaining firsthand experience with the joys and challenges of life on the water.
Through The Boat Galley, Carolyn has helped thousands of people explore, prepare for, and enjoy life afloat. She shares her expertise as an instructor at Cruisers University, in leading boating publications, and through her bestselling book, The Boat Galley Cookbook. She is passionate about helping others embark on their liveaboard journey—making life on the water simpler, safer, and more enjoyable.
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Gus says
Hello,
Great post. Good point about the surveyors overlooking maintainability. Indeed, they overlook many stuff that are important. New buyers should do their homework reading posts like this and not overely on surveyors, even though some of them are great.
Thanks for the post.
Gaz says
Great comments. I had to go up the mast on my Catalina 27 to change bulbs. One thing I will mention is that it’s worth using climbing gear so you can ascend the halyard. I did this and had both hands free as I used a ‘frog’ system to ascend the rope. Obviously I know how to climb and rappel a rope so this may not be for everyone (I’m a climber BTW – look into Kumar’s and jugging a rope if interested). As far as steaming lights etc, consider LED lights as they are maintenance free once installed. The only issue is directionality so you have to choose the bulb judiciously. Don’t cheap out.
As far as maintenance of internal system, I couldn’t agree more. Working behind an electrical panel to figure out wiring was painful !! Changing an outboard was a 3 man job !! So easy access is very important.
Stephanie Martin says
Your articles are so helpful. As we consider our first sailboat purchase, we are feeling a bit overwhelmed. We have found a boat that is in the state (Florida) but 800 nm from where we live or 275 road miles. There is a big expense to either trucking it across the state or hiring a delivery captain.
Should we even be considering a boat so far away? (There are boats near by, but not nearly in as good a shape – for the same price.) The idea of taking the mast down to ship seems overwhelming, but to pay someone for 9 days to deliver it by sailing it around the state is very expensive. We have spent months looking and are ready to move on to a purchase, but struggling with what really makes sense and then of course, how to do it. What do you think?
Carolyn Shearlock says
Both ways of transporting it are going to be expensive if done right. If you don’t yet have the skills or time to sail/motor the boat to your location, you need to add the transport cost to the purchase cost to see if it’s really such a good deal. In general, I’d opt for the delivery captain as taking the mast down and putting it back up and transporting a boat on the boat can cause a number of problems unless done very carefully.
Buying one at a distance isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but I am concerned about your ability to evaluate the boat if you don’t feel confident to move it on your own. Be sure to get a very thorough survey done, and consider going with the delivery captain if he/she will let you — you will learn more on that trip than in three years of courses!
Stephanie Martin says
Oh ouch! “I am concerned about your ability to evaluate the boat if you don’t feel confident to move it on your own.” Interesting. When you own your own business or more appropriately when it owns you, getting two weeks away is difficult so say the least.
We will add the price of moving to the purchase and see – so many boats in the 20 yr age range seem to have many years of neglect. When we find one that is well taken care of, we get excited. We would like to spend our time sailing than rehabbing a project.boat. We are also finding that pricing is highly fluid.
Carolyn Shearlock says
Sorry about that! Usually when someone is buying a boat and talking about someone else moving it, they also tell me that they don’t want to do it themselves as they are still learning. So I was very wrong there and apologize.
There are great boats in the 20-year-old range, but it takes digging to find them!
robert l waldrop says
This is an excellent read. While I am looking at power instead of sail (not preference, necessity), I just scratched a boat off the list and told the broker right up front that with the engine room access on the Angel 55, it didn’t matter that it came with a slip, or that it was in such “wonderful shape”. The bottom line was that to access the engine room I had to lift up a ladder and pin it in place, then lay down and wriggle into an engine room I could not stand in. But the Hatteras 53 we’re in the process of acquiring has easy access engine rooms. The batteries are accessed from a lift-up hatch cover in the galley. Your article is ON POINT. While in the service, I had to routinely work on a piece of equipment that required a second elbow to get the 60-pound piece of metal out and in… but this had to be done monthly.
Molly - SV Sabai says
It’s amazing that some boats are put together in such a way as to preclude easy access to essential parts. I think this has to do with building to a price point. Our first boat was a sturdy old 1972 Irwin 37. She was a tank & served us well through the learning curve. But corners were cut on the storage spaces & the engine access. It appeared that the engine was installed before the deck/cockpit. It was almost impossible to change the raw water impeller. There was no access at all to one side of the engine. There was no reasonable place to put a darned trash can! We spent 25 years on her and by the time we sold her we had cut new access panels, completely, re-done the storage in the saloon, added a new locker under the stove and other jobs too numerous to count. If we weren’t handy and game to do this sort of thing, it would have been discouraging. So, your advice is great. The joke on our new boat is that we bought her because there was a dedicated trash locker. It’s the little things!
Drew Dale says
Hi Caroline from the Antipides: Australia for the uninitiated. I follow your writings and, whilst an experienced sailor, I derive an enormous amount of commonsense reminders, that my experience might lead me to overlook.
My wife is new to sailing and I get her to read as many of your articles as possible. She is learning that all of her concerns have, in the main, been addressed.
I would grateful if you could check my own blog out @www.capricorndancer.com. I am writing about the trials and tribulations of renovating a “New to us” ketch for liveaboard cruising.
A
Best wishes,
Drew Dale