Beginnings... sort of.

To misquote the Stones, what a drag it is being broke...

Without going into too many specifics, our financial situation for the last few years has been... abysmal.  We've been fortunate over this time to have had friends and family in position to assist us when we really needed it, and have repaid or are in the process of repaying these debts.  In our situation, our rent is our single biggest living expense.  Seeing how much we'd benefit from a reduction in that expense, we've begun putting feelers out amongst our friends who have boats and may know people who would be interested in renting out their boats, potentially a rent-to-own scenario as well.  This is a longshot, however, and I don't see us moving in that direction unless something happens.  The world is a magical place, and anything is possible...

That being said, the financial hurdle at the beginning is daunting, but not unachievable.  What we have to figure out from the onset is what we truly want in our new residence.  Some things just are mandatory, like (and in no particular order):

1) Separate and private berths for us and Kiddo - We like to have privacy, and want to ensure Kiddo has his fair share of privacy, a place for him to go to when he wants to escape us for a bit (and I know he'll want that more as he grows older).  There are a great number of boats where there's no doors between the berths and main cabin, and although we may be able to install doors in some of these, we'd rather they be standard on the design.

2)  A boat between 34 and 40 feet in length - There is a LOT of discussion over how big/how small of a boat a liveaboard needs, especially when it's more than two (in other words, a family with kids).  What the consensus comes down to is a pair of sayings: Get the biggest boat you can afford, and get the smallest boat you feel comfortable in.  There has to be a happy medium between the two: Get the smallest boat you can feel comfortable in while getting the biggest boat you can afford.  One suggestion in a great book was to get a slightly smaller/less expensive boat in order to purchase a storage unit to keep our paintings (some from my Grandma that are priceless... to me, anyway), our book library (while allowing access to our books so we can swing by periodically and never worry about late fees), and other assorted belongings.  The costs of boat ownership really start growing after about 40 feet, so I want that as a maximum.

3) A Cabin Height at least 6'2" - I'm tall.  I don't want to stoop whenever I walk around my home.  Besides, Kiddo gives every indication that he'll have a height comparable to my own, and I don't want him uncomfortable either if we still have the same boat by then.

4)  Outside Area for Entertaining - We'll (eventually) be scuba diving and I'll want an area that will be easy to maneuver in gear and Kelly would be able to host outdoor activities (4th of July from the boat is something I'm personally looking forward to witnessing).  And a little place to grow culinary herbs would be great, too... and surprisingly wouldn't take up too much space.

5)  The ability to get good ventilation - VERY important, especially with shipboard heads.  Many are the horror stories about the smell of the marine heads!

6)  Diesel Engine(s) - I'd prefer two engines as opposed to one (for redundancy's sake), but I would MUCH rather be running a diesel engine rather than gas.  It would cost a lot of money to retrofit a boat from gas to diesel, so starting out with a diesel (or two) is ideal.  Hopefully #4 is taken care of, as diesel smells pretty bad too.

7)  A Fiberglass hull - Wood as a building material sucks when you expose it to water on a constant basis.  Fiberglass was introduced in the 1960's and revolutionized the boat building industry.  In the mid 70's, they reduced the thickness and strength of the fiberglass, making the boats structurally less sound.  Our price range (when we have a nest egg built up) will put us looking for older boats as a starter liveaboard situation, so we will be doing our due diligence when we narrow our searches.  We also realize that manufacturers and the specific shipyards that the boats were built in play a major role in the quality as well, so I've become a member on several forum sites for cruisers, liveaboards, and power boats so I have access to a wide variety of experiential data from actual boat owners.  My mileage may vary; grains of salt are always on standby for taking the information with.

This is what we've got, for starters.  Ultimately, this boat that we have at first is primarily for living aboard and using the savings to (eventually) make investments that will purchase for us our serious cruiser.  Although we do plan on making cruises periodically (mostly to Catalina Island and maybe as far north as San Francisco and as far south as Baja Mexico for the Gray Whale migration), we're going to need to stay tethered to SoCal for the foreseeable future.  Which leads us to the most typical question for the beginner liveaboard:

WHAT TYPE OF BOAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

A quite common question, actually.  On Yachtworld.com, the separation starts with sail or power.  Sailboats, because of the necessity of being more aerodynamic for the sake of its wind power, typically run smaller than power boats for roominess.  Power, then, would be our choice on this one.  On Yachtworld, under power, it's broken down into the following categories (and many boats are listed under multiple categories):

Aft Cabin
Antique and Classic
Barge
Bowrider
Cargo Ship
Catamaran
Center Cockpit
Center Console
Commercial Boat
Convertible Boat
Cruise Ship
Cruiser
Cruiser/Racer
Cuddy Cabin

Cutter

Daysailer

Dive Boat

Downeast

Dragger

Express Cruiser

Flybridge

Freshwater Fishing

House Boat

Jet Boat

Lobster Boat

Mega Yacht

Motor Yacht

Motorsailer

Multi-Hull

Other

Passenger

Pilothouse

Pontoon Boat

Power Catamaran

Racing Sailboat

Racing/High Performance

Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB)

Saltwater Fishing

Sloop

Sport Fishing

Sports Cruiser

Tender

Trawler

Troller

Tug

Needless to say, it appears daunting...  A lot of these can be eliminated as liveaboard situations (Rigid Inflatable Boat?), although it's better to put together your list of requirements like we did and plug it into the filter at Yachtworld and BoatTrader and arrange the prices from lowest to highest and keep the location along the West Coast and...voila!  A list of some potential boats!  But an interesting style caught our attention, and our search narrowed towards those...