So, how about a few definitions?
True Liveaboard: has no other home, on land, just lives on boat year round.
Partial Liveaboard: owns home on land, or rents apartment to retreat to, when boat gets too small.
For about 9 months, I was a true live aboard. In fact, I stored the family possessions ( I had 2 daughters in
college at the time, so I was also an "empty nester") in a mini-storage rented garage, and what didn't fit on the
R 25 for daily use, I stored in the back of my F-350 pickup, locked inside the camper shell or cab.
My idea was to be moving from one body of water to another. I was inspired by Bill and El Fiero, whom I met and
boated with, on Lake Powell that summer of 2008. Even Bill and El had a piece of land in Nevada, and later purchased
a Condo in Colorado which they called Safe Harbor. I had no Safe Harbor, and that was fine with me.
Until a mid-November week in Benicia Marina, California, when it rained for three full days, night-and-day. There
I was, stuck in a very small cabin, roughly 7 feet wide and about 15 feet long. It kept raining. To get to another dry place, say a restaurant, I would have to walk several blocks in the pouring rain and strong wind, and arrive totally wet.
I left the boat anyway. One can only stay locked up inside a dark closet for so many hours......
At roughly the same time, my insurance company, Safeco, issued a formal letter saying they were canceling my
Umbrella liability policy. It had taken them 6 months to realize that I had no home on land. The only way you get
Personal Liability in the USA is with a Homeowners Policy. The R 25 was too small a boat, according to ALL insurance
companies, to be considered a home (sic). I asked many, many insurance professionals. A larger yacht, say, 40 feet long, can have Personal Liability which extends off the boat itself. While I did have Boat Owners and Automobile insurance policies----which covered Liability while operating the boat or truck----if an at-fault accident, or incident, occurred away from the boat or truck, then I could be sued and lose everything I had saved, all my life of work. This gave me pause.
So, I pulled the R 25 out of the Marina that December, stuck it in a dry warehouse for RV's, and visited friends
for a couple of months, while the Winter storms blew. This is in California, not Canada or Washington state.
Finally, I concluded that life without an Umbrella was too risky, and I rented a small cottage in the Delta, slid Blue
Bayou into the Sacramento River, and resumed life with BOTH a house on land and a boat in the water. In other words, I retreated from being a true liveaboard to being a partial liveabord-----discretion is the better part of valor.....
So, Domino, my conclusion is that if you can afford either a Ranger Tug or a row house, buy the row house. Satisfy your boating dreams with a runabout or skiff, or charter a Tug now and then. You will find a whole year confined only
within an R 25 or R 27 is not what it's appears to you to be, right now, when you're without a dog and haven't yet even seen
a Ranger Tug in the flesh.
I wish you well with your boating dreams. BUT, be careful out there !!!!
Charles