Having spent a little time living on board our current yacht, a C&C 34 called ‘Casino,’ Cara and I weren’t too worried about living on ‘Taurus,’ which is a little bigger at 39 feet long.
We had applied for and gained ‘live aboard status’ at our local yacht club, the Otago Yacht Club, which was important for Cara to be able to get to work for her anti-social shifts and to be able to respond in time for her on call role. Another alternative was live on our swing mooring at Deborah Bay — an hour up the harbour by boat (twenty minutes by car), but this option is far less convenient, as on top of the extra time it also means a row ashore, which is not always easy or dry.
With the boat designated our new home we went ahead and rented out our house, and stored everything we didn’t want to sell in a detached double garage on the property. Having found nice tenants who signed a two year lease it was at this time that we found out that our live aboard had only been granted for three months. This was quite a surprise as the agreement we had signed was open ended, and even more so as as club members, many of whom were on the committee that signed off on our application, had followed our search for a new boat to live on, and the process of renting out our home as avidly as some follow a juicy soap. It appears that the misunderstanding started with the fact that the berth we were offered is normally occupied by another boat which was away for a three month period, but we had been given the impression that we would be able to move onto another berth when she returned (several other berths are in the process of being built) and our approved application had made it very clear that we wanted a long term arrangement. Anyway, the confusion has now been recognised and will hopefully be worked out, but it certainly made a stressful time more stressful.
Sailing Taurus NZ 
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