I'd say have a look at trawler or tug configurations, but my new ideal
of live aboard / tour boats are the current generation of powered
cats.

Yep, there are some nice ones. Most of them are overpowered
though (true of power boats in general of course) and half
of them are uglier than a mule's butt.


You really need to get more specific than just 'live aboard'.
Will you be touring AK in winter or the islands in August or both?
What is your budget to buy and yearly?


Good things to know ahead of time. Then decide what you want
in terms of range, & draft.

Cal Vanize wrote:
AK, yes. But not in the wnter and not any farther than Prince Willian
Sound or Seward. The Carrib in the winter months, but not in August (I
have a mild alergy to hurricanes).

We're not planing to go from SoCal to Hawaii.

Budget max to buy is low $100k's. Annual budget would be in the
neighborhood of $25-30k.


Plenty of boats in that range, your problem will be to sort
out the "probables" from the "possibles" and allocate time
to do the leg-work.


From early research, trawlers seem to have a lot of what we're looking
for. Comfort, reliability, economic operation... These are more
important than speed.


We've been cruising in a trawler (after many many years
sailing) and find that it is a great way to travel. We don't
plan on living aboard though, other than on longer cruises
(keeping a shore residence).




Just started lookng at Border's this weekend. Trying to figure out which
mags "map" to our research needs.


None. That magazines cater to their advertisers. However if
you browse the current magazines as well as the library, as
well as checking into the trawers/trawlering discussion
group, you can find a lot of discussion of relevant issues.

We wanted a boat small enough to explore small coves &
creeks, shallow draft, medium/long range, good comfort for a
couple (by our definition), and NO FLYING BRIDGE. Took about
3 months of looking pretty hard, but we spent less than
you're budgeting... so obviously it can be done.

Fair Skies- Doug King