You must be joking! Would anyone willingly live aboard in the winter … in CANADA? Well, yes, it turns out many do year after year … by choice. Meet two individuals who live aboard near Toronto
Issue 4 : Jan/Feb 1999
It’s the middle of the 1998/99 winter, and the snow and cold are presenting their annual intrusions into our lives. If you are the typical seasonal sailor, your boat is probably tucked carefully away on the hard, and you are already imagining your next sailing season. For many of us, winter represents an involuntary “downtime” in which we mainly wait until the hard stuff melts, and we are able to launch our “escape machines” once more.
But what if we were able to keep our boat in the water over the long winter? Impossible you say? What if we could not only keep our boat in the water, but actually live aboard during the winter and stay warm and cozy at the same time? Wouldn’t that be a welcome answer to winter’s “boatless blahs” that infect so many of us? Granted, there are some conditions that make this solution somewhat limited in scope, but for the fortunate ones who are able to do this, wintertime living aboard represents a unique and challenging way for them to stay connected to their boats while the snow flies outside.
Good Old Boat magazine learned of two such stalwart individuals, living aboard their vessels over the winter … in Canada! We gathered our virtual team of sled dogs and set forth across the frozen tundra to find these resolute icons of the sailing fraternity.
Our search took us first to Frenchman’s Bay, where we found Stefan Mochnacki living aboard Somewhere, his 1971 Grampian 30. Next, we visited Lake Ontario where we found Chris Stoyan living aboard his Corbin 39 Pilothouse, Gulliver. We tied our team of virtual huskies up, shook the snow off of our parkas and boots, and spent a bit of time visiting with both sailors, talking about their lives and their boats.
Stefan Mochnacki
In Toronto, the winds and cold come early. By now, the heat of summer is a distant memory as are most of the things we accept as artifacts of summer: green grass, liquid water, and a clear sidewalk. Twenty miles east of Toronto, we come to a little bay, known as Frenchman’s Bay, near the city of Pickering, Ontario. Here our virtual sled dogs are surprised to find open water surrounding the docks in the East Shore Marina, courtesy of a bubbler system and warm water provided by the effluent of a large nuclear power station!
Several boats in the marina have large plastic-covered wood frames erected over them. One such boat, a Grampian 30 named Somewhere, belongs to Stefan Mochnacki, a sailor, astronomer by profession, and hardworking webmaster of The Liveaboard Listserver, an email-based list service for people who live aboard their boats or would like to. Stefan’s listserver was started in 1993 by Ray Wagner at the University of Virginia, but Ray soon found that a more permanent home was needed for the service. Stefan took it over in 1993, with 100 subscribers. It now serves around 700 members worldwide.
Somewhere is covered by a wood and plastic tent that even sports a protected entry system. According to Stefan, the Grampian 30 “is a tough, roomy, comfortable old boat, very stiff and safe in a blow. It’s built to last, but it’s a rather plain boat. There will be Grampians around long after their more glamorous contemporaries have gone to boat heaven. There is no better value for your money than Grampian, although they aren’t truly bluewater boats, with the exception of the 28. With a gale on the beam, my boat absolutely flies!”
Stefan’s boat has amenities such as refrigeration, pressure water, a good charging system, woolly upholstery on the interior topsides, a wood heater, electric/alcohol stove, TV, and so on. He heats primarily with two 1500-watt ceramic-cube-type heaters. “It doesn’t take much to make a boat like this habitable year around,” he says. “If anything, summer living needs more attention. I upgraded the vents and installed a solar-powered fan over the head.”
I asked Stefan to describe what it’s like onboard a 30-foot boat for the whole winter. “Not bad,” he replied. “Not as bad as one might fear! The marina puts in bubblers, which bring up the warm, deeper unfrozen water. Below the waterline, things are relatively ‘warm,’ i.e., about 0 degrees Celsius.”
Electric heaters, a bit of insulation, and a plastic frame over the deck all serve to keep things toasty. When the weather gets unreasonably cold, Stefan uses the wood stove to bolster the heat from his electric heaters. He bought a diesel heater but has not installed it yet.
Stefan believes he suffers little with this lifestyle. “Of course there will be some depravations: I shut down all of the plumbing in the winter, relying on shoreside facilities and portable water bottles. I don’t use the onboard head in the winter, because the portable pump is too expensive.”
Chris Stoyan
Chris Stoyan is a 42-year-old cartoonist who got interested in sailing when his parents took him along for a sail on their neighbors’ 25-foot Folkboat. The owner pulled a cold pop from the bilge, and Chris was hooked!
About 10 years ago, Chris experienced a change in his life’s priorities, an event which resulted in the purchase of his Corbin. He says that in the 10 years he has lived aboard, he has never covered her! He adds, “the boat is Airex cored and is one of the thickest glass boats made. You ought to see how thick the deck is.”
Gulliver has little or no condensation during the cold Canadian winter, and Chris feels that the heavy fiberglass buildup and the Airex coring are the reasons. There is plenty of room inside for two people, and it is quite warm with the help of a few strategically placed micro furnaces. He does find that long-term storage of clothing in lockers is best done using sealed plastic storage bags.
Chris operates a nautical website that is mainly a contact point for those interested in reading reviews of his book, The Bent Bulkhead, Cartoons for the Sailor.
When asked about the downside of living aboard in the winter, Chris said it is often difficult doing laundry because of the cold. He also said that water was a problem in the winter — keeping it from freezing, as well as getting any to begin with.
The best part of wintering over in the marina are the friends you get to know. “They are the best people I’ve met in my 42 years of being around!” he noted. I asked Chris if he has converted many of his friends to his lifestyle. His reply was telling: “All my childhood friends have dropped in to see what it’s all about, and they all said ‘Yup, this is what I’m going to do: buy a boat and move aboard.’ Well, not one has done it yet!”
All in all, it looks like a nice way to spend your winter and stay connected. It certainly beats staring at dusty photographs and daydreaming of previous cruises and anchorages. Ah well, where did I put that last slide tray …?
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
