Liveaboard

Liveaboard can mean:

• Someone who makes a boat, typically a small yacht in a marina, his primary residence. Powerboats and cruising sailboats are commonly used for living aboard, as well as houseboats which are designed primarily as a residence.
• A boat designed for people to live aboard it. The liveaboard lifestyle has many attractions and many downsides. Most boats are much smaller than nearly all shoreside residences, they are more exposed to bad weather, and require special maintenance skills. However, they are mobile, provide inexpensive water access, and allow for integrated recreational, transportation, and housing costs. With the high cost of housing, a liveaboard lifestyle is becoming more popular with people around the world. Although it is generally regarded as being a cheaper way to live this is not always the case. Liveaboard boats can be luxury vessels moored in expensive marinas or small vessels in need of restoration. One attraction of the lifestyle is there is something to suit everyone. Because of this you find that liveaboards are very diverse people coming from many different backgrounds.

Scuba diving liveaboards

In the recreational scuba diving industry, a liveaboard service offers its guests to stay on board for one or more nights, unlike a day boat operation. This allows time to travel to more distant divesites. Normally a liveaboard operation charters for ten to thirty passengers.

It ensures that the passengers can reach many dive sites and they and their diving gear do not have to be trucked about long distances every day to and from a hotel on hand, often (as in the Red Sea in the summer) in very hot weather: e.g. one afternoon at Sharm el Sheikh on land the shade temperature reached 51°C = 124°F.

The usual style of a Red Sea diving liveaboard can be seen in this image. With variations, their internal layout is something like this:
It is about 100 feet or 33 meters long. The decks are, from bottom up:

• Lower part of the hull: engine room
• Upper part of the hull: guests's cabins; stores
• Lowest outside deck, in this order from forwards:
  • Open area for the crew to work.
  • A few cabins; stores; crew's quarters.
  • Various larder areas; for ships biscuits.
  • Lounge
  • An open area where the air cylinders are stored and refilled, and wet items such as wetsuits are hung to dry, and divers kit and unkit. There is a freshwater bath to wash it, and to put items such as underwater cameras which can tolerate being wet but should not be allowed to get salt dried onto them. There are compartments where each guest can store his wet diving gear separately.
  • The aftmost end is the diving deck, outside the aft anti-spray barrier, lower than the rest, to get it nearer to sea level for divers to get in and out of the sea or RIBs. There are usually two hinged diving ladders there. There are usually freshwater washing-down hoses there. When the liveaboard is docked stern-to-quay, the diving deck is used for access to land.
• Next deck up, in this order from forwards:
  • bridge.
  • Galley.
  • Aft: Dining room.
  • Open access area.
  • A flat area where the boat's RIBs are stored; there is a crane to carry them to and from the sea.
• Open lounge deck, shaded by the next deck up to protect guests from excessive sun exposure
• A small topmost deck, with no roof.
• An arch to carry radar and radio antennas etc.

While most liveaboards around the world are usually made from fiber and steel hull boats, in Indonesia, the traditional pinisi boats made from teak wood is commonly used. An example of a pinisi style liveaboard is based in Komodo National Park.

References

• Nicholas, Mark (2005). The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat: The Definitive Guide for Liveaboards (2 ed.). Paradise Cay Publications. ISBN 0939837668.