GL: Houseboats

[Ron Rogers]

I don't know about respect, but these are issues I see with houseboats:

1) Quality of construction.
2) Seaworthiness of design.
3) Gasoline I/O propulsion (not all),
4) Suitability of installed equipment to cruising.

A good and knowledgable friend of mine went to the Bluewater factory in MN 
and was dissappointed in what he saw. This is a man who had spent weekends 
on his houseboats. Who makes a good one?

I won't ever forget driving up Delaware Bay in modest seas and 35 knot winds 
while a houseboat was blown up on a far away shoal and calling MAYDAY. The 
CG responded with a helicopter. Her windage and propulsion wouldn't permit 
her to claw off a lee shore. We were in a Tartan 27 sloop and going to 
windward with Scaramouch - no problems.

A trawler wouldn't have had problems either.

Ron Rogers