Choosing your liveaboard is a daunting task. Most of us get caught up in looking for perfection while making an enemy of good. When colloquial advice tells us there is no perfect boat, how do we find our home on the water? Let us tell you how we chose our boat, Pivot, which we lived on for almost three years, and what she taught us. 

Our criteria for our liveaboard was clear: 

1. It had to be within our budget.

2. It needed to be able to do the Great Loop, fitting within the height and depth requirements.

3. It needed to be safe and reliable.

We chose a 1989 34" Marine Trader Double Cabin, which checked all those boxes. During our almost three years living aboard, we considered our boat the perfect liveaboard for us! With a single diesel Ford Lehman engine, it was reliable and fuel-efficient - ticking boxes 1 and 3. We were only 18.5' tall, so we fit within the Great Loop requirements, and it was previously owned by a retired Coast Guard Mechanic, giving us no qualms about safety. 

As we spent time on board, cruising thousands of miles, we found ourselves making a new set of criteria for our next liveaboard. We learned that we loved our time anchoring, so a covered aft deck went on the list. We also discovered that there were many places that we couldn't travel to, so we would get a smaller, faster boat for a similar trip. We learned a lot, and it all impacted our next boat. That is the key point about picking out a liveaboard; you won't quite know what your perfect boat needs until you're out on the water and actually living aboard. 

Our recommendations for finding your best boat is to be as specific as possible with your cruising plans.

Answer the following questions:

1. Where will you be cruising? Will you be moving often, or will you be staying at a home marina most of the time?

2. How many people will be living aboard, and how often will you have guests? Do you have any pets?

3. What do you like most about boating? Do you like relaxing anchorages and staying off the grid, do you like exploring different waterside towns, or do you prefer a cruising adventure navigating into new territories?

By focusing on what you want and how you expect to travel, you also determine what you can live without. Purchasing a live aboard is all about trade-offs. 

If you want to learn more about our three years aboard Pivot, read it here or check out our daily videos on YouTube.