Ocean 40 CC Liveaboard Advice

[Tsb]

Hi All,

We are looking at a 2003 Bavaria Ocean 40 CC to live aboard and eventually sail up the east coast. The dream is some time in Melanesia/Polynesia  (Tonga and New Zealand). We're not new to sailing but are new to ownership and living aboard.

One thing that we noticed was, their seemed to be less storage space than other boats in the same sort of category. I should mention that all the other boats we have looked at or sailed/chartered are aft cockpit. On this particular boat the space under the aft berth is taken up by the fuel and water tank, as is the forward half of the V berth.

As we all know the aft cabin is great and the galley has loads of bench space, but I felt it lacked cupboard space for dry food storage etc. I love the separate shower space and I almost fell over when I saw how good the engine access is. The Starboard couch seat houses the batteries and the port couch carries the tool kits at the moment.

May I ask if anyone who has owned and possibly lived aboard this model has some advice or could they share some of their experiences living aboard.

Thanks for any comments on this.

[geoff]

Hi ,I have owned a 40cc ocean for nearly 20 years and we spend an extended 2/3 month spell on board cruising every year. I can think of very few limitations to the boat as long as the normal crew is 2 adults ,occasional visitors are fine but the lack of a second loo is aukward. Geoff

[Symphony]

Welcome to the forum

Many members of the forum own Ocean models, and use them for liveaboard or long term cruising. That is what they were designed for. At that time centre cockpit boats were the design of choice for this purpose in the 36-42' size range (and of course popular in larger sizes). In general they pack in more accommodation for the length than aft cockpit boats and importantly separate sleeping from living areas. The aft cabin provides much better and more usable accommodation than either forecabins or under the cockpit aft cabins. Many find the centre cockpit feels safer sailing offshore. One downside as you have noted is some loss of storage space because of the desire/need to fit generous fuel and water capacity. On the other hand there is good space to fit a generator and a watermaker if needed - something that can be a challenge on a similar sized aft cockpit boat. 

As ever boats are a compromise, but the continuing popularity of CC boats from builders such as Moody, Westerly, Halberg Rassy, Malo as well as Bavaria for long term cruisers suggests they are a good compromise for many, even though most are 20 years old or more. Probably the biggest challenge in buying a boat of this type is finding one in good condition as many will have a large number of miles under their belt.

Fortunately with the Bavaria Ocean there are very few basic faults and they are relatively easy to maintain and refit. There is a wealth of information on this forum on how to deal with the common issues that might need fixing.

[Yngmar]

We're liveaboard cruising on a 40 Ocean. Details and some pix of the boat here: https://sdfjkl.org/songbird/

That's two of us, with very occasional visitors. When there's no visitors, the forward cabin has the cushions up and is used as extra storage/shed, which you'll find is normal on cruising boats. I'm very glad it only has one heads by the way, although if I had ended up with a boat with two, I would've ripped one out and fitted a washing machine there. We've got a portable washing machine in the stbd lazarette instead, works too but you have to lift it out every time.

Storage is actually not bad (but never enough). The entire portside settee is available and also the forward half of the starboard side. There's a huge cavernous space under the V-berth, aft of the second water tank. And a PO added some shelving to the engine room on which we keep spares and tools. There's good stowage in the galley for food and we use the nearest section of the portside settee for additional food stores. As the bilge is dry, heavy items are stored there - canned food and beer is under the galley floor, milk, wine and emergency water bottles under the saloon table, etc. - there is plenty of room overall.

We're quite happy with the boat, although I would love to have an extra cabin for a workshop, but then that was never going to happen on a 40 footer. One German 40 Ocean that circumnavigated had a funny progression of the forward cabin over the years: from chomping off a bit on the side for more tool/part storage but keeping the beds to a fully fledged workbench and no more sleeping area - priorities change and as you go further afield, visitors will become rarer and the onboard workshop more important!

On Songbird I've added a stern arch on the back with 600W solar on top, which is excellent and covers all our needs, including power for the recently installed watermaker. It's also an excellent place for shoreline and stern anchor reels, mounting antennas and hanging the fruit net. In hindsight, I would've liked some davits to make the dinghy more quickly accessible and less tedious to stow for passage.

The engine room access is indeed superb and every time I help someone on another boat where you have to twist one arm through a narrow hole where you can't possibly apply any force on anything (e.g. for pulling a hose off), I happily go back to mine afterwards and think what a good choice I've made 

[Joe]

We are happy owners of a B38 Ocean since 10 years already (1998 model). In the past years we used the boat for weekend and holiday sailing but this year started living on board. Reason for choosing this boat size was cost and handling issues. We retired this year and not getting younger. So 12m was our limit.

When we equipped the boat for extended cruising space of course is always short but we managed to get everything on board including a 2,70m Zodiac and 2 folding bikes. This however is only possible if you use the forward cabin as storage room (we have a bowthruster below the V-berth which by the way is highly recommended for this boat) and stow food and beer etc in the dry bilge, like already explained by Yngmar.

This goes for 2 persons on board but if you plan to travel with more people the B38/40 Ocean may not be first choice.

We love our boat and can‘t imagine to live on any other boat of this size. Bavaria did a perfect job and experts classified the boat as the best Bavaria ever built (sorry to all other happy Bavaria owners).

Good luck to find one !

[semaphore]

hey

38 ocean reporting in. this is our first boat but there does seem to be ample storage, as we are adapting to 100% boat life. we've lived aboard for one year now.

under the sink, there's plenty of room for us for pots and pans and a handful of ones we don't even use anymore. Our pantry is primarily the shorty cabinets under the deckplates. From time to time shuffle up from the bilge and settees.  So far, we've usually not gone more than a fortnight between provisioning. For any larger passages, we might have to rethink that.

I've been keeping my toolbox on the floor of the v-berth, with the less commonly used tools in plastic bins behind the starboard settee cushions.  I like Yngmar's plan of engine room shelves (I might like to see a photo of that) and might just do that myself.

I've surrendered some settee space starboard for battery reconfiguration, and because the numerous cushions that require moving, arguably it's easier to access anything under the v-berth.

I'm currently installing a watermaker, which will give up some space under the port settee. so it goes.


As joe says, we agree this boat is perfect for a couple. and a very occasional guest.
We are trying to figure out how to configure the v-berth for storage and one additional crew member for a longer passage. Perhaps, cushions folded over, storage on one side? Who knows, it's not like that trip will be happening this year. 

[Tsb]

Hi All

Thanks a bunch for all the insight. It's very valuable. Yngmar thanks for your detailed comments and link to your website. I have a couple of questions regarding Songbird (but anyone, please feel free to chime in with your own comments or pictures). You mentioned using the bilge under the galley for storage, did you modify the sole here? The boat we are looking at doesn't have removable flooring in the galley (also in a few other places I thought it should). Also if you don't mind could I see pictures of your life raft  mounting position and the tool shelves in your engine bay. I think that is a great idea and something I'd like to do should we end up buying the ocean 40.

Thanks again for all your comments and information.

[geoff]

In my 40cc I used freezer wire baskets in the engine space. The deeper ones stop stuff from leaping out . Geoff

[Yngmar]

You mentioned using the bilge under the galley for storage, did you modify the sole here? The boat we are looking at doesn't have removable flooring in the galley (also in a few other places I thought it should).

The floorboards are screwed down by default. Just undo all the screws and you gain access to lots of extra storage space. We use a suction cup to lift the boards easily and some plastic baskets to organize things.

Can't do photos at the moment, we're finally cruising again and are on limited bandwidth. The liferaft is installed on the raised stern cabin roof, starboardside next to the big aft cabin hatch. Eventually I'd still like to move it somewhere on the rail though.

[Jeffatoms]

We own a 1998 38 Ocean and have lived aboard for 3 years.  We've never noticed a storage issue or constraint.  In fact, we would agree that it is a perfect boat for a couple who want to split time between cruising and having a home.  It gets crowded when we have overnight guests.

Ours has a fully enclosed yet removable cockpit enclosure, which is nice in the darker, wetter months and we have added a big dehumidifier strapped to the shower bench.  We also replaced the small horizontal water heater with a 10 gallon model and will be demo-ing an 18 gallon model for the remainder of the summer (once our saildrive is replaced).

We love our boat!

[Robert Spikins]

Hello I have a Bavaria Ocean 38 purchased from new a fantastic well built fast reliable yacht. Mine has only seen the light of day by being outside a climate controlled shed for 2 1/2 years of her life. She look just like new inside and the gel coat has no blemishes or discolouring, she has so many extras ie bow thruster warm wet locker sink in the bow cabin and inboom furling new boom and new fully battened mainsail two chart plotters and radar. New saildrive gasket so many new equipment. She is based in Holland and might be for sale.
Any questions please ask by mail.   rnspikins@yahoo.co.uk
Robert