By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

A knock on the hull and Barry Acker emerges from below deck and comes
to the door. The home he shares with his wife Janet and their Llewellin
setter, Tess, is currently covered with sheets of plastic to keep out
the elements, but the Ackers couldn’t be more comfortable.

    They are members of a unique neighborhood that has
sprung up on the outskirts of South Portland’s Knightville area.
Collectively known as the “South Portland Liveaboards,” the group of
roughly 30 boating enthusiasts, live year round aboard their vessels.
Docked at South Port Marine on Ocean Street, the liveaboards are
currently hunkered down in their “shrink-wrapped boats,” awaiting warm
weather and sailing excursions, but also enjoying winter on the water.

“You hear seabirds, you hear water slapping against the hull, you’re
rocked to sleep – all those quirky romantic things” said Barry Acker
from the warm cabin of Windrifter, the couple’s 42-foot Westsail center
cockpit cutter rig.

 The Ackers have lived on Windrifter for seven years. They spent
four of those years living in Washington state’s San Juan Islands.

Despite its romantic qualities, living aboard is a lifestyle choice that isn’t for everyone, those who do it, say.

“You both have to want to do this,” says Barbara Hart, who has lived
aboard La Luna, a 47-foot Cheoy Lee cutter, with her husband Stewart
Hart and their black Labrador retriever, Jake, since 2002. “You can’t
talk anybody into this. You’ve got to be open to new solutions [and]
you’ve got to think outside the box.”

It’s a sunny, Saturday morning and the Harts are sipping coffee in the
salon below deck. A furnace keeps the cabin warm, while sunlight
beating down on the shrink-wrapped deck essentially creates a floating
greenhouse.

“We love being up on deck,” says Barbara Hart. “We have another room.”

The couple had a house in Ferry Village, but the prospect of remodeling
for the second time had the couple rethinking life on land.

    “[Stewart] found this boat and I had been aboard a similar boat and I said, ‘Geez, you could live on this.’”

Her husband interjects, “So it was really her idea.”

Stewart Hart, a yacht broker, has been sailing and working in the
marine industry most of his life. Barbara Hart, who runs a hiring
consultant business from “La Luna,” said she took navigating courses
after her third date with her future husband, when he implied if she
didn’t learn how to sail, their relationship probably wouldn’t go very
far.  

Living aboard requires letting go of clutter and paring down to the
necessities. You won’t see any knick-knacks aboard because before they
can sail, everything on board has to be buckled down. When it comes to
securing the cabin, the Ackers abide by a strict 10-minute rule.

“If we can’t be off the dock, getting ready to put sails up in 10
minutes then we really screwed up,” he says. “We can pretty much be
ready to go in five minutes.”

    The Harts abide by a 15-minute rule and reject clutter.

“On the boat, if you get a new pair of shoes, the old pair goes off,”
says Barbara Hart. “You can’t accumulate and I really like that.
There’s a huge amount of freedom in living simply.”

    Barry Acker, who is the current president of the
Landing School in Kennebunkport, says there are some inconveniences
associated with living aboard, but they don’t hold much weight with
him. Every other Saturday is “water Saturday,” when the boat owners
fill their water tanks. To conserve water, Acker says they don’t use
their own head, or bathroom, much in the winter, opting instead to use
the marina’s facilities. The boat’s heating unit runs on a 200-gallon
diesel fuel tank that Acker fills every other week.

With an aft cabin and settees that open up to a double bed, there’s
more than enough room for the couple, Tess and guests, he says.

“The only thing I find less convenient is laundry,” says Janet Acker,
who owns Fog Cutter Coffee Company, which sells specialty coffees at
several drive up locations.

South Port Marine Sales Manager Chris Cutshall likens the liveaboard setup to a trailer park.

“They’re renting a piece of ground,” he says. “We keep the dock clear
for them. We provide them with laundry, bathrooms, mail is distributed
to them and they get electricity from our system on the dock. It’s a
very self-contained lifestyle and that’s why it appeals to some of
these people. They’re very, very independent. They’re not really rooted
to a place.”

    The marina’s sheltered location makes it possible for people to live aboard year round, Cutshall says.

“We’re very safe from winter storms and other marinas in the harbor are
subjected to the large tankers – and every boat that passes causes the
boats to rock,” he says.

The marina, however, is not immune from nasty winter weather.

    Barbara Hart recalls her first winter living aboard
was marked by several winter storms that walloped the coast. The first
storm broke the dock, forcing them to move to another dock, where it
was more difficult to access water, she says.

    “We froze in here,” she adds.

    The Harts call severe weather, “dog storms,” because
when they hit, the dog, guitar and computer are ushered to the car and
solid ground.

“I felt like it was a test,” says Stewart Hart. “The universe was like – ‘You think you want to live aboard?’”

In the fall, the Harts update all of the liveaboards contact
information. When a storm rolls in, the group uses radios to stay in
contact, calling out to ‘South Portland liveaboards’ or specific boats.
Stewart Hart says the group also takes turns watching the dock and
checking everyone’s lines.

“People just look and see what has to be done and we all jump in and do
it,” says Barbara Hart. “We all work really well together. One guy came
out with all of this line, in case someone slipped off the dock.”

It’s not only emergencies that bring the community together, however,
as the boat owners frequently come together for everything from
potlucks to movie nights, from Super Bowl parties to shrink-wrapping
parties. In April, the shrink-wrap comes off the boats and the
liveaboards reconnect over “covers off parties” and barbecues on shore.
In the past, the group has gathered on the boats, but this year the
group is so large, they meet at off-site locations.

When warm weather arrives, however, liveaboards become harder to find because they’re out sailing whenever possible.

“In an average summer, we get out every weekend and if we’re very
diligent and smart, we’ll get out one or two days during the week,”
says Barry Acker.

    For both the Harts and the Ackers, the prospect of
“taking off” and spending part if not all of their retirement at sea
has an appeal they can’t resist. Developing a cruising plan requires
copious amounts of research to determine the best times of years to
travel certain routes.

    Barry Acker says their long-term plan after cruising
is to spend May through mid-October at a house they are building on
Swans Island, off the coast of Bar Harbor. From mid-October to April,
they plan to winter on the boat in warmer climates such as Turkey,
Greece, Mexico or Honduras, Acker says.

“As much as I like winter, the thought of being on the boat in a tropical setting in February is quite appealing,” he says.