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.