Living on a Grand Banks 42 Classic for the Summer

[Harborseal]

Has anyone lived on their Grand Banks 42 Classic for a long period of time or at least for the summers? Did you feel comfortable and roomy on the boat? Did you do anything to the boat to make it more comfortable? Concerned the refrigerator may be less spacious than what would be needed. Thinking of adding a Dometic on top and or upgrading the old cold plate refrigeration. What have some of you done? Summers can get a little warm in the San Juan Islands. What portable units have some of you used? Would enjoy hearing any other ideas you might have, words of wisdom? Happy Boating.....

 

[slowgoesit]

Are you by yourself, or do you have a significant other?

 

[Comodave]

When we stay on the boat for an extended time we take a portable chest freezer and stock it full.

 

[Bmarler]

Not a Grand Banks, but we live on our 40 foot raised pilothouse year round.
We have a built in refer under the counter that should be similar to what you have IIRC. Ours is double door side by side, yours is likely over/under. Same idea though. What we found was, adding a chest freezer was a must. especially for extended trips out. It’s just a regular house model, but there are marine or rv specific ones too.
You can never have too much refrigeration space.

 

[slowgoesit]

For an entire Summer, I would suggest at least going into Canada and the Gulf Islands. Sidney is beautiful, and you can go around and up the channel, anchor on the back side of Butchart Gardens. From there you can take an Uber into Victoria as well. Definitely go up to the town of Ganges on Salt Spring Island. Great place to restock groceries, and there is a Farmers Market there on most if not all Saturdays during the Summer.
We too had a chest freezer. Ours is a little larger than some, at 10.5 cu ft, but now that we've done our long trip, we are going to downsize it to maybe a 6 cu ft or so. Nice to stock up on frozen stuff that you may not be able to conveniently get. Friday Harbor is a nice place, you can stock up on most of your needs, but it is a little pricey.
Good internet is handy. Not just for weather, but for other stuff as well. We have Starlink.
Unless you are marina bound, air conditioning will generally be limited to marinas, unless you want to run your generator a LOT. Fans, and open windows will help a lot. We anchor out if at all possible.
One person will rattle around in a GB-42. Two people should be just fine as well. Especially if the weather is good. Four people . . . . well, better plan on lots of shore excursions! Sometimes it is nice to get away from everyone else for awhile, even if it's at other ends of the boat!

 

[Comodave]

When I was buying our chest freezer I ordered a Dometic but it never came so I ended up buying one from Overstock. I also bought the extended warranty for about $45. The freezer is 12/120 volt. A couple of years later the 12 side stopped working. The 120 side still works fine. Called Overstock. They couldn’t find any service center near me so they refunded the $600 for the cost of the freezer. So I still use it on 120 volts and it ended up costing the $45 for the warranty. Good deal.

 

[Comodave]

Another thing we use is Ridgid 18/120 volt fans. We take 2 with us so we each have our own fan. We use the 18 volt batteries to power them. A 4 amp hour battery usually lasts a couple of days on low speed. They move so much more air than a boat 12 volt fan. And they are dead silent on low speed. And we can move them around as we move about the boat so we have air flow wherever we are on the boat. Also Ridgid has a lifetime service agreement on the tools including the batteries if you register them online within 90 days of purchase.

 

[JackConnick]

We cruised our GB36 for 2 months last summer up a little north of Desolation Sound. The further north you go the less the crowds. You have plenty of room on your 42. We have a built in freezer in the bow and make refreezeable gel packs in it, refrigeration space is more the issue, so we have a couple of ice chests. You should have plenty of fuel and water - maybe filling water once a week, we did have some extra bottles.

 

[Caballero II]

When we stay on the boat for an extended time we take a portable chest freezer and stock it full.

What is a "portable chest freezer" please?

 

[O C Diver]

I added an Engel refrigerator freezer about 4 years ago to the trawler. Basically used it as zero degree freezer loaded full of meat when leaving in April. Usually around August or September the overflow freezer space was no longer needed. Currently use it on road trips either as a refrigerator or to store frozen crab meat to bring back to Florida. Adding additional freezer space when traveling in remote areas, or under served grocery store markets can make a meaningful difference in the quality of your cruising life.

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Ted

 

[Comodave]

What is a "portable chest freezer" please?

It is a chest type freezer that isn’t built in. You can move it from place to place. This isn’t the one that I have but it is similar.

 

[Xlantic]

I spent several summers on my GB 42 Classic with my wife and three kids. We would cruise the Balearic islands in Spain for 2 to 3 months each summer. We also had friends visit us during the day for lunch & sundowners. The boat is very spacious and it is easy to spread-out amongst its several spaces.

We used the fly-bridge a lot. We extended the Bimini with a removable canvas attached to the mast and had folding chairs and a table so several could comfortably sit around there:

We added cushions at the bow which were very popular while cruising or at anchor:

A half-size dish-washer was one of the best additions to the boat:

We even added a compact clothes-washer under the V-berth:

Fans were also useful while in marinas although we mostly anchored-out where they were less needed (these are 220V AC):

A PO replaced the original fridge with these two units. More freezer space would have been useful. We also had an Igloo ice chest which we used when we had visitors over for the day.

We also added a Nick Jackson pipe-davit, specifically designed for the GB 42 Classic, that allowed to bring our heavy dinghy on-board. (We had an Avon 320 Jet that we used for exploration and water-skiing.)

The GB42 Class has a quirky design but I really liked it. The two staterooms were separated by the saloon and each had its own head. The saloon was ample and the fly-bridge spacious and easy to climb to.

Have a great summer cruise!

 

[Harborseal]

Are you by yourself, or do you have a significant other?

There are two of us..... no kids, no grandkids, no animals.... Perhaps a friend now and then.

 

[mvweebles]

@Xlantic shows some wonderful upgrades and such. I've lived aboard my Willard 36 in San Francisco for a few years, several months with my then-GF (now wife) and two cats. A Willard 36 is quite a bit smaller than a GB36. Last year we cruised her for 6-months from San Diego to southern Mexico.

The biggest variable is your mindset. If you want an apartment on the water or you have a bunch of space-hungry hobbies (crafting?), it would take a helluva lot bigger than a GB42.

Peter