Aboard and lodging

Most people who live on the water in Newport Beach joke that every day they wake up in paradise, 77-year-old Sonny Mattia

Standing on the splashboard of his 45-foot Bayliner yacht in Newport Harbor, Mattia called his own private paradise the real deal.

Like 24 others, Mattia’s home is a boat, tethered to a permanent mooring in Newport Harbor. Compared to the price of waterfront homes, the live-aboard lifestyle is a slightly more affordable way to get a 360-degree waterfront view.

But it’s hardly a cheap existence.

The boat’s cost, mooring fees and maintenance are something to consider. A life without a walk-in closet and creature comforts may not be for everyone, but a select few attest that life on the harbor is more than worth it.

People make the choice to live aboard for different reasons; for some it’s a lifelong dream come true, for others it’s a lifestyle they just fell into.

Glenn and Monica Twitchell sold their Costa Mesa home three years ago and bought a 38-foot catamaran, Beach Access, which they live aboard on a mooring off Lido Isle.

For this couple, living aboard is just a stepping stone in their adventure. Glenn , an electrical contractor, and Monica, a customer service representative at a dental laboratory, want to acclimate themselves for a sailing journey they plan to embark on in the next several years. They want to travel through the waters of Central America and the South Pacific.

“It was like pulling the pin on a hand grenade,” Glenn said of selling their home and buying the boat all at once.

At sunset aboard the Twitchell residence in the sheltered, most westerly corner of the harbor, the mood is relaxed. Glenn pads around the boat in sandals and Monica hops around in bare feet. The couple usually eats dinner at a table in the sheltered cockpit where their evening view consists of birds and the occasional passing outrigger canoe team or gondola.

“It’s sunset, and it’s beautiful,” Monica said.

On the other side of the harbor, off 15th Street on the Balboa Peninsula, Mattia lives aboard his boat, Our Dream. Appropriately named, the boat is a realization of a lifelong dream of Mattia and his wife. After she passed away from cancer, his children urged him to sell his Lake Forest home and buy a boat. So he did.

The New York native has lived there for two years, and now said he can’t imagine going back to the shore life.

“I love living on a boat, and I never thought I would,” Mattia said.

On a brilliant May morning, Mattia piloted a motorized dinghy from the 15th Street public dock across glassy water out to his home.

“It really makes you feel that you’re in paradise,” Mattia said. At night, Mattia sits on the back deck of the boat and watches the lights in Corona del Mar.

“I feel I’m more relaxed,” he said.

Mattia and the Twitchells are fairly new to the live-aboard lifestyle, but fellow harbor resident Mark Sites has been doing it for 29 years. After graduating from college, Sites thought it would be fun to live on a boat. He transitioned from a rented home on Balboa Island to life on the water. He now lives in a 38-foot Irwin sloop off Balboa Island.

Like many who live aboard on a mooring, Sites takes a dinghy to get wherever he’s going on shore.

Every morning, the Twitchells begin the 15-minute ritual of embarking on the dinghy and boating over to their cars parked in a marina parking lot.

“On our little commute we see so much sea life; it’s just so cool,” Glenn said.

As perfect as the lifestyle sounds, before cashing in a landside residence for a boat and mooring, it’s wise to consider the costs ? both financial and creature-comfort sacrifices ? of living aboard.

Mattia bought his boat outright. He’s living free of monthly payments.

Some people live-aboard at dockside slips, but many say they prefer life on a mooring. There’s less privacy in a slip, and it’s more costly. Slip moorage is calculated monthly and by foot, while the city charges $175 per year.

Living aboard on a mooring means no electricity and having to import drinking water and pumping out the sewage tanks on a regular basis. The boats require maintenance, including regular scrub-downs.

For electricity, many live-aboards rely on solar panels. The boat residents also belong to gyms and prefer to do their showering and grooming there.

“Everything you have on the boat you either have to bring out there or make,” Sites said.

Then there’s the space issue.

“You can’t collect junk,” Mattia said. An extra stateroom on his boat doubles as a closet, office and guest bedroom. Mattia keeps his extra stuff in a 10-foot by 10-foot storage unit on shore.

Living on board means a tiny galley ? that’s kitchen to the land folk ? and virtually no closet space.

For Mattia, it’s the lack of kitchen space that he misses most. An Italian-American with a mean recipe for homemade marinara sauce, Mattia doesn’t get the chance to cook as much as he’d like because there’s just not enough space.Glenn and Monica Twitchell relax in the spacious main cabin aboard their catamaran in Newport Bay. The couple chose the twin-hull craft for its roominess as well as its long-range sailing ability. dpt.30-liveaboard-2-CPhotoInfo071RECEP20060530izwriyncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Sonny Mattia bought a 45-foot Bayliner two years ago at the urging of his children; he is now living out his dream. dpt.30-liveaboard-1-CPhotoInfo071RECEN20060530izwrhzncPHOTOS BY KENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)Glenn and Monica Twitchell sold their home in Costa Mesa to purchase a 38-foot catamaran on which they live in West Lido Channel in Newport Bay. The couple plans to sail to Central America and the South Pacific in several years. dpt.30-liveaboard-3-BPhotoInfoDV1RF2MM20060530izwrk5nc(LA)Sunny Mattia likes the solitude and the views of Newport Bay he is afforded by living aboard his boat, called ‘Our Dream.’ dpt.30-liveaboard-4-BPhotoInfoDV1RF23520060530izwrkuncDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Dolly Cullers, left, is joined by daughter Christy Littleford and grandchildren Jenny and Josh as they add flowers and plant flags at the site of Dolly’s husband, veteran John Harvery Cullers.