Home on the Waves : Lifestyles: More and more people are living on boats in local harbors. But demand for live-aboard slips far outweighs the supply.

In the tight quarters that Paul Porter calls home, there is no hot running water, little room for storage and an electrical system that blows out when he runs his microwave oven and small space heater at the same time.

But Porter, a Moorpark city planner, puts up with the inconveniences for what he sees as the ultimate in waterfront living.

“This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little kid,” said Porter, who has lived on a 31-foot sailboat in Channel Islands Harbor since 1986. “I can take my home with me out to the islands on the weekends.”

Porter, 45, is one of hundreds of Ventura County residents whose sidewalk is a dock, whose foundation is a boat hull and whose front yard is a deck.

And due to a shortage of live-aboard slips at the county’s nine marinas, their living arrangements are becoming increasingly coveted.

“It’s become more and more popular as an alternative lifestyle,” said Brett Helton, dock master at the 198-slip Ventura Harbor Village. “I get two or three people calling a week looking for live-aboard slips.”

Demand for the about 400 live-aboard slips at the Ventura and Channel Islands harbors has led to waiting lists up to five years long. Some marinas have stopped accepting live-aboards altogether, because their small restrooms cannot handle the traffic.

“If there were more slips available, there would be a lot more people doing this,” said L. Joe Crognale, dock master of Pacific Corinthian Marina, which has 155 slips in Channel Islands Harbor, seven of them live-aboards. “I had a guy who waited 3 1/2 years before I could get him into a slip.”

Nearly 650 people live dockside at the two harbors, their boats wired not only with electricity but also with phone and cable-television lines. Slip fees run from about $200 to $500 a month, depending on the size of the boat, with added live-aboard fees of $75 to $200 a month for anyone staying on board more than three nights a week.

“Many of these people bought their boats for $3,500 or $4,500, and even with their fees, it’s still less than a studio apartment would cost them,” Helton said.

The tenants range from fishermen quartered in their commercial boats and waitresses living in small cabin cruisers to accountants, doctors and lawyers making their homes on spacious yachts. Most marinas rent live-aboard slips only if the boat’s registered owner is one of the tenants.

“We have some people leaving in the morning in three-piece suits and Rolex watches, and others who get in wet suits and do boat-varnishing for a living,” said Suzy Wade, an office employee at Ventura West Marina.

Ventura West, one of the largest live-aboard marinas on the Pacific Coast, was built in 1978 specifically for boaters most at home on the water. There are 28 showers in six restrooms, an apartment for residents’ guests at $40 a night, food freezer lockers, a general store and a community room with exercise equipment and a pool table.

About 200 of Ventura West’s 552 slips are set aside for live-aboards. While the marina has a few vacant live-aboard slips available for smaller boats, 65 boat owners are on a waiting list for larger slips.

“Anything over 45 feet long will take five years to get into a slip,” said Tom Kotal, Ventura West manager.

About 50 of its 350 dockside residents are children, Kotal said.

Colleen and Rex Murdock have been living with their son, Shea, 10, in a 32-foot ketch at Ventura West for more than three years.

“It’s a real healthy environment,” said Colleen Murdock, 38, a native of Canada. “When it rains, it feels like the boat shrinks, and you get true cabin fever. But I have no desire to buy a house.”

“The thought of a house and a mortgage, mowing the lawn and a picket fence drove me nuts,” said Rex Murdock, 40, a commercial refrigeration technician.

Betty Taffert, 62, has been living on a 42-foot sailboat with her husband, Harvey, for more than 12 years. Betty Taffert works as a job-training coach at a workshop for disabled adults. Harvey Taffert is an accountant with a Santa Paula bank.

“If I could afford a waterfront house in the Ventura Keys and have my boat there, that’s where I’d be,” Betty Taffert said. “But I do love this neighborhood.”