Posted on 03/10/2019 9:48:59 AM PDT by amorphous
A recently retired friend is thinking of selling his home (which is paid for) and buying a boat for himself and his wife to live aboard without ever having lived aboard a boat before.
Are there any FReepers who have done something similar, or who have experience living this kind of lifestyle, or have advice I could maybe pass on to them?
I watched a documentary last night about Tommy Caldwell, the rock climber. He seems happiest staring into the face of death, hanging thousands of feet in the air, in freezing weather, at 4:30 in the morning, while most people in the world are dragging bed cover up around up their head, for a little more warmth.
Some of the most memorable times in my life, involved being uncomfortable, doing some outside activity, and sometimes even risking life and limb. I admire those who are masters of self, who can command their bodies to ignore little discomforts in pursuit of life. :)
Sounds nice for those who need a less strenuous lifestyle. In my friends case, they want to go for a bit more travel/adventure before completely settling down. But it's certainly something to plan for, in their future.
It's amazing the difference in people and how some love something others can't handle. I'm like your dad, I get nauseous on the ocean, even on a glassy sea.
They do the cruise ship thing every year, and I've been with them on a boat off the Alaskan coast looking for whales. He was all over the boat while I was staring at placards inside the cabin, trying not to upchuck. lol
Passing on your recommendation for a powered boat, in your other comment.
Thanks!
It sounds like they might want an RV or a long cruise ship booking.
A lot of this is ‘it depends’.
One thing I would definitely suggest is that they lease a charter and find out what 3 weeks feels like. I’d do this in the winter, off-season, where you can really experience what the worst of it would feel like.
I’m about to do the same thing, but I’m comfortable on boats and no what its about.
Having NEVER done it, if they are handy people, they’ll be fine if they can deal with the close quarters.
Whatever the original purchase price of the vessel is, take 10% and that is what you spend each year just on mechanical upkeep. That is on top of the cost/time of maintaining the boat. That 10% is for the replacement of everything you can think of, from sails to lifelines.
Does not include the cost of cruising.
Upside is your ‘cost of living’ comes down quite a lot - utilities, etc.
For me, I’m looking for a vessel that is ‘totally off-grid’ capable. It needs to make 1.25 times high-use electricity load and have a watermaker. I’m looking to use a Rainman, which is portable and very effective. Rather not have an RO watermaker installed because they break down a ton. A portable is great, the new ones run on electrical power, and make you bulleproof at sea no matter what port.
Being off-grid capable means only having to moor to stock provisions and do customs then moving off to anchor, where the costs are zero/day to something very low.
If you are canny about spare parts for critical systems, and have backups for other elements, you can do very well.
My dream boat is a sail catamaran, between 37 to 46 feet.
Like everything else there’s good and bad. But sometimes the little bit of bad is worth living or being in paradise. After owning a boat for about 17 years here are my wants. Most of them are for pure comfort but are super convenient as you get older.
1. A walk around bed. I have a king vberth. Making the bed is HARD. I absolutely despise pulling the sheets to wash them and then remaking the bed. It’s also harder to get into and out of than a walk around.
2. Full size fridge. I have the typical small fridge and when the grandkids are there it fills up to running over pretty quick.
3. The less wood on a boat the better. Ours is fiberglass with just the handrails on top, the rub rail, and a few things in the cockpit being wood. I wish it had none. Like I said I only do it about every 2 years but still....
4. A pressurized fresh water system. I hate having to hook up the hose Jane drag it back and then put it up just to fill our 100 gallon tank.
5. A large holding tank or 1 for each head. My tank is only 25 gallons and my nephew is working on moving the tank into a different space that can handle larger.
Get used to doing ‘boat yoga’. Every time you need to do something on the boat you have to twist into unnatural positions. Loll. I’ve bought all kinds of specialty tools from Harbor Freight that only work for 1 thing. But it makes doing that job easier.
I love boat life! Nothing better than getting up in the morning and having my coffee in the cockpit, looking at the water, and listening to the sea lions bark.
There are a lot of inland waterways here in the states, or for that matter, you could do the same in some other country. When you get tired of a place, sell the boat and buy another somewhere else. A person might even make a little off the sale, if they got the boat at a good price and did a little work on it. I see no reason why someone couldn't flip boats like houses.
I suppose there isn't any reason you couldn't do the above in a boat capable of crossing an ocean too, in-case you ever needed to.
Inland cruising is something I've considered myself, since I can't handle the ocean - I get sick every time - but there are still places I've not visited in the RV.
I'm anchored to high-speed internet, a workshop, a bunch of hardly used toys, my dog, small garden, Walmart & etc. :)
Link to a younger couple who have done what my friend and his wife are thinking of doing:
THE BINGE STARTS HERE! Sailing Zatara Adventure Episodes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D0AcIiKxzI&list=PLOXANRYEQcA1qEAavxmORqF-h3Z05SlOZ
I understand yoga is good for you, and I spend way too much time in Harbor Freight too! ;)
On the utilities, why can't the marina provide water to the boat. If pressure is an issue, you could get a pressure reducer. Or if it is an issue with your onboard freshwater tank, could you have a by-pass valve for onshore water, or a float valve that automatically shuts off once the tank is full?
Thanks, passing on your advice/suggestions, and best of luck in doing the same. Please link us to your blog, if you decide to have one once things get underway.
I tried the Sailing Zatara vids when someone posted a link a month or so ago. Awful, even worse than most reality TV, but a cut above some of the YouTuber amateur touring vids, such as that guy who claims to tour places like Santorini on $30 a day (he shows a lot of vid "footage" of bike rides, hitchhiking, interiors of hostels, walking long distances).
There is a water faucet at the head of each slip. It’s up to you how you get water to the boat. My boat does not have a pressurized fresh water system. They’re available and one could be easily added to my boat. I don’t shower on board though so just haven’t done it. Our boat had one of the shower over the toilet setups so I had hubby take it out when we first bought her. Didn’t want to clean up after a shower and most marinas have adequate facilities anyway. Our marina has excellent facilities. Another thing. Our hot water heater went out about 10 years ago. I didn’t use it for anything except washing dishes so never had it replaced. I tell people I have a 12 cup hot water heater......my coffee pot. Lol. I was amazed to find out how many other people do the same thing. The one thing I require is electricity so the first thing we did was rewire the whole boat. I can shut down the dock (30 amps) before my boat shuts down. It all sounds funny but it’s really not inconvenient. You just find other ways of doing things.
I don’t blog, but I do hang out here a lot. I help run a Sea Scout Ship and lost my house in a divorce.
I’m actually pretty happy about it, since the boat thing makes more sense for me long term anyway.
As for long-term health, yeah, boats have issues I guess, but so do stairs in a house or showers.
Depending on the vessel, they do sell pretty well depending on what you get.
There is a class of boats that are older that you can get for a song. They tend to be monohull vessels. Cats, if kept right, retain their value incredibly well.
However, many of those folks will say, “I sunk $50,000 in this two years ago, and another $16,000 in that last year, and another $75,000 in sails and halyards and tuned rigging this year which I haven’t included in the price and I can’t recover.”
To that I say, “Duh!” You HAVE to spend about 10% EACH YEAR replacing system components. You might as well call it a cost of living.
There are cats out there that are 2008 selling for $195,000 and they’re a bargain. They are solid boats made with good systems and common propulsion models that you can find parts for worldwide. New ones might be twice that, and of course you can find them for almost $1M at 44 feet.
Go to any marina, however and you can get a 33 foot monohull in pretty good shape for under $20K.
Boat maintenance is a significant expense as well as docking and mooring fees. Boat life isn’t as cheap as a lot of people think it is.
Here's some advice regarding that for when/if you get seasick the next time out...being INSIDE a moving boat is the worst place to be. Your inner ear senses movement but you cannot orientate on a horizon. That is what causes the nauseous feeling. You'd do better sitting in the cockpit/flybridge outside while the boat is moving.
Someone said upthread that there are a lot of beautiful places you can't get to on a boat. Well, yeah, but there are plenty of beautiful places that you can ONLY get to on a boat! Lucky is the man who can do both!
With a boat you can skip the train to Hawaii.
I can confirm that one of my most favorite memories is when you have motored your sailboat out of the channel into open waters, raised the sails, trimmed them perfectly to catch the wind and then turned the engine OFF. You are gliding through the water. It’s peaceful and if you are REAL lucky, a pod of dolphins swim in your bow wake and look up at you as you wave to them. Nothin’ like it!
I'm glad we did this when we were young. The thought of going back to that way of life now (late 60's) isn't appealing anymore. Now, if we want to see the islands, we can hop on a cruise ship or fly to the Bahamas and stay at an inn. It really IS cheaper to do that than having a boat full time that you may only go out on a few weekends or months at a time.
The only way I'd go to Hawaii is either on a crewed mega-yacht (if we had rich friends), a cruise ship or an airplane. Sailing on a personal boat would take three weeks of non-stop sailing - NO THANKS! I've heard good deals can be found on used boats in Hawaii. The winds are favorable to get there but coming back is the problem.
“Go to any marina, however and you can get a 33 foot monohull in pretty good shape for under $20K.”
Watched a video of a guy who visits Great Lakes marinas during the winter looking for boats with for sale signs and also finds a lot of boats with registration stickers that are two and three years old.
The owners are paying monthly to keep the boats in the yard and are very motivated in the dead of winter to sell if made an offer.
Does your friend have boating experience as in maintenance routines, navigating, equipment etc? Is he and wife in good physical condition and good health, which is a must. How about money? There is almost daily maintenance required on boats, like fresh water tank filling, pump outs, topping fuel tanks, oil changes, cleaning almost daily. The expenses can be astronomical for routine repairs and maintenance as well.
We had a forty foot on the Great Lakes and will say that was the best time of our lives. We took two and three week long trips and loved every minute BUT getting home to space, unlimited shower time, no pump outs, was heavenly, stocking and storing food is essential. One trip We lost a transmission twenty five miles out of a far northern Lake Huron town that ended up costIng us a fortune and lots of time. This kind of thing is not unusual, happens a lot so you always have to be prepared. If your friend would be living aboard on the east coast, hurricanes can be devastating.
Live aboards are not for the meek.
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