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?
An RV is a good alternative, imho. Getting to a hospital quickly in a emergency is critical.
I wanted to live aboard but I married a fair skinned redhead from the upper Midwest. I took her to a big boat show and the only one she would, maybe, consider was a 70’ Golden Egg Harbor for $3.7 mil (1997).
It’s a wonderful life if you are mostly at the dock. Anytime you cast off it’s expensive (fuel and docking) and can be very dangerous for inexperienced folks. I would suggest, as others have, to rent or buy used. Depreciation is fast and steep on any boat.
A well insulated hull is important for year round comfort and a sheltered marina is critical! You will become a weather junkie in no time.
Perhaps they should consider a ‘memory care’ unit. About the same amount of space and the same freedom of movement.
They’ve already demonstrated diminished decision making capacity.
I lived on a boat in the ‘90s for years, and it was great.
She was 820 feet long, had two 5-inch cannons, 2 CIWS systems and 2 RAM launchers.
;-)
They're a lot like your friend it seems, except another consideration for them is they often support their children by taking care of grandchildren when needed. They could still do this, to some extent, on a boat or in an RV. But would not be as available to do so, as they are now.
Large family dinners, holiday get-togethers would not be possible if they sold their home of course, but could be held at their children's homes.
I think your friend was wise to consider his alternatives if things didn't work out. Certainly they are carefully evaluating the move too.
One thing I see, after the great comments/advice, nothing is certain when a person(s) make huge changes in their lifestyle. What is certain is we're all growing older, and need to plan for this. Are there things we still want to experience, things we're no longer able to do, somehow share with others our success in the process?
Occasionally one needs to evaluate where you're at in life, what's coming down the road, and plan accordingly. That in itself is worth the time and effort to dream big.
You make very good points.
Thanks for the link! Renting a boat for a period and testing the water, so to speak, has been common advice in the thread, and one I hope my friends take seriously. :)
Know of any good used ones on the market? ;)
He’ll love the damp, the smells while he keeps throwing money in the pit his boat floats on.
He’ll have to make sure he gets a good reliable bilge pump and has alternate means of pumping in case he loses battery power, else it will become rapidly very wet.
He’ll also love standing anchor watch - unless he’s always tied up at a marina - but even there during big storms, a 24 hour watch is advisable. Best invest in one of those watch alarms that have to be reset every 15 minutes.
The only financially sound way to live on a boat is commercial fishing in a viable fishery during the season. Else head for your land home.
Traveling outside the US on a boat means one has years of extensive experience plying the waters he intends to sail. Also a working knowledge of the languages he’ll encounter. A means of self-defense like a rifle and a hand gun - not all nations take to having such items in personal possession, but pirates love the defenseless (throw the bodies overboard and use the boat to smuggle drugs).
Lots of people get lucky and never have any of those problems but that does not mean he’ll be among them. Others are never heard from again, not ever.
WOW! Huge life change.
As others have recommended have them rent a boat and live on it for a while. The inconveniences will probably drive them batty in a month.
Then have him look up the known expenses of having a boat; fuel costs, insurance, dock fees, expected maintenance costs and a gazillion other things.
Have him actually print it or write it out on paper so he can have it in front of him daily.
And remind him of Murphy’s Law when it comes to maintenance.
Boats are tightly organised craft. He would have to be a minimalist in some ways to accommodate life aboard a boat.
Do he and the Mrs have expansive wardrobes? They can deep six that.
Do they have every kitchen appliance, pot, pan and gadget known to man? Deep six that.
Do he and/or the Mrs enjoy their luxurious daily hot showers?
Fresh water is at a premium on a boat underway. Heating water for a shower takes energy which consumes fuel.
Do they have a pet that they expect to take along? Yeah, dogs would probably be an absolute joy on a boat....in hollywoodland.
Are they light sleepers?
Boats MOVE, ALL THE TIME. They look so serene and peaceful sitting at the dock but at night every wavelet that gently rocks the boat makes a small slapping sound. Think of a faucet going drip...drip...drip all night every night.
And the constant bumping/rubbing against the dock can’t be ignored.
And at sea they rock and roll with the waves.
Has he ever captained a boat?
Can he plot a course with map, compass and watch?
Since he wants to travel outside the US he needs to realise there aren’t any road signs on the ocean. Getting lost is a very real and possibly fatal dilemma.
Don’t let him get away with the “I’ll have GPS” line. Ask him what he does when his GPS malfunctions or shuts down in the middle of a trip.
Murphy’s Law, what can go wrong will go wrong.
Does he like storms with horizontal rain?
Waves that he has to look WAY up to see the top of?
Has he considered rogue waves that destroy giant container ships?
Does he have any idea how to navigate in a storm that can toss boats around like a child’s tub toy?
He better learn.
A buddy of mine served 12 years in the navy, most at sea. He said the three types of weather were good, bad and OH GOD WE’RE GONNA DIE. The first type seemed to last for days, the second type for weeks and the third type for lifetimes.
Location, location, location.
What harbor would he call his home port? East coast, west coast or Gulf of Mexico?
Each has it’s own pros and cons like weather and costs.
He plans on visiting foreign shores. If he’s on the west coast and hankers a trip to Europe he either has to pay to use the Panama canal or sail around the Horn of Africa. Both could be expensive and sailing around the Horn has been known to be a “troublesome” proposition.
Same goes if his home port is east coast or the Gulf and he just has to visit westerly destinations.
Arrgghh! There be pirates!
Yes, pirates are still a thing.
Don’t think jack Sparrow, think Somali cutthroats who look at that gleaming, beautiful boat from their leaky POC and see $$$$.
Best case scenario they get captured, their boat, money and goods taken and they are ransomed back to their family.
Next best scenario the pirates take the boat, the former boat owners take one to the back of the head and become part of the oceanic food chain.
Worst case scenario...use your imagination.
Say they avoid Somali type pirates. Every few years people go missing at sea and someone else miraculously ends up with their boat. Most of those cases are never solved.
Suppose they evade the African pirates and everyday murderers but happen to end up in waters claimed by China or North Korea.
China claims the entire South China Sea. Easy to get picked up by the Chinese navy and held in a Chinese prison while your boat ends up belonging to some Party apparatchik.
Or you stumble into NORK waters. Rocket mans buddy ends up with your boat and Rocket man has two American spies to do an Otto Warmbier on.
Or they decide to cruise the Mediterranean and one night a boatload of Muslims slip aboard. Game Over.
So they consider things and still want to sail the world on their boat.
What happens when they are days from land and the only person who can navigate is felled by a heart attack?
Ain’t no ambulance service at sea. The captain has a heart attack and he’s toast and the Mrs is up the creek without a paddle. Things that are an inconvenience in town can be life changing when you’re days from qualified medical care.
If he is STILL contemplating a life at sea have him talk to navy vets who served on destroyers and if that doesn’t do the trick take him to talk to the Coast Guard who are all too aware of the stupid things that happen at sea.
If even that can’t dissuade him have him check out cruise lines. There are retired people who sell their belongings and live on cruise ships. They have all the amenities of a nice hotel with plenty of activities plus trained medical personnel on staff. I understand it can be done fairly inexpensively considering you have a maid, cooks and even laundry on hand.
Goodluck with your buddy.
I doubt it can be better put than that. And that’s a pretty good sized boat!
Reading through the thread has opened my eyes. I have always dreamed of a live aboard situation and now see it highly unlikely pro v con.
Unless your friend is really an avid seaman who is going to actually go places - I'd probably also recommend against this kind of life. My sister and her husband are a lot happier (and more ACTIVE) now that they are back on land.
If I had to do it, I think I’d just get a Eurail pass and travel around Europe on trains and occasionally stay in an AirBnB for a few days.
yeah I think the boring factor isn’t something people realize. You aren’t looking out at a beautiful view most of the time either: you’re staring at another boat, close up, in the harbor.
I know some people love that! But probably not for me either.
Tucson’s gotten big lately,
I lived there in 1995.
Sabino Canyon to the old
Movie Studio to the west!
Of course Tombstone!
Save me a Spot.
LOL, after seeing the movie “Dead Calm” I lost all desire to live on a boat.
Tell him to get his captains license (or what ever it is) and then rent a boat for a few months. My guess is that it will be fun for a few weeks, and then it gets tedious.
But that’s just my opinion.
Not an avid seaman, but smart and good at doing just about anything he sets his mind to, from my observation. A driving factor is that they aren't going to be able to maintain their current large home and grounds. So what to do... That's what has him thinking of alternative options. My suggestion to him is an RV, but his thinking is if SHTF, an RV is going to get you stuck somewhere you might not want to be, as roads may be impassable.
So, he has a lot he is considering. I have an RV so I'm perhaps biased IMO. I've seen some mighty good ideas, mentions of things to consider on the thread and it's going to be helpful to them, I'm sure. Everyone's situation is different of course, and we each have our dreams and aspirations in life.
One thing for certain, have a backup plan if things don't go as planned.
Ty, will pass your comments, cruise ship retirement suggestion on to them!
The boat was pretty stinky too - and always noisy at night. Some kind of weird pump always running or something. They had a lovely kitchen with granite so it was not a low end boat - but for day in and day out living it had a lot of drawbacks.
Having a house as a base and an RV seems like a pretty great way to go. You can go a lot more places in an RV - in a boat you are pretty stuck as so few places are easy and safe to get to. They were in CA which has suprisingly few destinations sea wise - they went to Catalina a lot.
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