Another option, I told him, would be a RV. You're on solid ground, still able to travel, it's easier to get to a hospital and you can park an RV next to his kid's house.
His main reason for a boat is the ability to travel outside the US and a more self-sufficient, freer lifestyle.
My family of 4 lived on a 42’ trawler type boat similar to a Grand Banks trawler, during my high school years. We never had any problems, but do not underestimate the time and money for maintenance. I spent a lot of my youth scraping paint and repainting, and working in the engine room.
You won’t save money living on a boat. Slip fees and availability are other issues, and periodic expensive dry hauling to remove growth from and repaint the hull. I agree with others, you can live in a rented mobile home for several months to try on the size, and burn 30 Benjamin’s per month to try on the maintenance expense.
My grandparents did this for a couple of years. I flew out to spend a couple of weeks with them. It was an experience seeing and using river locks, meeting different people and eating at all kinds of unique restaurants along the rivers.
Upfront, my grandmother had set an agreed time for my grandfather to wrap it up and when that time came she informed him she was packing up and heading home (and that he needed to sell the boat and return home per agreement). He could have lived on the river forever but he honored their agreement.
NNNNOOOOO! Don’t do it! Tried the boat life thing about 12 years ago. It was a 40 ft Catalina, second hand, very nice for sailing, but despite its many amenities it simply sucked as a home. Cold in the winter (and this is in NE Florida!) and hotter than hell in the summer. Takes daily maintenance, slip fees, sewage pumpouts, water and fuel replinisment costs, shore power (30 amp only). Gotta use the laundromat at least once a week because of the heat/cold/boat maintenance chores and very limited closet (locker) space. Very limited cooking and refrigerator space, limited pantry, and on and on, and on. Difficult to get around in with even two people living on it.
If you like going up and down ladders, banging your shins, knees and toes on bulkheads and deck fittings, exposed to the sun and rain all the time, constant motion even dockside, then it’s probably the life for you! The only enjoyable thing about it was the fellow live-aboards. Small, highly stressed cadre of friends that enjoyed drinking and bar-b-queing on the dock or in the parking lot (no place to park your car under cover, by the way).
Even takes the fun out of actually sailing because you have disconnect, stow everything, tie everything down, roust out the sails, etc. Then when you’re done sailing you gotta reconnect, unstow, blah blah. Never again for us.
As I read your post, you are seeking opinions indirectly to share with friends.
1. Assuming a long & strong friendship, be kind & listen.
2. Offer zero advice & pray for divine guidance for yourself & your friends.
The sea is fickle & unforgiving of mistakes.
Just the problem of everyday logistics can be a royal PITA, and coming anywhere near genuine self-sufficiency will require a lot more fortitude and ability than many people can handle. As people have noted, the weather will be magnified on a boat to a surprising degree, and everything "goes to hell" fairly fast because of salt and/or humidity.
The RV option you suggested was good.
I read a story some time back about a couple who did just that. Just as they were finished, the boat burned down to the waterline. They lost everything.
I knew a couple who sold their house and got a nice RV. They loved it.
Knew a guy that tried. Imagine heating yer house ... submerged in water. Blew thru many a heat pump and they, are not cheap. Also have to consider the marina; how choppy is the water. He moved to the other side of the river to find it TOO rough. Off to a condo at that point.
Dan Kilmer ping
A land yatch (rv) makes a lot more sense.
And a smaller one at that.
I’ve seen ones that are half the size of the big ones and they are quite nice.
Have everything the bid ones except they removed the wasted space.
Personally I don’t get rvs..big, wasteful and you have to tow an a vehicle if you don’t want to drive your rv (7mpg)
everywhere.
Smaller tow along camper makes more sense.
First considerations: Are these friends subject to seasickness?
If not, then would suggest watching several of the countless you tube videos which discuss the pros and cons of living on a boat. There is numerous video channels with living day to day on a boat on the seas as well as living on a river boat moored in a community.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ7NWDmzvG0
Not for the faint of heart or the novice, I would say.
For decades in Yokohama and other Japanese cities, extended families lived on flat-topped house boats along the river systems.
I remember seeing the same in Bangkok.
There was a mom, holding out one of her youngsters while he peed in the river. Two houseboats down from her was a man in the river, vigorously brushing his teeth...
Watch out for torpedoes.
Like tiny house owners, few boat people last long. I’d look into this carefully before trying it. There must be some associations for boat life people.
I do know some people who do boat life part-time, but they also spend 6 months of the year in the Bahamas, taking their boat there but staying on land. Such a lifestyle requires more money of course.
Get a hold of John D MacDonald’s Travis McGee thriller series. McGee lived aboard a houseboat docked at a boat slip in Southeast Florida and the stories are chock full of info on how it’s done from the maintenance all the way on up to the odd social connections this kind of lifestyle provides. Guess no one reads books anymore.
The idea that living on a boat is a vision of freedom is delusional. I know several couples and individuals who have done it and live that way today. They are great fun to visit. I am not sure I would adapt the lifestyle on a permanent basis. The reasons are many. But in one sentence, NOTHING and NO PART of your lifestyle will be convenient or easy or simple.
First, it sounds like they are newbs to boats. Boats have considerable maintenance requirements, and those requirements are often costly. OK, so they buy a brand new boat and those are reduced, but the marine environment is brutal on most things. As the boat ages, they do too, and those req’ments shall deepen, as sure as the sun (and salt air) rises. Stuff on boats breaks.
Even if the husband is “handy” around the house, things on boats are done rather differently and need to be done to considerably higher specs and it is only the experience of years that would inform you or anyone else that learning or experimenting on your own boat is a bad idea.
“Traveling outside the US” sounds great until you realize that transoceanic travel on a small boat is a very, very serious matter. The layup of supplies, emergency provisions and the anticipation thereof, is simply not an elementary item.
I could give you twenty more reasons but others on this thread are undoubtedly supplying them as I attempt to formulate them.
If they are long-time sailors or boaters and have boated for a dozen or more years, that would be a bit different but the full functionality (or not) of the lifestyle is IMHO a PITA. It certainly has its elements of romanticism, but romantic visions, once tarnished,often turn into nightmares.
I’ve lived on a sailboat.
If you’ve never lived aboard, you imagine that you want a giant, luxurious showpiece of a boat.
But after you’ve lived onboard, what you want is the smallest possible boat with the fewest things that can breakdown.
It’s a lot of work to live aboard.
It’s 10 times as much work to actually sail instead of just living in a harbor slip.
It’s a neat lifestyle.
It’s not for everyone.