Posted on 07/19/2018 10:29:09 AM PDT by sodpoodle
You’ve just weighed anchor on another night of bliss, lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of your sailboat in the calm sea. Before you is a small cove lined by craggy cliffs. Clear blue waters end at a white-sand beach. You’ve had it all to yourself for the last week.
It was supposed to be just an overnight stop. But it was so beautiful, you decided to stick around. After a quick dip, you’re enjoying a cup of coffee and a light breakfast on deck as you contemplate which island paradise you’ll go to next.
This life could be yours. Plenty of everyday people are choosing to live on the water full-time—in their retirement, no less. After a bit of training and hands-on experience at home, they’re tying up beside mega-yachts in the Mediterranean…finding large floating communities of like-minded expat sailors in the Caribbean…and island hopping in the Gulf of Thailand, heading wherever their fancy takes them.
This lifestyle is more affordable than you might think, often costing folks less than staying at home. For under $100,000, you can buy a well-equipped, used sail boat around 40 feet in length—plenty of room for two people. And you can live on it for as little as $1,000 to $1,500 a month, including marina fees. That fee usually gets you a full-service facility with water, power, WiFi, and other amenities.
There's a weird sort of atavistic attraction to it, though. For some of us it's the wilderness - Robert Service sings about that one. For the folks who have to have the water, it's John Masefield:
I must do down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and sky,
I wouldn't think it a retirement destination, though, not unless "retirement" means "more work than you've ever done in your life." There are rewards.
A relative of my mom’s husband tried this. He’s a highly experienced sailor so that’s not an issue. However, they didn’t take into account the cost of graft and bribes in these idyllic marina’s and exotic ports of calls.
It was about the same cost as all of their other expenses put together.
I just saw that craft floating under the bridge;)
He aint just a sailor...he built his steel hulled craft himself.
Last year in the CYC sail boat race from Chicago to Mackinaw Island many boats were knock out of the race as a strong storm roll through a bunch of boats, destroyed sails, a coulple of masts, and all bunch of small damage here and there. Just for your information this years race starts tomorrow.
If you research the boats that are attractive in your area they truly are pleasure boats and not money pits. I bought a 17’ Carolina Skiff and used it for 4 seasons. Paid 17K for it new and got 12.5K back. Used it for just cruising the lake, picnicking, swimming off of, fishing, wake boarding, and tubing with friends and family. Now your part 2 is absolutely correct.
I can’t believe no one pinged Travis McGee
Sounds great BUT my friends always invite me to go Walleye fishing on Lake Erie. I get sea sick very easily and the chum really brings in the fish.
Buy a flying boat. Best of both worlds.
And there’s this one particular harbor...
Mrs Dad and I have been in FL since 2010. Owned or had access to a boat since I was a kid in the late 60s early 70s. A couple things about the hurricanes. After moving here and the first couple storms came toward FL, at a day out you still don't know where and if it will hit. Newbs prepare only to take down the protection. If you are on a boat where do you go? If they would go south they'd take a chance it swerved and went south, if they go east into the gulf they might go right into it, if they go north they might be chased all the way up the coast. It isn't easy to outrun a storm in a boat. Plus, we have impact windows and sliders and a block house so the only hurricane that hit us didn't do anything to us.
There are two types of costs with a boat. One is the costs for not using it enough, the other costs are for using it a lot.
Had a boat and got rid of it and now am a member of a boat club. For what would've been a down payment on a boat and a monthly payment I can use the boat virtually as much as I want while only paying for the gas. I typically use the boats on weekdays and have had no problems securing the boat when I want to go out. AND, no issues with maintenance, hauling it to and from the boat ramps, no parking fees and no insurance fees. And I have access to more different types and sizes of boats than just what I had when I had a boat. Just an FYI.
18 years in a sea-going service.
Over 8 years of sea time.
Retired in Kansas.
Wonder what a Grumman Goose in good shape goes for?
Can’t be that many left.
“...around 40 feet in length—plenty of room for two people”
LOLOL...yeah, right.
Just buy a PBY Catalina and have a boat you can live on AND a plane!
You need a Bigger Boat!
JAWS.
I can attest to that! We had a 33’ Hunter with in-mast roller furling. GREAT boat! Lost so much money on it as the ‘mini-recession’ hit just when we had to inland.
It sounds so nice in those Jimmy Buffett songs, until that hurricane comes.
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