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.
Maybe he’d like an LST.
Sail off with a truck and trailer to wherever. Find a good spot to run up, drop the front and wheel away.
You’re absolutely right.
In fact, I have friends that do both.
They own a lot at a campsite with a couple of semi-permanent buildings for storage. They are allowed to live there for six months out of the year (In case they don’t want to travel). Everything on their site can be there permanently.
Sometimes they RV to where they want to be (kids, etc). Sometimes they take the boat. The campsite becomes the permanent mailing address. The usps has a service where they scan the mail sent to you so you can see what’s come in when you are away.
And God bless WalMarts - you can still dry park overnight in most of them. You can pump free in state run rest areas. The only issue with RVs is they don’t have sails.
With a sail boat, its possible to make a 500 mile journey on about a half tank of gas or less.
My goal is to just pick where I want to go and rent a house for a couple of weeks. During football season, I can rent my house for $1000+ a weekend for home games. That’s pretty close to break even if I want to go to the beach.
A favorite show.
“After a couple of months, I would be bored to death.”
me too. i gotta have a well-equipped workshop to be happy ...
If she (the vessel) is beamy and she (the companion) isn’t beamy, 40 feet could perhaps be enough... for a while.
Beneteau put out a 57-footer a while back that was quite spacious. I could see that being sufficient as a blue water liveaboard.
Boats are black holes in the water that their owners constantly throw money in to. You know what the 2 happiest days in my life as a boat owner were? The day I bought it and the day I sold it.
Or the pirates show up.
I bought my son a 29 foot Watkins when he was 20. Mom paid slip fees of $270 per month, paid to have the hull scraped occasionally, and paid for his gas every weekend to travel 200 miles to and from the marina. Granted, I went out with him several times and truly loved it. But boy howdy, I was one happy camper when he lost interest in that particular boat and we sold it.
just another (bad) imitator... :)
I have 2(or so) years left until I retire.
We already live on a sailboat (36ft Tashing Tashiba) and as soon as I can quit, we’re sailing away.
I am NOT a senior....yet. :D
Is that Travis McGee? Looks like him.
Don’t have time to try to embed this right now, but, this was us in Irma 2017.
Enjoy!
I retired at a ranch in SE Oklahoma. I herd cows around and ride through the woods in a Polaris ranger. Cows have no drama.
And neither would Mrs. T-Bird45 - I just gotta admit there's some wisdom there for some people who can't seem to match up on relationships. 41 years here next month...
Oh my where to start.
First depending where you go, it might be less safe than the article indicates as a nice sailboat is a tempting target for drug smugglers to use or for pirates/gangs intent upon kidnapping and ransom. These are real threats in parts of the world, so make sure you understand the risks.
Second, most sailboats provide fairly cramped quarters, limited potable water and a really harsh environment. When I worked in SF, CA, I had a friend who lived on a 35 foot sailboat with his wife. They went for a 2+ week vacation in the winter. The power at their marina went out and when it came back on, no one reconnected the heater-dehumidifier. By the time they got home mold had destroyed most of their belongings. Saltwater will corrode just about anything and will get into just about anything on a small boat.
Where I live there are stories all the time about marina fires where boats burn to the waterline or where after storms and the owner is away them come back to find that their boat was damaged in the storm and sunk tied to the marina dock.
Living on board a sailboat is not for everyone. It may sound romantic and ideal, but there are lots of real world problems.
Before you decide on living on a sailboat try renting one for a month or two some summer and actually understand what living on one is all about. Also that will give you an understanding about some of the features you will want on a sailboat.
good for you! We hit 43 years in May.
Sounds nice, I have a friend who’s parents did the sail-bum thing for years. They still kept their house on dry land, though.
Myself, while I find the concept interesting, I think I’d prefer to find a cheap way to live the good life on dry land, when the time comes.
Thanks, but I already got it. :)
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