Living on a boat- has anybody done it?

[shoupart]

Hey, has anybody lived on a boat for an extended period of time? like a sailboat or something?

I was kinda toying with the idea and it sounded pretty fun. If anybody's tried it, I'm curious to hear how you liked it, how expensive it was to keep up, etc- the hard parts, the easy parts.

It seems to me that it'd be fun to buy some boat outright on Craigslist or whatever, stop paying rent on a house for a while, move onto the boat and cut back.
I'm sure there's a mountain of expenses like maintenance costs, plus slip fees, fuel, etc... So what's it all come down to?

 

[DennisS]

I lived on an oceanographic boat for about 20 years, the cooks made meals, the engineers kept the AC cold and the water hot, officers steered it from port to port, and the deck dept kept it painted. I put instruments and samplers over the side.

The only advice I would give is to have the boat surveyed before you buy it and find live aboard dockage before you get the boat.

 

[Wildcard]

Not everywhere will allow live aboards, many don't. Also without special sewage Tx equipment, ya gotta hike to the bathroom every time. It's cramped most of the time and everything has to be kept put away. It's not a bad lifestyle for a single and many couples do it to. I lived on my 46 footer for seveal years and just bought a new 35 foot motorsailer with fore and aft cabins for long distance cruzin.
Know what your getting into and ask around before you commit to it.

 

[cobaltblue]

I lived aboard a 30 Carver Aft Cabin for a year, got married, purchased a 36 Carver Aft Cabin and lived aboard with my wife for another two years. That's a total of three years aboard full time. No big deal you say, it was in Michigan. Winters got a little long but they still do. Being a diver and a boater, I hate snow and ice.

No matter what anyone tells you, it's no cheaper than living on land and it's a much bigger pain in the butt. Was it worth it, hell yeah. Would I do it again, hell yeah. We have actually been talking about it. Why? Because you'll be living at a marina. What could be better then being a boater all the time. PM me if you'd like more information as I don't want to ramble on here.

 

[CAPT HOOK]

We lived and traveled on our 34' Morgan for ayear and a half. We didn't have to deal with marinas since we were able to anchor almost all the time.
Live-aboard marinas are sometimes hard to find and they will cost extra.
Where we live they start around $900 a month on a years lease and go way up from there.

 

[pir8]

I can and have lived aoard a boat for a couple of weeks at a time. Much more than that gets real hard. If you're not a boater to start with then I can't see you handling it right off. Take a boating course first and build into it slowly. Join a Yacht Club and learn boating first.

 

[Bill51]

We lived on our 36’ SeaRay for a month at a stretch a few times and my wife’s biggest complaint was lack of variety in meals since we were always short on storage to have a lot of different things aboard – so we did eat out a lot. Depending on where you’re at you can also plan on learning a lot about how to deal with constant high humidity and the accompanying mold.

 

[Wildcard]

I lived aboard a 30 Carver Aft Cabin for a year, got married, purchased a 36 Carver Aft Cabin and lived aboard with my wife for another two years. That's a total of three years aboard full time. No big deal you say, it was in Michigan. Winters got a little long but they still do. Being a diver and a boater, I hate snow and ice.

No matter what anyone tells you, it's no cheaper than living on land and it's a much bigger pain in the butt. Was it worth it, hell yeah. Would I do it again, hell yeah. We have actually been talking about it. Why? Because you'll be living at a marina. What could be better then being a boater all the time. PM me if you'd like more information as I don't want to ramble on here.

Did I mention my three years was in Alaska in an aluminum boat?

 

[Ilovesherwood]

You live in L.A. Its going to be pretty difficult to find a live aboard slip, but it is possible. Check with your harbor for their requirements for a live-aboard boat before you buy one. Here a boat must be a minimum of 33 feet. I live on a 33 foot Catalina with my girlfriend. My slip fee, water, and electricity comes out to about $600 a month. You can't find rent here anywhere near that. It is a little cramped, but it's cheaper than rent. We have an awesome time taking it out for weekends. I really love it, make sure it is something that you can commit to, because walking up to use the head at night, and take your shower in the morning isn't much fun after a while.

 

[cobaltblue]

I've never understood why live-aboards talk about not using the head on the boat. It's there, use it. If you don't take your boat out enough to get regular pump outs, you shouldn't be living aboard a boat, remember it's made for using not living. We even made it possible to pump out in the middle of the winter in Michigan. Here in Michigan, there was no way in hell I was getting up a 6am and walking through the snow to take a shower, let alone the 3 or 4am bathroom break. Along those lines, when looking for a boat, make sure that it holds enough fluids to be a suitable live aboard. My wife and I used about 150 gallons of water a week and filled about 60 gallons of waste every three weeks to a month. I know that's probably too much information but it one of the list of many things that I wish someone would have told me before I started.