Liveaboard Dream Goes Adrift

[tartansail]

Article in today's Boston Globe:
Mystery yacht has Hampton Beach talking - Metro - The Boston Globe

"Marcelo Nunes, 41, and his wife, Andresa, bought the boat in Newburyport last year, and then had it towed to Hampton Beach so that Mike Wheeler, the owner of the Hampton Harbor Boatworks, could install motors. The couple planned to sail it to Miami, park it at a marina, take the motors out and sell them, and turn the 3,000-square-foot interior into a home for them, their three children, and the family dog."

Is there some form of reverse Darwin award that applies here?

[zboss]

$8000 for new motors for a 70 foot boat? I don't think so... Maybe 80,000

[Greenhand]

Originally Posted by zboss

$8000 for new motors for a 70 foot boat? I don't think so... Maybe 80,000

Kind of like "remove the motors and live at a marina" while using the boat to "travel and stay anywhere we want."

[rw58ph]

Its common for off brand mfg to buy the hull/super and tow/truck the shell to be finished else where. It does not take much power to push a boat at hull speed, 6 to 9 knots. Our boat is 58 ft, 40+ tons powered by a single DD 671, 165 hp. If a person bought used engines they could be bought for $8,000. There are plenty of good used engines on the market.

Over in the Asia/Japan/Philippine, boat people are common. The boats are build with no or small engines and tanks to maximize the living space. The boats are usually fixed like a house boat, but could be move/towed a round. Many large live aboard boat owner would not mind not having tanks and engines so the space could be used for living/storage space. However, city and state codes define a boat as a navigable vessel capable of leaving the dock under its own power so some form a engine is required. Living on a boat is not that common in the US/Canada.

I imagine somebody will buy the hull, have engines/tanks installed and finish the boat as its large enough basic land appliances/cabinets/furnishing could be used. Is also common for many older boats and commercial trawler are bought, gutted and refinished, especially steel hull as the interior has to be gutted and sand blasted to bare metal. Good project for some one with time and money.

[marlinmike]

wait until they sell the engines and realize, oh crap this is Miami!?

[mike d.]

It was a glassed over wood power boat, that had been at the yd for a season and 1/2. I live there(Newburyport)! The boat boat was a piece of crap when they bought it for a Ford Expodition and cash. They had to move the boat by fall last yr because the yd could not accomodate it and the the fall lift out for winter storage? I think the previous owner worked a deal with yard to keep it there the winter before. They moved it to the back of the yard, then filled around it. I also think Mr. Karp(the mini mall Tycoon)people were afraid it would be left abandoned, and told mngr to get it out. It wasd an eye sore to say the least. The boat was slopped together. Do ifeel sorry for the Nunes' only that there was/is a dream gone assunder, but there could not have been to much going on upstairs to think that it could have made it to Miami for 8k in motors, with nothing else inplace or funtional!