Some questions about living aboard....

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by TangoKVictor

That could work actually, or I could live in it on land while it is trailered.

Having it in the water would be better though to get an idea of what you have to deal with.....especially at anchor.

[hpeer]

Where EXACTLY in Halifax your job is will be is vital. You need to pin that on a map and then look at the bus routes to get you to and from. I can’t imagine biking over the narrows every day in winter.

Not having a car will make life difficult and narrows you geographic range a lot.

You MAY be able to find a private slip somewhere not in a marina. Not sure how to do a search for that. But again a car would be likely be necessary.

Living aboard requires some serious heat in the boat. Many do it with shore power, think big extension cords, and electric heaters. We use diesel heaters as in transport trucks.

If you are serious, or even seriously interested, buy the AquaMap application for your phone and the Canadian charts. That is the fastest way to identify the various marinas and boating facilities.

[hpeer]

And a second suggestion is to look at Yachtworld. Using the “advanced search” feature you can locate boats for sale in a specific area.

While there are other sales resources such as Kiji Yachtworld will help you come to grips with what you can get for your budget.

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats-for...a/?length=0-40

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by TangoKVictor

After living here 39 years winter, snow, ice, isn't new to me. I get it if it is something you don't want to deal with but I am looking for input from people who have so I can make an informed decision on if I want to deal with those challenges or not. Just pointing out "winter, snow, ice" isn't particularly helpful.

Cold winter, snow, ice on a boat, is an awful experience. Ditto as to on a dock, or at mooring. Cold, clammy, slippery, very confining as it forces one inside and without ventilation, very difficult and hazardous to come and go.

[TrentePieds]

Tango:

Obviously you are in the very early stages of your considerations. Having considered all you've said in your opening post the answer is, IMO, that in a Warwick 42, you could squeak by, in a Nor 'sea 27 you could not.

If you are not yet conversant with the great, great disparity between the accommodations offered by a minimal sailboat, on the one hand, and "middling" power boat on the other, and with their relative costs of ownership, then you need to sit down and do some systematic thinking about, and defining of, how you lead your daily life, i.e. about how you spend every, say, 15 minute interval of your waking hours. Once you have such a listing you will know what accommodations the boat MUST provide and therefore, by diligent research, which boats will provide it.

Once you have that, you can begin to determine where your candidate boat can be kept and at what cost. You will also begin to be able to formulate a budget for the keeping of the boat. It is rarely the acquisition of a boat that a man cannot find the funds for. It is much more frequently the keeping of the boat that becomes an unbearable financial burden, mainly because the "utility", in terms of satisfying the needs of living in a modern society, is so much less per dollar spent than is the utility of living ashore.

As toys boats are wonderful. As permanent accommodation they are, IMO, a trial!

There are aspects of the feasibility study you haven't mentioned, perhaps because they seem obvious to you. But perhaps they are not.

For example, if you are a plumber, a welder or a framer, and sartorial requirements are minimal in consequence, it is much, much more feasible to live aboard than if you are an accountant or a lawyer, and therefore required to wear the appropriate "uniform". Living aboard is far less feasible in the latter case because it is very, very difficult to keep "professional" attire in good order while living aboard.

Someone advised you to get a small apartment, even if you only rent it. Here, in the distant suburbs of Vancouver, you can rent a 1 bedroom apartment for the same amount of money you will be out of pocket each month by keeping a 27 foot sailboat at a marina. You can rent a 2 bedroom apartment for the same money you'd be out of pocket each month by keeping a 42 foot power boat at a marina.

I have no idea what the availability of slips might be around Halifax. Here in Vancouver, in fact all through the Salish Sea, all marinas have waiting lists. Some of them are five years long!

Welcome to the forum and all the best :-)!

TrentePieds

[longjonsilver]

A quick perusal of the AYC fees - i get $5000 for the first year and $4000 per year after that. Mooring during the season and wet storage in the winter. This includes the dinghy fee as well, and the mandatory bar tab as well. (Its called a bar/restaurant credit - not clear if they really credit you or actually bill you. i figured it is billed to you) There might be additional fees for live aboard, tho that is not on the published fee schedule.

Now its very hard (impossible) to find any apartment for less than $1000/ month plus utilities here in Halifax and surrounding area. Most are paying closer to $1500.

Thats at least $12,000/year for living on land to as much as $18,000/year.

Soooo, how do you figure that its the same cost or more on the water? Yes there is haulout and bottom job, but that is only every cuppla years. Plus there are places to tie up or anchor and there would be no fees, and lotsa places to land a dinghy. Hafta provide your own electricity tho, and no hot showers.

In addition the AYC is close to lotsa shopping and the biggest mall in Halifax.

jon

[longjonsilver]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Where EXACTLY in Halifax your job is will be is vital. You need to pin that on a map and then look at the bus routes to get you to and from. I can’t imagine biking over the narrows every day in winter.

Altho limited in experience - i drive almost everywhere - the public transportation in Halifax is very good - especially in Halifax proper. Outside the core, it gets a little harder, depending on where you work of course.

N of course, apps now will tell you what bus lines to take, and when the next bus is arriving. Not like the old days consulting a map and trying to figure it out.

jon

[MicHughV]

Unless you are planning to live like a monk, some arrangements need to made for the occasional "guest"....'jes sayin'....

[copaco]

My friends lived aboard in Fisherman's Cove (across from Halifax harbour) last winter.

[clakiep]

First priority is finding a mooring for a boat, from where you can step ashore without having to use a dinghy or a ladder - otherwise your life will be miserable ! Check the conditions, cost, distance to grocerie shopping, laundery, etc... and your work. Than, finding and chosing a boat will be the easy part.

Capt. Claus - ocean tramp of the eighties

[Oeanda]

Originally Posted by TangoKVictor

…renting is throwing your money away. If I can swing living aboard (lets say for 20% more than renting) then I at least come out with a boat.

You’ll still be paying rent in most cases. On top of that, a boat is really a wonderful way to throw lots of money away. At least in my experience there is always a long list of expensive essentials. And after that - a longer list of near-essential upgrades, and then another of non-essential toys.

Think - batteries, a zillion engine parts, sails, rigging, plumbing, heating, electrical systems, deck fittings, lighting, constant maintenance of woodwork inside and out, paint, varnish, and the eternal chasing of leaks.. Well- the list goes on forever, and often even the most inglorious of essential knickknacks can be very pricey.

It’s like this;

Ka-Ching! Ka-Ching! Ka-Ching! …

The live-aboard life can be pretty squalid. Cold, wet, dirty, painful. Lol.

But there is a magical allure to the boat thing. Especially for people who aren’t actually doing it. So there is a certain value in that. Maybe it’s the main value come to think of it.

I might be down in the bowels of the boat grovelling painfully in some horrible crevice, covered in diesel, glue, grease, sewage, etc. I pop my head up on deck and there’s a gaggle of tourists ogling me who say - ‘Oh this is so beautiful and amazing! You are so lucky!!’ These crazy delusions really help to make it all work.

So yeah- you mostly just have to like doing it.




Pvc frame with lengthwise cedar strips, then two layers of heavy poly, multiple tarps, with heavy cargo netting on top to keep the storms blowing it all away. Held down with miles of line. Makes it possible to use and work on the deck area in winter. This has been great and makes for a nice cozy space inside. You can’t tell in the pic but the snow got to 18” deep on the top by the mast. Frozen into the netting so we couldn’t shake it off and had to brace the thing up more from the inside.

[longjonsilver]

Originally Posted by copaco

My friends lived aboard in Fisherman's Cove (across from Halifax harbour) last winter.

i haden't thot of Fishermanz cove area. Is it ice free all winter. i am gonna check out some spots tomorrow cuz if its ice free now after weeks of cold, its gonna be ice free till the next ice age...

[TrentePieds]

Speaking of monks :-) — You should be able to pick up a thirty year old 42 foot Monk "trawler" for about Can$165.

For that money you can BUY, cash on the barrelhead, a 2 bedroom condo apartment of about the same age in my distant suburb of Vancouver, though of course not in Vancouver's West End. An "incomer", given a reasonable credit rating in the Maritimes or elsewhere in this 'ere colony, and provided he stays away from the "charter banks" and deals with a Credit Union, can get in for 25% (= Can$45K) DP. Strata Fees would be about $300/month.

Give a butchers to this ad - from Florida, admittedly - that sez that Operating Costs for a year for a 42 foot Monk was US$28,763 (= Can$36K). No mention of how much of that was fuel, but count on Can$25K ownership costs - if all goes well. If an engine goes down you'd be hooped!

Occupancy costs of a condo would be about 1/6 of ownership costs of a 42 foot "trawler"!

A 42 foot "trawler" would give you about 200 SqFt of USEABLE floor space, the two bedroom condo would give you seven or eight hundred square feet! The condo would have high speed internet if that's required for you to earn a living. The boat would, at best, have a half-fast WIFI. The condo would have a parking space for a car, likely under cover. A marina might rent you a parking space for an extra fee. And make you walk half a mile twixt car and boat in the driving rain and sleet! Not to mention Halifax temperatures of -20ºC!

As I said up above, if rather more gently: Living aboard is a mugs game!

TrentePieds

[more]

Originally Posted by TangoKVictor

Hi, so I am expecting a job offer in Halifax NS, I could sell my home and buy another one but I thought I might look into living aboard first for the following reasons;
1. Homes are expensive and I know it will burst, I don't want to buy something now for 359000 only to have it worth 239000 in 10 years.
2. Too many people getting wise to Van Lifers and causing **** for them. 5 years ago, boondocking and van life was under the radar now it seems like Government and Citizens are going out of their way to make life hard for these people. I guess bums on the street are better than working tax payers living in a van.

Disadvantages
1. Cost? Maybe?
2. Laundry
3. Storage
4. It's all on me!
5. I could get myself killed

Other considerations
1. Storms.. What do I do when a storm comes? Hotel? Hunker down?
2. Heating a boat
3. How big? Nor'sea 27 or Warwick 42?
4. All the things I don't even know to consider...

!

what i sea halifax marina is bargain price 500-600$ including electric

https://halifaxharbormarina.com/storage/

for living on boat is minimum CAT 40ft with air-conditioning with heating + diesel underfloor hydronic heather.
check with local is sea in halifax freeze.
in cat you install all equipment what you use in home except workshop.
after cat is good trawler like grand banks
for you example this.
https://www.yachtworld.com/yacht/198...assic-8057546/
https://www.yachtworld.com/yacht/198...awler-8111854/

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by TangoKVictor

Hi, so I am expecting a job offer in Halifax NS, I could sell my home and buy another one but I thought I might look into living aboard first for the following reasons;
1. Homes are expensive and I know it will burst, I don't want to buy something now for 359000 only to have it worth 239000 in 10 years.
2. Too many people getting wise to Van Lifers and causing **** for them. 5 years ago, boondocking and van life was under the radar now it seems like Government and Citizens are going out of their way to make life hard for these people. I guess bums on the street are better than working tax payers living in a van.
3. I always wanted a boat...
4. I hate mowing...
5. I don't feel like I need a lot of living space.
6. I'm tired of just living I want to live...

Some issues I think I will have;
1. Tools, Where do I put my tools?
2. Workshop\crafting place; My parents have a barn that I could probably build off and use as a shop for wood working but they are 2h out of Halifax
3. Motorcycle, what do I do with the motorcycle?
4. Mountain biking, what do I do with the mountain bike I still enjoy doing that for exercise and commuting to work.
5. Hiking and Camping, can my hiking and camping kit be used as my normal everyday boating kit? I am thinking sleeping bag instead of blankets, cooking kit instead of plates, etc... Maybe not an issue?
6. How do you get in and out of a kayak from a boat?
I do think I can work around these with some combination of self storage and family.

Some advantages
1. I don't think I will need a car, summer bike\motorcyle for commuting, winter transit
2. My I know how I will be spending my vacation time...
3. No housing tax, no mass depreciation when the bubble breaks, build skills, opportunities for adventure.
4. Less stuff!

Disadvantages
1. Cost? Maybe?
2. Laundry
3. Storage
4. It's all on me!
5. I could get myself killed

Other considerations
1. Storms.. What do I do when a storm comes? Hotel? Hunker down?
2. Heating a boat
3. How big? Nor'sea 27 or Warwick 42?
4. All the things I don't even know to consider...

So what am I getting myself into? and what else do I need to consider?
If I look at mortgage, property tax, utilities, car, ins, fuel, etc... how does it stack against, purchase cost, insurance, registration, storage fees, marina fees, maintenance, etc... Lets say I own the boat out right with no boat mortgage and lets say I have 25k to start and a 10k reserve.

Thank you in advance for any input and cheers!

This sounds like me when I'm three sheets to the wind.