Thinking about living aboard

[Dave22q]

Do not confuse a fun hobby with life. At 18 you might be thinking about how to make a living including how to acquire the necessary skills. Then you can figure how living aboard can fit in. Living aboard should work well for a college student but may well be a problem if you need to look professional. Also location matters a lot. Many places like most of California and New York City and New Jersey have high wage jobs but live aboard slips are expensive and hard to find. Good luck in getting your future organized.

[Huey2]

I'm 6'1" and have 2 catamarans. The Privilege 39 has a 21' beam and it's harder to find a wide slip. I also have a Fisher catamaran for Michigan because it has a 13'1" beam & the boat is 28'. It has 3 staterooms but the 3rd one is a 3/4 berth that we use for storage. It has a kitchen & a bathroom with head & shower. It has a single Kubota diesel with hydraulic pump & 2 hydraulic motors that power the shafts. It's like a zero turn mower & I can turn it in it's own length. It is a pilot house motor sailer & would be a great live aboard....cheaper well & tons of space. Great as a coastal cruiser. The Privilege 39 is a blue water cruiser. You should consider draft, length, & interior space for what you are looking for at this time. If you keep up on the maintenance you should be able to get what you paid or more if you decide to sell it later. Good luck

[laika]

I really like the advise that says "It depends!"

My purely anecdotal $.02..

32 year old. First boat was a 39' with some friends based in NYC and second, for the last 4 years, has been a 27'. My experience is that my 27' is perfect for solo / young couple. Something a lot bigger would be perfect, too. It just really depends what you're looking for.

Most of the folks on this forum are older, so keep that in mind. Very nice peeps, the lot of them, but there does seem to be a correlation generally that the minimum size one considers grows with the numbers of years spent on earth. Nothing at all wrong with that.

My reasons for going smallish were that it's more flexible for an unknown future. My boat can be trailered across the country without a wideload permit if I want, and it's still a very well built "bluewater boat" capable of taking it's crew anywhere they want to go. This is not unique to my particular boat..lot's of eminently seaworthy little pocket cruisers out there. After I get done in the caribbean my plan is to start a farm with some friends. I plan on taking my boat along with me when this happens and parking it on the property until it's time to go cruising again.

Another nice thing about smaller is that you can actually buy a very nice little boat with under $30k.

Bottom line: it 100% depends what you want and how you plan to make it work for you. There's no shortage of boat's to chose from and the search for the boat can be almost as much fun as actually owning one. Sometimes a lot more

[Illium117]

Thank you for all of the helpful information. I currently live in Illinois, only 15 minutes away from the Illinois River. My family has been going on summer trips to Florida for the past 3 years. We love it there and often joke about moving down to Florida, even going as far as planning out how we would afford it. Now that I'm an adult(ish), we have seriously talked about me finding a job and a cheap apartment to start out in down in Florida when we go on our trips. Depending on how much I save in the upcoming years will determine whether I start in an apartment or on a boat though.

As for everyone's boat recommendations, I've looked at a couple of Hunter Cherubinis (37 and 33) and I liked them a lot, also looked at a nice O'Day 34 and a Schock 36. Probably would have liked the Schock 36 the best if it hadn't cost the most and been in similar condition to the O'Day 34 (cleanest of the ships).

Thanks again for all the advice.

[lesterbutch]

Originally Posted by The Garbone

Go for it. Depending on were you live Slip fees in a marina will be cheaper than rent. Dump the money you save info some good funds and you will be living large by age 45. The wife and I were discussing how if we knew we would have been living on a boat to start.


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Wow, times must have changed or perhaps it's your location. My wife and I sailed our 37' Irwin ketch to Florida from Connecticut where I had been living aboard, (She was in FL. Working already, and I was freezing aboard in Ct.).Once both moved, We stayed on the boat near Port Canaveral but found we could own a nice 2 bedroom 2 bath in Port St. Lucie for less than 1/3 what we were paying in dockage. Even now 30 years later dockage is way above the cost of buying an average house!

[The Garbone]

Originally Posted by lesterbutch

Wow, times must have changed or perhaps it's your location. My wife and I sailed our 37' Irwin ketch to Florida from Connecticut where I had been living aboard, (She was in FL. Working already, and I was freezing aboard in Ct.).Once both moved, We stayed on the boat near Port Canaveral but found we could own a nice 2 bedroom 2 bath in Port St. Lucie for less than 1/3 what we were paying in dockage. Even now 30 years later dockage is way above the cost of buying an average house!

I pay $255 for my C30, $50 more if I want shore power. If you have 4' draft and under 45 ft air draft it opens up a bunch more marinas.

Rent in our area is about $750 for a decent place, nicer and you will have to pay more. Buying a house, about the same for a small place.

[Virginia Lee]

Echoing what others have posted, the economics depends on the costs in your area. I am paying out the yin/yang for home insurance in S FL so I continually look at whether it would make sense to sell the house now and live aboard. Because I still work, I would have to be at a marina, and even the cheapest city marina costs more than south Florida house insurance + property taxes+utilities. That's without rent / mortgage (our house is paid off). For someone paying rent, the calculations of boat/marina may be more favorable. But ... I look at the "vast expanse" of my 1000+ square foot house, with hubby literally nowhere in sght (love him, separate times also good). Living aboard at a marina would not be as comfortable. AC/Heat, for example. Our boat has neither, currently. Need to iron work clothes? House= easier. I will be happy to retire (stock market willing) and live aboard, when we can anchor off sandy beaches, with the dog running off leash beside me;that will be the payoff. Won't care about wrinkles in clothes. While in S FL, living aboard while not cruising doesn't make economic, nor quality of life, sense. But, if I could live on my boat for cheaper-than-land marina rates and accelerate savings for retirement, I would. Run the numbers, friend! The dream is great, but reality can suck.

[Hudson Force]

Yes, I would agree that times have changed. In the 1970's we could rent a slip for a boat our current size in Florida for $50/month and now our cost is ten times that amount, but then every thing else is about ten times as much too. These numbers, then and now, would be twice as much in a resort area of Florida

Currently, at my present Florida location, I have a rate of $13/foot/month. This would be about $200/month less than an moderate apartment that would not include utilities.

I can't speak about the space comparison well, but we did adapt well living aboard our 33' boat until our two children were six and eight years old. We kept our boat air conditioned and we ironed clothes as we pleased. We were very organized and worked well together. A family tends to develop excellent communication skills if they are able to adapt to a small living space.

My daughter and her family are now living on a 36' trawler and I have a nephew living aboard his 26' sloop and in South Florida.

[first wind]

Originally Posted by Illium117

So I have been considering living aboard but don't know where to start, I've looked at boats, crunched numbers, but I still feel lost. I'm 18 and love to sail, My uncle and grandfather both spent time living aboard but it was before I was born. I've been considering living aboard for the past 3 years and crunching numbers to see what it will take to make my dream come true. I won't be purchasing a boat till i'm in my early 20's (unless I stumble upon buried treasure). I plan to spend around 20-25k on my first boat but always looking for something below 20k.

My biggest questions/ concerns is how big of a boat should I get and what are some boats that make good liveaboards.

P.S. I'm interested in getting a sailboat so motorboat feedback, while I'm grateful for it, isn't what I'm looking for.

Thank You all for your time.

haven't read the rest of the responses, yet. however, i'm going to make a recommendation.

i wouldn't go over 30 feet. bigger isn't necessarily better. over 30 feet the cost goes up dramatically. also, it's easier to single or short hand a boat up to that size.

keep an eye on craigslist. you can find older boats in decent shape for a lot less than 20k.

even 24 feet can be big enough. depends on the boat and how it's designed...although i doubt you'll find a dana 24 for cheap.

you will be more comfortable with stand up headroom but, you don't need more than you take up. if you are only 5'7", you don't need 6' head room. but, you won't want 5', either. no fun being bent over all the time.

the boat should have good ventilation and good internal circulation. depending on where you live, you may want to insulate. i did. and a diesel sleeper heater (like from a semi) is good for heat. a decent galley will help, too.

look for decent stowage.

don't go looking with a specific model in mind. keep your options open.

just my two cents.

[first wind]

i had to break for dinner. i have two more cents. lol. while you are looking, use the internet to research. you can research, in depth, every aspect of boats and the parts of boats....everything from heads to stoves to sail plans. and you should take full advantage of that. leave no stone unturned.

also, don't be afraid to think outside of the box. just because some folks my scoff if you mention composting heads, it doesn't mean that might not be a good solution for you.

simplicity. you need a depth finder but, do you really need a chart plotter? remember more gizmos means more money and time in maintenance.

one final point: besides cost, another reason to stay smaller is ease of sailing. the easier it is to just cast off and go for a sail, the likelier it is that you will sail.

along that line, just remember that you will need to down size. you won't be able to buy tons of knickknacks. no room.

you don't want to be like this one guy i met last year. he was scrapping out abandoned boats for the owner of the marina he lives at. i was there buying used stuff from him at a good price. he had a beautiful alberg and it was so chock full of junk he couldn't have found spare room to sit let alone actually sail the boat. last i talked to him, he'd just bought an abandoned houseboat so he could get the junk out of his sailboat so he could sail it.

less stuff is a plus, anyway. stuff costs money and it holds you hostage.

[first wind]

Originally Posted by lesterbutch

Wow, times must have changed or perhaps it's your location. My wife and I sailed our 37' Irwin ketch to Florida from Connecticut where I had been living aboard, (She was in FL. Working already, and I was freezing aboard in Ct.).Once both moved, We stayed on the boat near Port Canaveral but found we could own a nice 2 bedroom 2 bath in Port St. Lucie for less than 1/3 what we were paying in dockage. Even now 30 years later dockage is way above the cost of buying an average house!

florida must be expensive. i couldn't afford a tiny efficiency in a bad neighborhood for what i pay in slip fees.

[mausgras]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

G'Day Illium, and welcome to CF.

Your plan, your budget and your time scale all sound pretty well thought out, especially considering your age. i see no reason at all that you can't, in theory, realize those ambitions. I'm not a knee-jerk "go for it" type, but there is something about your post that makes me believe you may actually do what you are dreaming about!

So, advice from an old fart:


JIm

I love reading posts from young guys like you. The enthusiasm, the idealism, the energy and most of all the belief in yourself that you can overcome any obstacle. It makes me feel so jealous and want to be young again.
So from yet another old fart I am going to suggest something different.

One thing my 66 years of life has taught me is that you really don't know what life has in store for you around the corner. You can plan ahead but always expect the unexpected and be flexible enough to change your plans.

It doesn't really matter where you live now because you just might get that great job opportunity and have to move next month, or maybe that new girlfriend you met on holiday lives a long way away, and you want to see her again. The are a zillion things that are going to happen to you that will make you want to follow a new path.

So I am going to suggest you try for a trailer sailer as a first boat. A 26 footer is more than roomy enough for a single guy or a young guy with a bedmate.

Need somewhere cheap to live? You can liveaboard in a marina or on the hook. No decent waterway around but family or friends don't mind you parking in their yard you can still climb in and liveaboard on the trailer.
If you have to move while you are still building up you career, then you can take your home with you.
Curious about what the cruising is like on the otherside of the country or the tropics or the PNW then drive there and get on the water straight away.
Twenty six foot is a great boat to learn all those essential sailing skills and sail single handed and generally well under $20K. When you feel ready for that blue water cruiser they are easy to sell.
So best of luck and follow that Sun.

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