Would you live on a boat?

Not odd to me, though I'm not a boat person. Family and friends are, though. One friend lived for a few years in a houseboat moored in Sausalito, very happily. Different than a large sailboat, but with some similar aspects.

I've always though boats required a lot of maintenance, and I'm not just talking about swabbing the mizzen mast and keelhauling the poop deck, either.

I love the idea. I personally could not, because my stomache cannot take constant rocking. But I would like to do it otherwise.

It doesn't sound odd, but then again, I grew up at a marina.

I'm not much for open water myself, but I get it. My cousin/godfather lives in NZ, and he's lived on a boat for years and years.

ot odd to me either. For a bunch a years I had a 38 ft Beal Island (40LOA) that was redesigned and turned into a "stealth clamboat" . We had the pilot house raked and redesigned as a creature comfort center with a comfy galley and lounge
The head , shower and two state rooms were below fore and aft. It was surprisingly spacious and ran like a clock. We putted all over the N atlantic with the sucker. It was named Iapetus. Theres a joutnal thread of life aboard here on A2K.
It was a twin Cat and Yanmar powered "first of the comfy lobstah boat trawlers".
Now these things are a s common as rockweed.

I had a friend with a LArson 34 and he and his wife lived aboard their boat lotsa weekends in the summer (till they hadda leave Connecticut and took a new teaching job in California).Theyve since divorced and hes bought another boat out there

The longest we lived aboard Iapetus was about about 3 weeks at a time. We did take extended sea voyages into the Northumberland and around Nova SCotia (we had to get hauled out and trailered about 10 miles near Hopewell NB.). I found the hardest thing to do was to figure out food needs for weeks at a time , otherwise we would always be heading to shore on our zodiac and doing grocery shopping at some greedy chandlers "company store".
We learned to carry a moped in the tween decks and then we had a bit more "range" when we went ashore. At larger touristy points we could always rent a car easily enough. ANother thing that frosted my ass was waiting for the customs guys to show up . We always lose hours just sitting on our asses. CAnada was better than US (wed have to check customs every time we came back and once I got busted by the ATF guys who werent clued into our radio messgaes to customs and " Border PAtrol", so they showed up on the dock as we pulled our zodiac back into Eastport Me and we got really hassled about "We should know better than to try to sneak back in, now it was gonna be hard on us". ABout then the Customs guys showed up with our tickets and the ATF backed off.

NEVER **** with any "post poffice" employee who wears a gun.
Ive sailed in sailboats owned by others for several extended trips in the Chesapeake and we just diddled around the inlets and coves till we got dead lost. I took poart in one sail race as a crew member for a "friend" (Up to that point). When we started the rcae (to Rock Island) this guy tured into CAptain Queeg and we all wanted to kill him. After I debarked on Rock Island I never talked to that ****** again. (He died several years ago and I went to his funeral).

AS another aside,
GPS has been a major game changer in extended tripping. We kept charts and we were always proficient inLORAN course plotting and night(unequipped)coastal navigation, but with GPS, we can keep our eyes on the horizon and a couple of screens and have all the info we need to navigate in all nasty conditions (like Letette rocks and Straits of Belle Isle or even Sable Isle ). Yep GPS is a real navigation dream (And I bought a spare "cheap" Lowrance unit as a back up and never used it).

When the world is covered by 70% seas, we should spend our lives ashore in that proportion. I cry every so ofetn that I hadda sell Iapetus because I needed money for a drill rig for my company. Ive since recouped the cash and were thinking of an old Hinkley Talaria 45'. (I couldnt afford a new one) but theres plenty of used down in Fla. Id do it all agai n in a heartbeat. The sea holds us close.

Most of those houseboats couldnt sail or motor around if thweir lives depended on it. I have a friend who lives on a houseboat in Seattle and its like a water shack in Bangkok. It was comfy and neatly appointed but it wasnt able to move at all. It was waay too topheavy

LOts of sailing opportunities in Albaturkey rog?

Yeah, I know. But he was a designer/artist in the SF area and lived there for fun.

Both my male cousin and my female x-business partner were yacht club commodores, both involved in various races, solo or with a crew. It is possible to hear too much about all that.

It sounds like fun; I 'd be willing to consider it.





David

I would like to live on a boat, but I would not like to live in a harbour area nor more or less alone in a marine area.
Scandinavian winters are not really for boatliving, but I often thought about how nice it would be to sleep on the ocean.

No, I wouldn't live on a boat unless it had a garden.

I haven't even been on a cruise because I enjoy walking too much.
I love to swim and be IN the water; even when I do go out on boats, I'm usually thinking about when I'll get to jump in, but I have no desire to live on top of the water for any amount of time.
I like walking and gardening and exploring landscapes.

The several hundred miles where we would actually sleep "on the ocean" is a pain in the ass because of using drag anchors and someone needs to be up and keep an eye out on the horizon and especially on the radar . You cant be complacent about sea lanes. SHips dont give a **** about their routes especially in a heavily traveresed area like NE North AMerica. Lots of ship traffic gets "funneled" into Newfoundland, Nova SCotia , Fundy (St JOHN), Gulf of MAine (lots of wood pulp ports), MAss. We keep severa;l transponders on masts when we are out at sea. They look like bigass out riggers with metal christmas tree ornaments but they can save your ass when a ship can "See" you on its radar. Weve only had two close calls and both were my stupidity for not keeping closer to an actual shore when it was available as a point of refuge.
Another time I chugged too close to a big ships wake and the bubbles from the wake cause the water to lose bouyancy. We were, for a very brieffew seconds, sinking. Water was going over the gunwales and we were getting ready to unleash the zodiac. The boat just "Popped up" as the bubble wake dissipated. NEVER again did I think that it was possible to "Jump" a ships "white" wake. Now I avoid any ships wake by at least a half mile or so.

I think I could do it, but I have a ten year old here every other weekend.

Where would you go in a hurricane?

If the boat seemed sturdy (unsinkable in moderate to relative stormy weather) and moored to a pier AKA easily escapable to land without a lifeboat or having to swim to shore when abandoning the boat because I can't swim then I could live in a small boat. Of course electricity would be necessary.

Oh... and the rent must be really cheap as well.

There are two kinds f people who live on boats.

1Those who are into the BOAT
and

2Those who are interested in WHERE the boat can take you.

Ill have nothing to do with the former. We call em port parrots. These are the folks who walk around like Jimmy Buffet and hang around the docks and the town relaying tales of OTHERS adventures.

a canal boat in the English countryside, in a heartbeat if it were possible

When I said sleep on the ocean - I really meant in a harbour not out on the ocean on my own. You describe it so correctly - I know what it is like I live next to the ocean.

Thank you Farmerman.

It will be at least another year or so then I’ll put my house on the market and start looking for a nice boat. Nothing smaller then sixty footer.

True the cost of upkeep on a boat can get expense but with a home you also have upkeep, higher property taxes etc.

well, good luck to you and Im jealous as hell cause right now we dont have any boat.
Course' youre looking for a sailboat , plannig to take er round the world? Sixty footer is plenty roomy.

Youll need a partner though, I could never understand these kids who sail around the world alone. Im too much of a bullshiter and I need daily input .


Whenever wed take longer trips, I had a computer chess game and my wife also loves to play. Nothing like a quiet night with auto pilot on a fixed course, sittin in the pilot house with a cuppa tea and play some chess or listen to broadband. (Gotta keep all the instruments and VHf on sound off mode though, remember the shipping lanes).

Id suggest a breakin down the intercoastal and into the Gulf . Just keep a weather eye and watch for the druggies (hell theyre all over even in the Gulf of MAine)