How many liveaboards are there?

[IanJackson]

I thought it would be interesting to conduct a little survey on how many liveaboards there are. Sometimes when we are cruising in the Med, there is not a boat in sight, well maybe a tanker or a cruise ship in the distance, but definitely no liveaboards. I know from this forum and the interesting and lively discussions that take place that there must be quite a number. I noticed one member (Binch) said he had been a liveaboard for 35 years – is this a record? This is just for fun and maybe some interesting facts will emerge about the liveaboard community. Here are a few questions I thought of, but feel free to ignore any questions or add any pearls of wisdom.

1. Boat Name
2. Make/model/age of boat
3. Number on board (adults/children/animals)
4. How long have you been a liveaboard?
5. Where have you been cruising in 2010?
6. Where are you overwintering?
7. What are your plans for 2011?
8. Any other comments on life, loves and the universe.


Jenny and Ian Jackson

 

[Tradewinds]

I noticed one member (Binch) said he had been a liveaboard for 35 years – is this a record?

I stand to be corrected but I think forum member Binch has an alter ego called Bill Cooper.

This man, along with his lovely wife Laurel, has been responsible for many of us making life-changing decisions.

 

[IanJackson]

1. Solent Clipper
2. 2002 Beneteau 36cc
3. 2 adults and a dog, Fran
4. May 2009
5. France, Spain, Gibraltar, Ceuta
6. Almerimar and UK
7. Cruising Corsica, Sardinia, Italy and beyond - perhaps
8. Love the liveaboard liftstyle but miss my family and friends - Jenny
Why is the wind always on the nose? - Ian

 

[charles_reed]

I thought it would be interesting to conduct a little survey on how many liveaboards there are. Sometimes when we are cruising in the Med, there is not a boat in sight, well maybe a tanker or a cruise ship in the distance, but definitely no liveaboards. I know from this forum and the interesting and lively discussions that take place that there must be quite a number. I noticed one member (Binch) said he had been a liveaboard for 35 years – is this a record? This is just for fun and maybe some interesting facts will emerge about the liveaboard community. Here are a few questions I thought of, but feel free to ignore any questions or add any pearls of wisdom.

1. Boat Name
2. Make/model/age of boat
3. Number on board (adults/children/animals)
4. How long have you been a liveaboard?
5. Where have you been cruising in 2010?
6. Where are you overwintering?
7. What are your plans for 2011?
8. Any other comments on life, loves and the universe.


Jenny and Ian Jackson

1. "Flica"
2. 1990 Parker 31
3. usually single-handed
4. not really liveaboard - only boat-based 5-8/12, since 2000
5. this year x2 round the Gulf of Corinth, x2 to Kriti and once round the island
6. Messolonghi and Waters Upton.
7. I'll let you know when we get there
8. It's my only grip on good health and sanity. Escape from quacks!!!
Interestingly, my annual mileage has dropped from 3200 when I was working to about 1650-1700 now I've time to do it. Perhaps the onset of maturity and wisdom?

 

[capnsensible]

Lived on our boat for 13 years. Its nice.

 

[Downsman]

Lived on our boat for 13 years. Its nice.

15 yrs... Where I am all the err liveaboards have gone ..err home..
Pssst! I reckon they've got houses..

 

[CMonster]

QUOTE=IanJackson;2692070]I thought it would be interesting to conduct a little survey on how many liveaboards there are.

Yes, there are lots and lots, more than I could have ever believed, and I think that is a very interesting survey, however, you will need to define liveaboard......to us, a liveaboard is a person/couple/family unit who have given up their base in the mother country and traded that for a full time life on board some sort of yacht (motor or sail or otherwise).
There are many who enjoy the delights of Mediterranean summer (perhaps excluding July/August cos it is too hot) and consider themselves liveaboard even though they go 'home' i.e to a land base for the winter, as well. We know a lot of these peeps and they would consider themselves liveaboards, but is that really the case or do they really just have a holiday home?

There is also a big difference between those that traded a mother country base for a foreign base and then decide to go nowhere, or nowhere very far, so they are basically mostly static in a foreign marina, usually Marmaris, or Ionian in the Med, using a yacht as a house in a foreign land.

And then there are the ' real liveaboard cruisers' with no particular base, those that roam and spend most of their live on board the boat, and do not have a comfortable residence to return to, or to store their non-essential possessions, when the going gets tough, or the weather a tad less tolerable.........

Let me sum it up. Some people liveaboard fulltime 24/7 12 months a year, and not just in a convenient marina base/caravan park, and there are those who choose to divide their time between a yacht and home. What proportion of that time do you consider liveaboard?

This year, for the first time, we are headed to Yat Marin, Marmaris, so we can travel elsewhere for 3 months in our winter.Normally we live afloat, aboard in a Med base and experience the local winter life, storms, etc. I estimate that the owners of more than 90% of yachts in our winter base, Yat Marin, are back in a comfy warm home, landbased environment, enjoying all the normal comforts of their mother country.
Perhaps you might gain more insight to your survey if you ask which months of the year, in general, these people are aboard their boats.

1. Boat Name Matador
2. Make/model/age of boat; Rival 41
3. Number on board (adults/children/animals);2
4. How long have you been a liveaboard?;4+ yrs
5. Where have you been cruising in 2010? Black Sea, Aegean, Turkey
6. Where are you overwintering?, Turkey
7. What are your plans for 2011?, W Med, Atlantic
8. Any other comments on life, loves and the universe.
Love it..... bring it on.......

 

[maxi77]

I suspect we do not really classify as liveaboards as we both have a real bricks and mortar home, and we have no plans to do this permanently but we have sailed from Scotland to the Algarve and are living on the boat and will be spending the majority of our time on the boat for some time, till we decide to do something else.

At the end of the day I care not whether I fit some ones definition or not, I am enjoying myself whilst I can and the money lasts

 

[mandlmaunder]

1. Manatee
2. Solaris Sunstar 36 cat 12 yrs
3. 1 adult and her husband
4. 7 yrs
5. Mexico,Cuba,Florida,Georgia,N&S Carolina,Virinia,Maryland,The Virgin Islands
6. The US Virgin Islands
7. more of the Caribbean
8. I don't care how long any one lives on a boat, it's the living on a boat that counts and if they are unlucky enough not to be able to live full time aboard any time is better than none.
I will even talk to folks who charter in the hopes that they to will catch the bug and make the change, it has worked a few times now!
Being a live aboard is a mind set but not all minds are set the same.
I have a friend named Kylie and she was born on a boat is older than Binch has been living on board but discretion being a gentlemans best defence forbids telling how old she is but she now lives on her own boat with her boyfriend and will continue to do so for some time to come

My wife misses a garden and a hot soak in a bath and long summer evenings.
Me, I miss my Arsenal season ticket, but that was a sacrifice I had to make to be this happy nearly all the time.

Mark
Coral Bay St John , USVI
If you look on google earth and check out Coral Bay you can see Manatee in the north west corner.

 

[Sy-Revolution]

1. Revolution.
2. Comar, Comet 11, '79
3. 2 Adults, 1 Child, 1 Dog.
4. 1.5 years. No house, just the boat.
5. Portugal, S. Spain, Balearics.
6. Monastir, Tunisia.
7. Greece Islands/Turkey.
8. We're glad we did it and left the UK. Had a great summer of long hot days. Problems we've encountered, 1. Not enough cruising kids, that we've met anyway. 2. Shouldn't have got a dog as you can't take the damn things on any form of public transport (except taxis here in Monastir), or on any beaches in the balearics (500 euro fine). Can't wait to cruise greece................................................................... and get the dog a new home!

C.

 

[Roaring Girl]

1. Roaring Girl
2. Maxi 120, 33 years old
3. 2 adults and occasional visitors.
4. We take it from June 2003 when we moved aboard, so 7.5 years
5. 2010 - Rome. Elba, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta
6. Malta and UK
7. Tunisia, Sicily, Calabria then Venice or Greece.
8. It is absolutely right that there are lots of definitions. We lived aboard full time in the UK, with no house for 3 years and then cruised the Med three years with no house, making trips to the UK to earn money, and then last year bought a house but still aim to spend 6+ months cruising. But not all cruisers have a pension so have to make money somehow and for us that has meant regular returns to the UK.

Whether you see a lot of liveaboards is also a function of where you are. We call it the sparrow's path - so when we wintered in Toulon, we were the only ones, but there were several in Rome, a few in Rota, and lots in Malta. We really noticed this year, leaving the Tuscan Islands and into Corsica and Cagliari that we saw more liveaboards/long summerers than we've seen for quite a while.

 

[Ariadne]

I answer to to C Monster, we live on board 24/7/365. No bricks and mortar anywhere, just own a hole in sea surrounded by GRP.

1. CAPE
2. Gitana 43, built Cape Town 1981
3. 2 adults, Bethany 12 & Bryn 11
4. 4 years in Feb'
5. Came from Gulf of Patras to the Rio Guardiana
6. Heading down the Moroccan Atlantic coast in about 2 weeks then on the Canaries.
7. Azores, Madeira, Selvagen islands , Canaries (again), Cape Verde, Senegal & Gambia; but subject to change.
8. Never met anybody who said "they wished they had left it later" yet. Great life and it only gets better.

 

[RAI]

Not yet a proper live-aboard

1. Boat Name : Jonathan-Livingston
2. Make/model/age of boat: Coronet Elvstrom 38 built 1977
3. Number on board (adults/children/animals): 1 when possible 2
4. How long have you been a liveaboard?: 6 months so far.
5. Where have you been cruising in 2010? From Brussels, now in Nazare, Portugal
6. Where are you overwintering?: On board - somewhere.
7. What are your plans for 2011? Into the Med and out again by July.
8. Any other comments on life, loves and the universe. Cutting the umbilical is not easy. I'm still figuring out how to live (legally) without an address.

I suppose that stresses the live-aboard definition a bit further - who manages with only the current marina, or a local post box, as an address?

 

[Downsman]

P.O Box numbers are not accepted by some Government Departments as home addresses. DVLC, Passport Office etc: I use a good mate's address and it's worked well for 15 years for pension, bank, driving licence etc:

Get yourself a junk address too. Mine's a derelict tobacconist's, the name over the door..licensed to sell..that's me.. The post code for that address you can get from the local library, my 'landline' telephone is the local Tesco Shop.

Some commercial concerns insist on those details when buying something, Screwfix, Pc World to name just two, then they put you in their data bases and you get rubbish. My rubbish goes to the derelict shop...not my mate.

The robots cannot accept that you live on a boat, they Must have the details "for our records Sir" it's easier to feed them if they want feeding..Don't fight the system..just bend it slightly..Good luck.

 

[fergie_mac66]

wonder if the tax man could use this info

 

[Downsman]

Doubt it...unless he wants a catalogue from Screwfix or 10% off at Boots the Chemist. Everything else he can get from my registered Uk address...

 

[KellysEye]

Kelly's Eye
De Vries Lentsch steel ketch 1980
Two
Six and a half years
Portugal back to UK
N/A
Growing vegetables

I agree with the definition of liveaboards - only those who move around and live on their boat 24 x365. Those who fly back for six months are called 'snowbirds'.

 

[RAI]

P.O Box numbers are not accepted ...

Thanks for the tip. I does raise the question as to which country it's best to borrow an address in, and hence which ensign to wear. Preferably one where there is no "luxury" tax on the boat and one which recognises one's existing qualifications to drive it. Low taxes and a generous health services come in handy too.

 

[Downsman]

Thanks for the tip. I does raise the question as to which country it's best to borrow an address in, and hence which ensign to wear. Preferably one where there is no "luxury" tax on the boat and one which recognises one's existing qualifications to drive it. Low taxes and a generous health services come in handy too.

Ah! Your circumstances must be different to mine. Choice of country, that's easy I'm English and proud to fly the Red Ensign, so luxury tax or qualifications don't affect me as they might you.
I'm on a service pension so my taxes are all properly paid up via my registered address. But the other address is for general use and to avoid the sales vultures who obtain personal details and insist on trying to sell me double glazing..with a free green house..for a 10 metre sloop..

 

[blueglass]

for the record we spend april - October on board (inc july /august - just swim more if we get hot) and home for winter therefore per say we do NOT think of ourselves as liveaboards,
but I have to say a certain smugness is creeping into the thread from proper, real, genuine,authentic, dyed in the wool, certified salty seadog liveaboards. We all choose our own lifestyles and have no right to regard ourselves as superior to others who have chosen differently.Why get hung up on pigeonholes? I regard my split time between Med and UK as perfect. I have it both ways and therefore miss nothing - I have no desire whatever to go liveaboard - thats my choice. I don't feel superior to folks who only use their boat for short holidays or indeed inferior to livaboards.