Living aboard

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itsonlymoney

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Would you ever consider living aboard ?

The following are hyperthetical questions and are assuming that you are retired / semi retired and financialy comfortable but not minted. Please answer realistically ie. boats and berths you could potentially afford not just aspire to.

(1) What would be the minimum size boat you would consider.
(2) What would be your ideal make / model of boat.
(3) Were would you berth assuming you were retired.
(4) Assuming you choose to berth abroad would you miss Britain (Yeh right)
(5) How much do you think you could manage on per year to sustain a comfortable but not lavish lifestyle ???????

Just a bit of fun
Ian
 
those are all questions I would like the answer to ! we are considering it for the future, looking at lots of places Morocco, Dave Snelson has said quite a bit about this, and sounds very very interesting. & then the usual places Greece, Croatia etc. What puts us both off a bit is that once people live aboard they don't seem to go anywhere anymore. Some seem go off boating alltogether.

Its noticable that those that have boats at the bottom of their gardens don't move
them, although that in the past didn't happen to me.
 
I reckon
(1) 15m or 50ft is about the minimum because you need the space but also the maximum because berthing rates tend to be much higher over 15m especially in Med
(2) Something semi displacement that was comfortable and seaworthy @ 8 knots and had at least 1000nm range but was also capable of 15knots for outrunning weather etc. Also had large master cabin, preferably amidships for max space but also reduce wave slap noise when at anchor overnight. Also need large saloon and separate pilot house with comfy helm seat for long passage. Not sure anything fits this bill exactly and stays under 15m
(3) Summer in Med, winter in Carribean if you could afford it but more likely summer in N Med, winter in Tunisia
(4) Yes I would miss Britain and I would returm for Xmas and the cricket Tests
(5) My stepdaughter and boyfriend recently sailed back from Oz to UK and they budgeted £600 per month but this was shoestring stuff. I've met another couple on a big motorsailor in Med living in style on £6000 per month so I guess somewhere in between, say £2 - 3000 per month for a modest but comfortable lifestyle on a motorboat?
 
Err.. we live aboard but not abroad. Love it and wish we'd done it ages ago.
Now sold both shore based dwelling units so somewhat committed. (or should be)
As regards cost, don't know but cetainly alot, lot less than a house but things do go wrong more often so need to budget for that.
Certainly take more notice of the seasons and enjoy them more.
We go out as often as we did when we lived in a house and the great thing is we don't have to go home after the weekend, see so many people trudging up the pontoon after a lovely weekend on the boat.
Saying all this I can see it would'nt be right for everyone as you have to be very compatible with your partner, be ruthless with possesions and accept that it is a different way of life.
 
An aft cabin Aquastar 48 would fit most of the criteria you outline. The perfect boat for me to live aboard would be the Aquastar 65 shown in the latest MBY, the seaworthiness of a semi displacement with a keel and stabilisers, masses of space inside and out, over 20 knots when you need it, and a lovely modern but comfortable internal layout. Whoops, forgot the bit about it having to be affordable.
 
I agree with you about the Aquastar 48 hull as meeting the criteria but I'm not sure about the aft cabin arrangement not because I dont like aft cabins because I do but because it makes the aft cockpit above less useable. If I'm spending my time mooching about the Med, I'm going to be using the aft cockpit a lot so it's better to have the aft cockpit on the same level as the saloon and equally importantly not too far or too many steps from the galley
In fact if you're living on board I guess the galley becomes important so I guess its better if the boat has a galley up arrangement close to where you normally eat
An Aquastar 65 might do the trick as you suggest but you'd probably need a civil service index linked pension to afford to keep one of those in retirement
 
The majority was sold, given away or junked when we moved onboard. There is still some stored in various places, (in fact she has just given up her studio and is going to use a room in the pub as a studio).
We do have a small shed ashore and a box on the pontoon which fits in the cockpit if we are away for any length of time, but on the whole the stuff important to us is onboard, after all it is our home.
 
Thanks. I asked because we have toyed with the idea of doing what you have done, but wonder what to do with things like bicycles/tandem and other toys. I also think we would need a small place ashore to be able to "escape" to on occasion.
 
since no 1 son moved into my emergency abode (garden shed) over a year ago I have been gradually increasing the boat's capability to 'sustain life'!

I have to agree with Arthur that I would be looking to retain a significant shed/workshop/storage area in the vicinity of the boats 'normal home' - I could never afford the boat Nordhavn 47?

47rendering_m.jpg



that enabled me to carry (and use) it all onboard and still have room to live.
 
Its surprising really, we went from a four bedroom town house to a forty foot boat! Looking back we did'nt use the majority of the rooms at all and don't miss noisy neighbours, car alarms, loud music and car door slamming. While now we can have our music up as loud as we like, have parties for as long as we like (unless we are in a different marina) and the freedom to move whenever we want.
I thought that the winters would be hard and we moved onboard in winter to see if we could cope, which we did with a few glitches. Its a nice time of year as the river traffic virtually stops and you sort of get it back to yourselves. The downside being icey pontoons, frozen water supply and the electricity supply creaking through high demand.
We are on the river, not sure what it would be like in an enclosed marina though, and enjoy all the various wildlife from Herons to all forms of wildfowl.
Sorry for the ramble!
 
Art hur,

would you stay in Florida if you did move aboard? I was thinking about hurricane damage to home and possessions? Maybe just as safe as a house near sea, but somehow I'd think that house and posessions more likely to survive a big blow than a boat?
 
um, yes i wd live on board. I am swayed a lot by stingo who says you need a cat if you want to stay at anchor anywhere yet stil have ocean-going capabilities. I wd hold on to a foothold in UK and fly back here and there and i'd want to go places, esp somewhere warm like carib in winter, really. I think the money depends a huge lot on where you are, the outside temperature but Deleted User's 2-3k a month sounds comfy enough. Probly 3k with bits and pieces, mebbe more with flights etc.
 
I am about do do it! Leave next Spring - France, Spain Med etc.
46ft - Steel Aft cabin - Up top Galley ( who wants to live in a kitchen ) so saloon is all for living. 10/12 knots full displacement. In view of future fuel costs just a single engine.
 
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