Reality of Selling up and Living Aboard as a Family

[Serious_Dreamer]

I am looking into the reality (pros and cons) of selling up the Bricks and Mortar, to buy a sailing yacht to live on with my wife and 2 children, staying in the UK until the children finish school whilst continuing to work and save, and then looking to do some worldwide cruising before we are too far past our sell by date.

Reading some of the threads I appear to be lucky in the fact that my wife is fully on board with this idea, in fact she is almost as keen on it as I am, and as a bonus the children are also quite keen too.

We've booked on for Competent Crew early this year, and will be looking at Day Skipper shortly thereafter, and will probably be looking to join a local sailing club and offering our crewing services to gain more experience as well.

Its a bit early for buying, but we have of course been looking at yachts and dreaming, we'd need the 3 cabin layout, and prefer the look of the larger forward berth and the U shape galley on something like the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45, would this be ok as a liveaboard?

A couple of questions if I may:

Are there any families that have done, or are in the process of doing this, can you share any pertinent experiences (both good and bad) that I may have not considered?


For school continuity purposes, we would be looking at either Weymouth or Portland marinas, does anyone happen to currently liveaboard at either of these that would be happy to PM me about their experiences at all?

Thanks in advance

 

[Sea Change]

Welcome aboard.
We've been living aboard as a family for just shy of four years now, minus a six month break when we went home last summer.
Our way of doing it is very different to yours but I'm happy to try to answer any questions about it.
We bought an older, cheaper boat, and didn't sell the house.
We home school our son.
And crucially, we move around. In the first year we went from Scotland to the Algarve, then on to the Balearics. The next year we crossed to the Caribbean, where we've been ever since.

Personally, I don't see the point of living on a boat, in a marina, in the UK, whilst holding down jobs and sending the kids off to school. I'm sure it could be fun of course, in the right marina in the right town. But everything on a boat is harder work than it is in a house. A UK winter on a boat has the potential to be a miserable battle against condensation and cold. Thanks in part to the condensation problem, you'll probably find it's easier to have showers in the facilities block. And you'll probably have to go there for the loo anyway sure to rules about not pumping out in the marina. That gets old really quickly.

I would be a bit more ambitious and actually use the boat to get out of the UK to warmer climes, where you can swim off the boat and experience new places. There are hundreds of families out there doing it and it's never been easier to arrange meetups, thanks to WhatsApp groups and apps like No Foreign Land.

Any questions, just ask away

 

[PlanB]

My partner and I (retired, no children) lived aboard for 12 years, but in Spain (pre Brexit)..
It was a wonderful life.
However, we did not sell up to buy the boat, but kept the house. Initially, it was so that we had a UK address for things like banks etc. Ultimately, we needed to come back to the UK (Brexit, serious illness).
Others will be along to point out pitfalls other than the winters, mentioned above.
Make sure that the children (if old enough) get the pre-decision experience as well - it can seem like a novelty for a sunny day or so, but wind, cold and rain can make things look different.
For starters, it is extremely difficult these days to find a UK marina where you can live aboard legitimately.
Then, when you are ready to go, you will face the 90/180 Brexit rule all the while you are in Schengen.
Good luck with the exploration.

 

[LittleSister]

I think it's a completely mad idea - dreamworld thinking - for the reasons already stated and more.

- Living aboard in the UK while trying to maintain a 'normal' lifestyle will be inconvenient, uncomfortable, insecure and shockingly expensive, and will curtail the lives of your kids as well as yourselves.
- It is likely to increase and add tensions between family members, regardless of whether your wife and kids are currently afflicted with the same delusions. These are likely to evaporate fast on contact with the reality.
- Never mind worrying about which boat, can you find somewhere you will be permitted to live aboard, and if so how convenient is it for jobs and schools and social life? (You will still be liable for Council Tax etc.)
- You will have no security of tenure, and could find yourself required to move with nowhere to move to, or at best over a barrel financially, if circumstances (e.g. change or ownership or owner's preferences, problems with other live-aboards).
- You will be completely dependent on third parties for e.g electricity, internet connectivity (unless you go satellite, and note wifi and mobile signals in marinas are often very poor), shoreside toilet/bathroom/pump out facilities. Dealing with supply interruptions and any upgrades will be at the convenience and timescale of someone else.
- The value of your boat will go down especially fast while living aboard, while the value of bricks and mortar will almost certainly go up, and faster than inflation, and that can hit you hard when you come to try to re-enter the housing market. You could be locked out of ownership or have to radically downsize/downmarket.

I am all for people embarking on adventures, but I just don't see what the upsides of this particular plan could possibly be.

 

[john_morris_uk]

It’s the liveaboard until the children finish school part that doesn’t make sense. (It might be appealing until you’ve tried it for a few months!)

We live board half the year and come home to our house in the ILUK for half the year. IT WORKS VERY WELL FOR US, BUT THEN EVERYONE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE DIFFERENT.

My wife was a teacher and then a headteacher and can be quite sceptical about homeschooling. She’s seen the worst of it although she knows that occasionally it does work okay. It’s not the panacea that some people claim, and for all the claimed benefits the children still miss out on many things.

Taking a year or two out to go on an extended Ocean cruise is another matter and we know that works very well for a lot of people.

I would be thinking very very carefully before leaving the UK housing market.

 

[mattonthesea]

Living on a yacht on the summer/warm places where you can swim off the back to wake up and row ashore in shirt and shorts is a wonderful life.

Living on one when it's cold and damp and the wind is howling through the rigging, you can't open the splash boards, and you need to brave the weather for the loo - misery?

When the kids can run from boat to boat with their newly acquired friends, when they can scamper around the rigging, when five year olds can sail a tender or take the dinghy and outboard on their own; when they learn to take sites, when they do a three point fix, when they calculate ETA; then that's an education . No, not the same as school, but if you can integrate all/most of the types of intelligence for them then they will be life long learners.

Of course you still get miserable weather anywhere

 

[Sea Change]

Living on a yacht on the summer/warm places where you can swim off the back to wake up and row ashore in shirt and shorts is a wonderful life.

Living on one when it's cold and damp and the wind is howling through the rigging, you can't open the splash boards, and you need to brave the weather for the loo - misery?

When the kids can run from boat to boat with their newly acquired friends, when they can scamper around the rigging, when five year olds can sail a tender or take the dinghy and outboard on their own; when they learn to take sites, when they do a three point fix, when they calculate ETA; then that's an education . No, not the same as school, but if you can integrate all/most of the types of intelligence for them then they will be life long learners.blue

Of course you still get miserable weather anywhere

Nice summary.
We treated our initial phase of boat life as a delivery trip. Once we reached the Algarve we could alternate between anchorage and €8/night marina berth, with a bakery within cycling distance, other kid boats in the marina, blue skies every morning. It's not a bad life.

 

[littledancersadhu]

I have lived on my 25 foot sailboat on and off for years, in a marina and in the mud, no electric,running water etc,and had my young kids stay on week ends.

Everything takes around 3 times as long and is tiring, you are all ways thinking and planning, clean clothes etc shower towels parking!

In the summer it is fabulous, winter is complete different ball game as people above are explaining.

I would keep the house and do a winter first to see the reality 1st hand.!!!

Anything is doable though when you want it.!!

 

[Seashoreman]

Might be worth reading: Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood. Published by William Collins.
A childhood memoir of a decade living aboard with her family on a voyage around the world.
Can be a little troubling at times but quite realistic.

 

[ylop]

I am looking into the reality (pros and cons) of selling up the Bricks and Mortar, to buy a sailing yacht to live on with my wife and 2 children, staying in the UK until the children finish school whilst continuing to work and save, and then looking to do some worldwide cruising before we are too far past our sell by date.

What age children? How do you plan to manage schooling whilst living on a boat?

Reading some of the threads I appear to be lucky in the fact that my wife is fully on board with this idea, in fact she is almost as keen on it as I am, and as a bonus the children are also quite keen too.

Quite keen…

We've booked on for Competent Crew early this year, and will be looking at Day Skipper shortly thereafter, and will probably be looking to join a local sailing club and offering our crewing services to gain more experience as well.

Oooh, so you’ve not even done Comp Crew and are convinced you will love both sailing and living in a confined space enough to think selling up and living aboard is the way forward…

For school continuity purposes, we would be looking at either Weymouth or Portland marinas, does anyone happen to currently liveaboard at either of these that would be happy to PM me about their experiences at all?

Thanks in advance

I don’t see that living aboard in a south coast marina even just during school term makes sense. It sounds like the worst of all worlds.

 

[Sea Change]

What age children? How do you plan to manage schooling whilst living on a boat?

They already said the children will continue on their current schools.

Home schooling isn't that hard if you go in to it with the understanding that it's a part time job that involves several hours each day of planning and delivery. You don't just buy a package and chuck it at the kids.

After spending his first three years of school on the boat, we enrolled our 7yr old at the village primary when we were home for six months. There was a slight adjustment for him, dealing with background noise and disruption etc, but academically he was way ahead, almost embarrassingly so.

Mind you, I did in a previous life train as a primary teacher, and we have a 2:1 adult to child ratio, so there was no excuse for letting him fall behind!

 

[Sea Change]

Might be worth reading: Wavewalker by Suzanne Heywood. Published by William Collins.
A childhood memoir of a decade living aboard with her family on a voyage around the world.
Can be a little troubling at times but quite realistic.

That's a pretty extreme and unrepresentative account. The families we meet are generally very happy, despite the challenges of boat life.
The Heywoods were trying to run a business from the boat, and were sailing somewhat off the beaten track. Not a recipe for success.

 

[ylop]

Home schooling isn't that hard if you go in to it with the understanding that it's a part time job that involves several hours each day of planning and delivery. You don't just buy a package and chuck it at the kids.

I think there are pro’s and con’s of home schooling - but they said throughout school, and I think home schooling all the way through to 18 would be especially challenging.

Mind you, I did in a previous life train as a primary teacher, and we have a 2:1 adult to child ratio, so there was no excuse for letting him fall behind!

yes your professional training may have given you an advantage! You still decided for one reason or another to revert to traditional schooling, could you ever see yourself trying to teach A-level content or even GCSE content across a broad subject base to a family member whilst living aboard? Since the “plan” was live aboard with the kids in the U.K. till out of school then go travelling I was questioning if they had really thought that through.

 

[Sea Change]

I think there are pro’s and con’s of home schooling - but they said throughout school, and I think home schooling all the way through to 18 would be especially challenging.

It's not that uncommon. It needs parents willing to treat it as a serious job. See e.g. Sailing Totem.

yes your professional training may have given you an advantage! You still decided for one reason or another to revert to traditional schooling,

When we were back home last summer, we lost the rental income from our house because we were living in it ourselves. So we had to get jobs. So home school was no longer an option.
Our son enjoyed being in normal school, but we're lucky that the school is small and friendly with zero bullying.
Having been on the inside with the education system, there are pros and cons either way. For example, there is little educational benefit to cooping young kids up for six hours a day, they have at best two hours of productive capacity. The rest of the time is mostly there as childcare. I'm oversimplifying a bit, but ask any primary teacher how much concentration they can get out of the kids job the afternoon.

could you ever see yourself trying to teach A-level content or even GCSE content across a broad subject base to a family member whilst living aboard?

I would consider it. Only if circumstances allowed me to dedicate the necessary time and resources to it. No way would I do it alongside a job, or too many boat projects, or 'adventurous' cruising e.g. high latitudes or otherwise off the beaten track.

Since the “plan” was live aboard with the kids in the U.K. till out of school then go travelling I was questioning if they had really thought that through.

Yes, I think it's the wrong way round. I'd rather go cruising with kids aged 4-10 than teenagers.

 

[Graham376]

Nice summary.
We treated our initial phase of boat life as a delivery trip. Once we reached the Algarve we could alternate between anchorage and €8/night marina berth, with a bakery within cycling distance, other kid boats in the marina, blue skies every morning. It's not a bad life.

€8/night marina on the Algarve, which one? We're mooring based but last time we used Algarve marinas, 38ft boat was about €46/night in summer season. Spain a bit cheaper.

 

[Sea Change]

€8/night marina on the Algarve, which one? We're mooring based but last time we used Algarve marinas, 38ft boat was about €46/night in summer season. Spain a bit cheaper.

That was Portimao, 2021-22

 

[Wansworth]

Years ago came across a family of three living aboard afloat in Falmouth the boat was about 30 loa..even now it seemed a sad setup with the daughter sort of trapped in her space .Came across a family of six the oldest children were about 12 .Itseemed to work as they were away from the UK. In voyaging mode,home schooling ,learning a foreign language even enrolling inthe local school.Its meant to be a adventure but if your living in a marina in the UK it sounds not one thing or another and the kids will be seen as different for o benifit

 

[st599]

If waiting until after school, presumably the kids will be adults?

How are you going to deal with 90/180? Presumably you'll either need to charge past the EU, or find a country with Visas covering the four of you?

 

[st599]

As for books, Jimmy, Doina and Ivan Cornell all have books about circumnavigating as a young family (twice) - so that's from the parents and the kids perspective.

Check out Cornell sailing for info.

 

[chris-s]

There is lots to be wary of. Perhaps start with buying a boat (not always a good thing in the first place) and sailing it for a season, coastal cruising, long weekends, holidays learning as you go and then see how you all feel I twelve months time. Good luck in whatever you choose.