Why is it that people think boat owners are rich?

[Nostrodamus]

Most people we have met whilst cruising live on a very tight budget and have far less disposable income than when they lived ashore and worked.

In our case we sold the house to buy a very nice boat but now live on one cornflake between four of us each week. OK, it might not be that bad but we do have to watch the money very closely as most cruisers do.

One of the questions that we are most asked is “How much does it cost a year” and we all know the answer to that which has something to do with the square root of air times the cosine of string.

Even people who knew us before think for some reason we have come into millions and we have even had people staying who ate and drank everything aboard without even buying a pack of biscuits in return (they won’t be invited back).

I should imagine there are very few liveaboards who don’t have to worry about money but the vast majority have tightened their belts so much they have the waist line of Jayne Russell.

Have you found the same or are we the only ones checking down the sofas for change?

 

[little_roundtop]

You're not alone

We liveaboard in the eastern Med and when moored to a town quay (something we generally try to avoid) it's clear the tourists think we're millionaires. The most common statement is "I wish we could do that" to which we always reply, "you can!".

I think most people cannot imagine leaving their "comfort zone" of house, car, job, etc. and so they assume (wrongly) that we must also still have all of those things back in the UK. And if we do AND we can afford to spend our lives on a boat then we must be millionaires.

When we tell them that the boat is the only thing in the world that we now own their eyes glaze over and they walk away. I'm sure they then think we're mad!

 

[Baggy]

Funny you should say that, because when I was a liveaboard, all the cruising sailors I met
seemed, and were.... considerably more richer than me.....doh

 

[Kimmo]

This reminds me of being in France last year and another boat owner there said to us when he heard our plans for one year cruise: "Oh, you must be rich".

To which I replied: "If we would be rich, don't you think we would have bought a bit bigger boat?" To that the man started to laugh and I guess he understood, that it can be done on a smaller budget too.

 

[Nostrodamus]

We were talking about the cost of a new sail. A couple close by who were obviously listening started to join in saying they wished they could do what we were doing but sails and the like were far to expensive. I equated it to buying new carpets for the house which they would do about the same time as I changed my sails.
Oh,if you look at it like that they said it's cheap.

 

[Wansworth]

Well in the grand scheme of the world people who can live on a boat without any visaible means of earning a living and spending their days in bars discussing esoteric fundermental questions about anchours et al are in the way of things manifestly bwtter off then say someone in Wigan who has been laid off from the local supermarket.

 

[Nostrodamus]

Well in the grand scheme of the world people who can live on a boat without any visaible means of earning a living and spending their days in bars discussing esoteric fundermental questions about anchours et al are in the way of things manifestly bwtter off then say someone in Wigan who has been laid off from the local supermarket.

Unless they think it is the perfect opportunity to take the redunancy and buy a boat?

 

[ukmctc]

Most people we have met whilst cruising live on a very tight budget and have far less disposable income than when they lived ashore and worked.

In our case we sold the house to buy a very nice boat but now live on one cornflake between four of us each week. OK, it might not be that bad but we do have to watch the money very closely as most cruisers do.

One of the questions that we are most asked is “How much does it cost a year” and we all know the answer to that which has something to do with the square root of air times the cosine of string.

Even people who knew us before think for some reason we have come into millions and we have even had people staying who ate and drank everything aboard without even buying a pack of biscuits in return (they won’t be invited back).

I should imagine there are very few liveaboards who don’t have to worry about money but the vast majority have tightened their belts so much they have the waist line of Jayne Russell.

Have you found the same or are we the only ones checking down the sofas for change?

Its a common thought, I never had the house to sell, I just bought a boat and moved aboard 'cos its cheap. I travel six months then stop and work six months or so.
Life aboard is cheap, and in general cheerfull.
Anyone can do it, it just btakes the courage to make the move and leave the trappings of shore life, you have to realise you don't need loads of money, you can live of £35-50 a week in comfort and you don't need junk and clutter.

 

[ukmctc]

Well in the grand scheme of the world people who can live on a boat without any visaible means of earning a living and spending their days in bars discussing esoteric fundermental questions about anchours et al are in the way of things manifestly bwtter off then say someone in Wigan who has been laid off from the local supermarket.

stay out of bars, find another job, save and get a boat.
money or not, life is what YOU make it.
I travel around, sailing, I work six months and sail six months, I have no qualifications and I'm now 52. Work in general is easy to find and I'm willing to work.

 

[Wansworth]

stay out of bars, find another job, save and get a boat.
money or not, life is what YOU make it.
I travel around, sailing, I work six months and sail six months, I have no qualifications and I'm now 52. Work in general is easy to find and I'm willing to work.

I have done my living aboard for a while but as I pointed out there are members of society who may consider a liveaboard well off.In you example I can possibley see that our disgruntaled unemployed could start to save to buy a yacht if he or she was single but in the worst case scenario he would be pushed to save much if he had a family with kids at school.

 

[nathanlee]

I have done my living aboard for a while but as I pointed out there are members of society who may consider a liveaboard well off.In you example I can possibley see that our disgruntaled unemployed could start to save to buy a yacht if he or she was single but in the worst case scenario he would be pushed to save much if he had a family with kids at school.

If a person has a pants job and dreams of getting out of it, I have sympathy for them.

If a person has a pants job and they've dreamed of getting out of it for the last five years, yet done nothing about it, I struggle to find any sympathy.

 

[Nostrodamus]

I have done my living aboard for a while but as I pointed out there are members of society who may consider a liveaboard well off.In you example I can possibley see that our disgruntaled unemployed could start to save to buy a yacht if he or she was single but in the worst case scenario he would be pushed to save much if he had a family with kids at school.

We took our kids out of school to go with us. They are far happier now.
For christmas they got a pack of coke and some chocolate rather than the pile they usually get. We were a bit upset at the time but tried not to show it.
Later in the day they said it was the best Christmas they had had and our year aboard had made everything worthwhile.
I will say no more

 

[cutofherjib]

The truth is compared to a lot of people, boat owners are rich.

 

[Nostrodamus]

The truth is compared to a lot of people, boat owners are rich.

I suppose you are correct to a certain extent but it all depends on how you define rich.
I know that financially I am not but in quality of life I am a millionaire.

 

[nathanlee]

The truth is compared to a lot of people, boat owners are rich.

I'm fairly rich, until I remember that I owe four times what I have in savings to the taxman. Then I realise I'm actually far worse off than your standard dole dosser. Bugger.

 

[Wansworth]

I suppose you are correct to a certain extent but it all depends on how you define rich.
I know that financially I am not but in quality of life I am a millionaire.

You have moved the goal posts.In quality of life you are rich in your eyes; in the eyes of an onlooker you may be considererd a souce of envy,as its somwthing they would like to do or you may be pitted as you are stuck on your old boat in the rain at the end of a slippey walkway whilst they look down from their flat overlooking the marina as they fiddle with their stamp collection!

 

[BobnLesley]

That's the crux of it...

...you don't need junk and clutter...

Millions of people in the UK and no doubt elsewhere, are working too hard/long to pay for things they don't need; even worse, there are a significant number doing the same, but to buy things that they don't even want! Only because, friend/neighbour/workmate/brother has one of whatever the latest widget is, they feel obliged to buy one too. Whilst I like to think that even when working, I wasn't too badly effected, I do recall the exact moment when being a Livaboard/Cruiser was brought home to me:

Just a few months before we cast off the lines in 2003, we went on a 2 week holiday in the Caribbean, because: 'It'd probably be the last time that we can afford it.' It was OK, but to be honest, just 'another holiday'. At the end of that summer's cruise, Lesley pointed out that our total expenditure for the five months afloat had been less than the cost of that two week holiday. Eight years later, we still have a thousand memories of that summer's cruise (not all good I accept) but I can't remember a damned thing about the holiday - I think it was in St Lucia, but it may well have been Antigua.

 

[rotrax]

You have moved the goal posts.In quality of life you are rich in your eyes; in the eyes of an onlooker you may be considererd a souce of envy,as its somwthing they would like to do or you may be pitted as you are stuck on your old boat in the rain at the end of a slippey walkway whilst they look down from their flat overlooking the marina as they fiddle with their stamp collection!

Many years ago, early seventies I was in our local pub, chatting to a potential sponsor for my Motorcycle Racing. One guy who was listening to the coversation and had taken account of the costs I was explaining to my potential backer butted in and said"You lucky B+*stard-where do you get that kind of money!" The coversation changed dramaticaly at this point. It was established that his income as a civil engineer was 50% higher than mine as a mechanic,and that he drank and smoked as much as my self funded racing cost me each month. In fact there was no luck involved at all. At the time I was dedicated to being a Motorcycle Racer and put all my effort and disposable income into it. I was only in the pub that night to try and get a liitle help so I could get better kit. I believe the moral is that you get out of life what you put in to it. Life is no rehersal-we have one go at it. Try to fulfill your ambitions, howerver modestly and at least you have given it a go. Sailing is our new passion and we are on the water as often as possible. It costs almost as much as Motorbike racing................

 

[whiteoaks7]

"No dear, I'm not rich BECAUSE I have a boat like this"

When I retired I had enough of a 'handshake' to buy a boat. So instead of putting money in the bank I converted this capital into Aderyn Glas. Now admittedly we are based in Greece where, at present, we pay little or nothing in harbour dues, marina fees and so on. This means that for the four months of the year, even though we keep the house in the UK going, we spend less per week on board than we do at home. Aderyn Glas is a nice yacht and hopefully will have a reasonable resale value should we ever tire of her (she's a Moody Eclipse). So if I take the difference in capital value between selling and buying (even allowing for the value of money changing) and divide by the number of months we will have lived on board I am bound to get a really cheap cost-of-living or holiday (depending on how you want to classify it) over that period.

Ironically, the people who often comment on our good fortune in owning a boat are the flotilla sailors we meet during the summer. Ironic because the cost of their two week holiday often exceeds the cost of keeping Aderyn Glas in Greece for the entire year. Okay - I accept they don;t get the odd shock when the oil cooler fails...

I do have a one liner which I use:
"You must be rich to have a boat like that," she said.
"No dear, I'm not rich BECAUSE I have a boat like this..."

I think I'll make it part of my forum signature...

 

[truscott]

When I met my wife, we both had a dream to sail around the world (we've both been sailing since we were kids) and so we hitched our wagons together and started working towards making it a reality.

Fueling that dream is one of the reasons I hang out on forums such as this.

Like many, we thought that the smart thing to do was invest in assets that would generate an income for when we eventually set off.

What we eventually ended up with is a bunch of millstones around our necks that have taken so much blood sweat and tears to acquire, that we are loathe to dispose of them and cast off (and that includes the bloody boat)!

We are the lesson in "How Not To Do It".

I am coming to believe it is fear of the unknown that binds us to this grindstone and have a sneaking suspicion that there are many like me, that dream of a life aboard, but eventually give up on it and settle for a life more ordinary.

Still hoping to move aboard one day though.

PT.