Yacht or house??

[phil5764]

Hi everyone,
I'm after some advice from those who have experienced living aboard. I am 46 and find myself at a crossroads in life whereby I am paying £750 in rent for a two bed property in Devon. I have recently completed several sailing courses and my dream is to retire sailing abroad in about 8yrs. However I don't own a boat and am considering financing one now to live on in a marina at Plymouth. I have a partner and she has a 9ry old. My partner also sails. The dilemma I am in is whether to mortgage a house, which means I can't have the boat, or buy the boat and pay it off before I reach retirement. The type of boat I'm looking at will be something in the region on 38-40ft, no bigger. Hallberg Rassy, Moody, or Trident Warrior, something along those lines, that is sea worthy and safe and can be lived on.
Would appreciate your views. One thing is for sure I cannot do both as I have a limited deposit and the rest would be financed.
Thanks for any help
Phil

 

[Dantp]

Have you considered buying a house then renting it out when you leave on a boat, covering your mortgage and giving a small income?
It is also a safer place for your money. If this is unaffordable then in 8 years time you could sell the house and have more money to buy the boat.
(Doesn't help with sailing in the meantime)
We live living aboard and love it but it's much better when it's warm and dry. I'm not sure I would like to live on our boat for a UK winter while working, or only for a short period.
Hope that helps.

 

[phil5764]

That's really helpful, thank you for your reply. I think the problem is financing a mortgage and boat. Whether renting the house out or not, I don't think I'd have the credit available to borrow the extra but I had thought about it. Also considered the option of just putting it off, but I'm a life's to short kind of person and having seen friends/colleagues become poorly, I don't want to wait and then something happens. Not just that but I'd ideally like the next few years gaining experience and confidence knowing when I finish my work we can up and go with some degree of knowledge and confidence.

 

[Kelpie]

Is the question here- "can I live aboard in the UK for eight years whilst counting down the time until I retire and sail away?"

In which case the answer is of course yes, but the novelty might wear off. You'll want a reasonably spacious and ergonomic boat with no deck leaks and a good heater, and you'll want to berth it in a suitable place where you have good shore facilities (laundry, shower, parking) that allows liveaboards.

The actual choice of boat is pretty huge, and in comparison to buying a house, boats are much much cheaper.

Personally I don't think I would want to have seven UK winters afloat, especially if trying to persuade a partner and her child to get onboard with the big plan. But if it's the only way to make the numbers add up, and you want to do it, then it can be done.

Two questions:
- why eight years? Will you have a pension at that point?
- your partner's child will be 17. Are they coming with you, or are they going to be heading off to do their own thing, and if the latter are you certain that your partner is OK with sailing away and leaving their child to fend for themselves at that point?

 

[phil5764]

Thanks for the reply Kelpie, in answer to your questions, yes I can take my pension then, my partner's son will actually be 18 and he spends a lot of his time with his father, but the option of coming with us is there should he want to and if not he will stay with dad.

 

[laika]

Some realities...
- Consider what you're going to use for your "official" address, what that might mean for your partner's child's schooling and how frequently you can collect mail. The official address thing often impacts your ability to access services like libraries and doctors
- Consider where you'll put your stuff. Marina fees are less than rent but storage costs can be horrendous
- If you live on your boat, are you disciplined enough to keep it ready for sea at all times? Some are. We are not. Many's the time I've wanted to go sailing but my partner has a load of hard drives set up and says we can't go anywhere until the video transcoding finishes in N hours
- All your nice clothes will get ruined by mould in the winter
- The live aboard community probably has more than its fair share of alcoholics and colourful characters. I suppose it depends where you are and no-one has ever been anything but nice to me but altercations happen markedly more frequently than any land-based places I've lived. But then again maybe I just hear about more stuff going on. Will your partner think that's a good environment for a child? Round my way yes there are certainly plenty of kids on boats.
- Will your partner's child be ok with a 200m walk to the toilet every day for 8 years? If not be sure of the pump out costs, size of your holding tank and how often you'll be visiting the pumping station.

 

[25931]

Hi everyone,
I'm after some advice from those who have experienced living aboard. I am 46 and find myself at a crossroads in life whereby I am paying £750 in rent for a two bed property in Devon. I have recently completed several sailing courses and my dream is to retire sailing abroad in about 8yrs. However I don't own a boat and am considering financing one now to live on in a marina at Plymouth. I have a partner and she has a 9ry old. My partner also sails. The dilemma I am in is whether to mortgage a house, which means I can't have the boat, or buy the boat and pay it off before I reach retirement. The type of boat I'm looking at will be something in the region on 38-40ft, no bigger. Hallberg Rassy, Moody, or Trident Warrior, something along those lines, that is sea worthy and safe and can be lived on.
Would appreciate your views. One thing is for sure I cannot do both as I have a limited deposit and the rest would be financed.
Thanks for any help
Phil

Buy a house now and in 8 years time you shoule be able to sell, buy the same boat for half today's price and have the profit from the house in which you've lived comfortably. In the meantime join a local club where it´s likely that you'll probably find opportunities to, at least ,day-sail. Delivery skippers need un-paid crew whose return fare is paid for.

 

[FlyingGoose]

As most say buy the house first , house prices over the 8 years will give you equity , a boat will depreciate in value so living in Winter freezing and damp for 8 years as the boat falls in price , might drive you to nutty land
House . remortage if you can after 8 years put this to Boat and all savings you can do , and then get going and live your life , your only 46 begone when 54-55 you will be some of the youngest out there cruising the world , yup you can watch all those U tubers young and sailing , but the vast majority are retired .

I will be 50 when I get going still a spring chicken , got all my hair and still got all my teeth , must be doing something right

 

[phil5764]

Haha, well I've lost a few of mine sadly. Good advice from everyone.

 

[25931]

[

I will be 50 when I get going still a spring chicken , got all my hair and still got all my teeth , must be doing something right[/QUOTE]

I have children older thanyou and I still have all my hair (and its not even white yet) I put it down to good Alentejo red wine and sunshine.

 

[Graham376]

Hi everyone,
I'm after some advice from those who have experienced living aboard. I am 46 and find myself at a crossroads in life whereby I am paying £750 in rent for a two bed property in Devon. I have recently completed several sailing courses and my dream is to retire sailing abroad in about 8yrs. However I don't own a boat and am considering financing one now to live on in a marina at Plymouth.

My advice would be to buy a house, possibly one which you can spend a few years refurbishing and then sell on hopefully at a profit in a few years. Buying a boat seems fairly simple but updating and equipping for travelling will cost many thousands, on top of the purchase price. UK marina fees don't come cheap and many don't want liveaboards anyway. I retired at 53 and over the past 20 years have spent over £20k on the boat, which we live aboard 6 -8 months p.a. but not in cold UK winters and no marina fees except when visiting.

 

[maby]

There is no simple answer to this question - it is almost totally dependent on the characters of the proposed live-aboards. We are semi-liveaboard on a 42 foot sailing yacht and can happily spend long periods aboard. We have several friends who are 100% liveaboard with no land based residence at all - and have been living like that for many years. But we are in late middle age and not particularly active people - a 40 foot boat is small compared with the average flat, let alone a house, and might be a problem with one or more active children around.

Don't be put off by the prospect of spending English winters afloat - a reasonably modern 40 footer can be made very warm and comfortable with adequate heating and a decent dehumidifier. But boats are not particularly well insulated and you may be surprised at how much it costs to keep it warm and dry in the depths of the winter.

Do bear in mind that it will need annual maintenance which involved hauling it out of the water for several days during which time it will be difficult, if not impossible, to live aboard. Most boatyards have rules that ban you from living aboard with the boat out in a cradle and, even if you are prepared to ignore such rules, life on a large yacht hauled out of the water is difficult to say the least. Do you have family or friends that will let you move in for a few days while the boat is being cleaned and anti-fouled? On the same subject, you do, of course, have to be very careful with the boat if it is your home. Live-aboard friends of ours managed to damage the hull a few years ago to the point where it required an emergency lift out to avoid sinking and that was followed by a very disruptive repair. They had to abandon ship for nearly a month and had to call in a lot of favours in order to avoid having to sleep under the railway arches!

 

[phil5764]

I'd like to thank everyone for their advice and experiences. We are still undecided bit I think after reading all the posts, we are edging more towards some kind of property, which it seems is probably the responsible thing to do, albeit I find it hard to give the idea up atm. It probably wouldn't be so bad if there was active marina near me that I could get out with someone and crew for a few years, but despite posts in forums, I can't find anything.
Will keep mulling it over over the next few months and writing out the pros and cons.
Thanks to everyone again.

 

[maby]

I'd like to thank everyone for their advice and experiences. We are still undecided bit I think after reading all the posts, we are edging more towards some kind of property, which it seems is probably the responsible thing to do, albeit I find it hard to give the idea up atm. It probably wouldn't be so bad if there was active marina near me that I could get out with someone and crew for a few years, but despite posts in forums, I can't find anything.
Will keep mulling it over over the next few months and writing out the pros and cons.
Thanks to everyone again.

If you are a complete beginner who has never owned a boat before, you could do a lot worse than buy something small, old and very cheap and spend the next few years learning and understanding so that you don't make a very expensive mistake in eight or nine years. Our first boat was a thirty year old, eighteen foot pocket cruiser which we bought on eBay. That cost us the princely sum of £250 about ten years ago. It was in very tatty condition, but it floated and we had fun mucking about in it - even slept on board a couple of times! We spent a lot of time fixing her up - and learning a lot in the process. The result was that, when we decided to buy our first "serious" boat - i.e. one costing a significant number of thousands of pounds - we had a much better idea of what we wanted, understood our capabilities, and were more able to look at a boat and recognise issues that we would have to fix.

 

[C08]

If you are a complete beginner who has never owned a boat before, you could do a lot worse than buy something small, old and very cheap and spend the next few years learning and understanding so that you don't make a very expensive mistake in eight or nine years. Our first boat was a thirty year old, eighteen foot pocket cruiser which we bought on eBay. That cost us the princely sum of £250 about ten years ago. It was in very tatty condition, but it floated and we had fun mucking about in it - even slept on board a couple of times! We spent a lot of time fixing her up - and learning a lot in the process. The result was that, when we decided to buy our first "serious" boat - i.e. one costing a significant number of thousands of pounds - we had a much better idea of what we wanted, understood our capabilities, and were more able to look at a boat and recognise issues that we would have to fix.

I think this is very good advice. An old but seaworthy boat can be had for the price of a smart phone rental contract. Join a club, get to know other sailors and go sailing for pennies. Learn how to fix things and when you are ready for a bigger boat you will know about boats and what is a bargain rather than a folly.

 

[Tam Lin]

If you are a complete beginner who has never owned a boat before, you could do a lot worse than buy something small, old and very cheap and spend the next few years learning and understanding so that you don't make a very expensive mistake in eight or nine years. Our first boat was a thirty year old, eighteen foot pocket cruiser which we bought on eBay. That cost us the princely sum of £250 about ten years ago. It was in very tatty condition, but it floated and we had fun mucking about in it - even slept on board a couple of times! We spent a lot of time fixing her up - and learning a lot in the process. The result was that, when we decided to buy our first "serious" boat - i.e. one costing a significant number of thousands of pounds - we had a much better idea of what we wanted, understood our capabilities, and were more able to look at a boat and recognise issues that we would have to fix.

+1

 

[xyachtdave]

I'd like to thank everyone for their advice and experiences. We are still undecided bit I think after reading all the posts, we are edging more towards some kind of property, which it seems is probably the responsible thing to do, albeit I find it hard to give the idea up atm. It probably wouldn't be so bad if there was active marina near me that I could get out with someone and crew for a few years, but despite posts in forums, I can't find anything.
Will keep mulling it over over the next few months and writing out the pros and cons.
Thanks to everyone again.

As always some great advice from previous posters. Living on a boat in a UK marina and having a full time day job is not the same deal as just living aboard.

I've only done 6 months living aboard during a UK winter, there were some dark days getting 'home' from work and finding the power is off on the pontoon (again) and the water is still switched off at the marina due to frozen pipes.

There's lots of routes to success but I'd suggest keeping a small self contained property where you can lock the front door and leave for a few months, you'll keep a UK address for your banking, driving licence, doctors etc. Also when you need a break from living the dream (when the boat bites you on the arse with maintenance/breakages) you can have a pitstop on dry land.

Although lots of people do live under the radar in marinas, it's unlikely it's permitted in the marina rules. Our local marina is introducing a card system linked to you that operates the gates, showers etc, old hat now I know but the previous card wasn't registered to a person. Finding out you're there 7 days a week and shower a lot is now only click away, along with the evidence to prove you're in breach of contract.

If you do take the plunge, keep your head down, don't complain about anything, or hang washing out, or leave bikes etc on the pontoon, be nice to the staff and you'll probably be ok.

Good luck with finding crewing opportunities, join a local yacht club and be proactive.

 

[Freebee]

i lived aboard for two years including 2 winters in poole. i could not have done it without a store ashore for good clothes, belongings and tools. the boat took some wear and tear as a live aboard and soon became full of home comforts which added weight........ winters became time to employ as much heating as i could and were still cold spent under blankets and the ice on the pontoon and on the boat was treacherous.......would i do it again yes i would!!!!

 

[Paragon]

As someone living on a boat in Plymouth with similar aspirations, I would agree with most and say, buy the house, get the young lady to university age whilst enjoying the security and investment of a house whilst chartering and getting as much sailing as possible. By the time it's good to go you will be financially more secure and many boats that may seem out of reach today will be that much cheaper and attainable then.

Good luck whichever track you take!

John

 

[Rocksteadee]

A house don’t move right