phil5764
New member
Totally.
Yacht or house??
- Thread starter phil5764
- Start date
jrudge
Well-known member
If you are new to this I think this is a non starter.
I have a 60 ft motor boat in the med. it is lovely etc but at the end of the day it’s a boat and whilst I live on it for 3-4-5 week continuous periods in the summer and spend I guess 15 weeks a year there living on it would in my view not be that pleasant. Even in the med the winter weather can be miserable and the place is quiet.
A 40 foot sailing boat in a U.K. marina I would think is total misery. Sailing boats are a different shape and have less usable area and the U.K. winter is miserable. A similar boat in the med ? Not my idea of fun but the weather whilst not amazing for the winter is tolerable.
Get some time on boats and answer you own question that way. Everyone has different views and these are only mine but you will find you own tolerance.
A boat with a washer dryer would make a big difference !
I have a 60 ft motor boat in the med. it is lovely etc but at the end of the day it’s a boat and whilst I live on it for 3-4-5 week continuous periods in the summer and spend I guess 15 weeks a year there living on it would in my view not be that pleasant. Even in the med the winter weather can be miserable and the place is quiet.
A 40 foot sailing boat in a U.K. marina I would think is total misery. Sailing boats are a different shape and have less usable area and the U.K. winter is miserable. A similar boat in the med ? Not my idea of fun but the weather whilst not amazing for the winter is tolerable.
Get some time on boats and answer you own question that way. Everyone has different views and these are only mine but you will find you own tolerance.
A boat with a washer dryer would make a big difference !
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Sea Devil
Well-known member
Very sound advice I think - boats are tearing up 50 pound notes standing under a cold shower. Very cramped to live in for more than a few years... Its not the capital cost of buying the boat that gets to you it´s the marina fees, haul outs, maintenance and the inevitable decrease in re-sale value.
Big difference between sailing for a few years on a circumnavigation in a boat and living in the winter damp in cramped conditions in a wet cold UK marina
PlanB
Well-known member
A few random thoughts.
We lived happily for 12 years on a 45 ft fly in the western Med when we retired - odd bout of bad weather not a problem. Before we left, we spent half the week on the boat for three years in a Kent marina - and if the weather was bad we stayed at home. Having to walk through rain in January to the showers was not fun. Getting dressed in work clothes (and keeping them tidy) was a pain. Having no land/dry storage would have made life difficult.
Ill health meant selling the boat and returning to dry land/UK. Not having a foothold in the UK property market might have made this impossible.
Rent from our UK property paid a large part of our living expenses.
As other have said - you really need to experience the ups and downs before you jump.
We lived happily for 12 years on a 45 ft fly in the western Med when we retired - odd bout of bad weather not a problem. Before we left, we spent half the week on the boat for three years in a Kent marina - and if the weather was bad we stayed at home. Having to walk through rain in January to the showers was not fun. Getting dressed in work clothes (and keeping them tidy) was a pain. Having no land/dry storage would have made life difficult.
Ill health meant selling the boat and returning to dry land/UK. Not having a foothold in the UK property market might have made this impossible.
Rent from our UK property paid a large part of our living expenses.
As other have said - you really need to experience the ups and downs before you jump.
Rocksteadee
Active member
,
Sums it up
Sums it up
Rocksteadee
Active member
So if looking for a house visit letting agents as well. The idea being to buy a house that is also imminently rentable. So that after you are done with living in the house, rent it giving you an income but still keeping the property should you need to move back.....
Better still buy a house boat
Better still buy a house boat
maby
Well-known member
Hmmm, not so sure about that! A while ago my son did look speculatively at some house boats - as a theoretically cheaper alternative to a house. The trouble is that you almost always are just buying the boat, not the mooring that it is hanging on - that is on a lease and with little, or no, security of tenure. It is all too easy to find yourself with a house boat and nowhere to tie it up.
Rocksteadee
Active member
That is true. Any mortgage state that the value is in the mooring not the boat.
My comment to buy a house boat was tongue in cheek
steveej
Member
House prices over the long term will go up. Second hand boat prices go down. You should buy the house first otherwise it will be even more of a struggle to get on the market years down the line. You can buy a small 1980's cheap boat for a couple of grand, learn how to fix everything and make all your maintenance mistakes on that. Doing a few sailing courses does not prepare you for what ownership actually entails so don't get carried away with a dream that bears no resemblance to reality.
A larger boat is exponential in terms of costs and it is not just the purchase price. It is the cost of immediate refit to bring the boat up to standard, the cost of routine maintenance, the cost of wear and tear replacement for things that break. Finally there is the cost of parking it! Ownership over say 5 - 10 years, the purchase price is only a small fraction of the overall costs for most people.
10 years down the line it might be a different story with equity in the house and a lot more experience of what owning a boat actually entails and at that point a remortgage to release equity to buy a bigger newer boat and taking off to live the dream for a couple of years while you rent out the house to generate some income would be far more realistic. At least this way you will have a much better idea of what you are getting yourself into when looking at bigger more expensive boats. I would suggest heading somewhere warm and cheap as living year round in a UK marina would not be my cup of tea as once the novelty wears off you are just left with living in a cramped and damp environment where simple life chores are just more difficult than what they need to be. The only people I really see doing this are retired males living by themselves.
Buying a large liveaboard boat now is I think a recipe for disaster years down the line. Boats are slowly depreciating assets whilst at the same time being considerably expensive to run. You will just end up with broken dreams, potentially a knackered old boat that is worth less than you paid for it. Bankrupted by yard fees. No house and no realistic way of getting one. Sorry to be so bleak but the reality is very different from the dream and I have seen a lot of broken dreams.
A larger boat is exponential in terms of costs and it is not just the purchase price. It is the cost of immediate refit to bring the boat up to standard, the cost of routine maintenance, the cost of wear and tear replacement for things that break. Finally there is the cost of parking it! Ownership over say 5 - 10 years, the purchase price is only a small fraction of the overall costs for most people.
10 years down the line it might be a different story with equity in the house and a lot more experience of what owning a boat actually entails and at that point a remortgage to release equity to buy a bigger newer boat and taking off to live the dream for a couple of years while you rent out the house to generate some income would be far more realistic. At least this way you will have a much better idea of what you are getting yourself into when looking at bigger more expensive boats. I would suggest heading somewhere warm and cheap as living year round in a UK marina would not be my cup of tea as once the novelty wears off you are just left with living in a cramped and damp environment where simple life chores are just more difficult than what they need to be. The only people I really see doing this are retired males living by themselves.
Buying a large liveaboard boat now is I think a recipe for disaster years down the line. Boats are slowly depreciating assets whilst at the same time being considerably expensive to run. You will just end up with broken dreams, potentially a knackered old boat that is worth less than you paid for it. Bankrupted by yard fees. No house and no realistic way of getting one. Sorry to be so bleak but the reality is very different from the dream and I have seen a lot of broken dreams.
maby
Well-known member
While I certainly would not disagree with the warnings about the risks of jumping into liveaboard with your eyes closed, I do think that some contributors to this thread are excessively negative about winter residence in a UK marina. We have spent long periods aboard in the south of England in the depths of winter and we have friends who are permanent liveaboard. A modern 40-odd foot cruiser can be a very comfortable home all the year round provided you have it well set up and are prepared to pay the cost of heating it properly and running a dehumidifier most of the time. That cost is not small - boats are not well insulated and they lose heat rapidly. We spent most of last winter on our 42 foot Bavaria moored in a south coast marina - and we got through a lot of diesel in the Webasto plus a lot of electricity in the Meaco dehumidifier, but we were never cold and the boat was never damp.
Having to hike down the pontoon to the facility block can be a pain, but that can be minimised by selecting a well equipped marina where you can get a berth close to the facilities. I have to admit that, in the middle of the winter, I usually shower on the boat - there are so few people around that a few squirts of shampoo and shower gel getting into the water seems to be permissible.
Having to hike down the pontoon to the facility block can be a pain, but that can be minimised by selecting a well equipped marina where you can get a berth close to the facilities. I have to admit that, in the middle of the winter, I usually shower on the boat - there are so few people around that a few squirts of shampoo and shower gel getting into the water seems to be permissible.
