Not being completely flippant, and I think a sailboat may be fun until the kids are a bit older.

But, getting out of the house is such a travail, that it seems like it may be easier to get a sailboat.

(The boomers are selling off a lot of beautiful yachts, right now.)

I would be going between Myrtle Beach and Charleston and Tampa.

Yes, but it didn’t have any windows…

Sailboat?
Take a look inside a sailboat. Kinda tight quarters. You're going to be really close to each other. All the time.

Ask those "Boomers" WHY they are selling off those boats!
There's a difference between "It's not what we thought it was going to be" and "It's getting too expensive"

But to answer your original question: No, I have never lived on a boat. However, one of my side-jobs was for TowBoat US. I spend a lot of my time in and out of marinas, and around boats. A good friend of mine spends his summers on his boat, but he's also the one I work for with TowBoat. His kids are older and out of the house, and the wife spends about 4 - 5 days a week (when the weather is nice) on the boat. Another friend of mine lived on his boat during the season, but he was single, no kids and docked his boat about 3/4 mile from his work. He loved every minute of it.

Yes,

It sucked. I lasted about a month, and then I made other arrangements.

30 foot Catalina type sailboat at the Redwood City Marina in the San Fancisco Bay. Late 80's

even though it was a sailboat, it smelled of diesel all the time. all your stuff smells like diesel.

No room. There is no way to store all your stuff

everything like groceries etc must be carried from you car, across the dock, onto the boat, and into the hatch.

Laundry is PAINFUL. you have to carry all of your stuff through the hatch, off the boat, across the dock and to your car and to the landry-mat

you don't really have a kitchen. so your diet goes to hell. yes, you have that SMALL fridge and the little stove, but it's not a real kitchen.

it's always dark inside the boat. sure you can hang out on the deck, but the inside is always dark and you can't really stand up.

when you want to sail the boat, you have to secure everything and put everything away which might move, which takes time.

maybe it was because it was the San Francisco bay but everything was always damp, even when the cabin was heated.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

No room. There is no way to store all your stuff

Oh, I forgot ^^^^^ THIS
Not a lot of storage room. You're going to live a "minimalist" life as long as you're on the boat.

Sometimes, you're going to want to use a real shower, toilet... try and get a slip on a dock close to one.

I have not.

My cousin lives near one of the Great Lakes. Him and his dog live aboard his boat all summer (i.e. 4 months) and lives in his house the rest of the year. The marina slips are all rentals. The marina is a party atmosphere, on weekends it's very crowded, on weekdays it's much less crowded, your neighbors are very close so much less privacy than a house, if your dog gets in a fight with another dog you risk getting kicked out of the marina (i.e. you're a renter not an owner), etc.

When he had a SO, she only spent weekends in the marina and brought her daughter. Pretty cramped on weekends with 3 people and a dog.

I have. It did get old, mostly because you have no storage room. You would need a 45' or larger boat if the kids were with you. However living on a boat while traveling in Mexico was great, really great.

quote:

Originally posted by CPD SIG:

Sometimes, you're going to want to use a real shower, toilet... try and get a slip on a dock close to one.

I forgot about that. The marina had a couple of showers, and if they were busy, you had to wait. Awful.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
The marina slips are all rentals. The marina is a party atmosphere, on weekends it's very crowded, on weekdays it's much less crowded, your neighbors are very close so much less privacy than a house, .....

Oh yes, marina people. How could I forget. In the worst case the other marina people start 'borrowing' your stuff. In the best case, they are quiet and leave you alone, if you are lucky.

Overall, the experience was like spending a month in a tent on a KOA campground, only worse.

My Father In Law did for a couple of years on Long Island. He had a 47 ft sailboat built in Taiwan. Lived on it full time, thru 2 winters (with a cover). He planned on sailing it to FL and living on it there.

The day finally came to leave. He had a very experienced guy as the Captain. They got as far as Cape May, NJ, when a storm came up and all their navigation equipment went out. They called the Coast Gaurd for help. They came right away, but by then
a fire had started in the battery compartment and he couldnt get it out. The 2 of them got onto a CG boat just in time to watch his sailboat go down! Along with all the important "things" in his life.

When he got to FL, he gave up boats and bought an airplane instead!

Does a US Navy ship count?

hehehehehehehheeee

Couldn't resist.

I never did, but everyone I know who tried, quit. Relatively quickly.

Best option, buy a condo with an attached boat slip. Boat can double as a guest room, but you still have a real kitchen, fridge, laundry, etc.

That way, when you want to go away for the weekend, you go down to the boat and leave. When you are home, you are home.

we don't live aboard, but we do spend 8+ long weekend at our houseboat. SIGNIFICANTLY more room than a sailboat (it's 50x14 - think RV on the water). We've talked about buying a newer houseboat when we retire and using that as a liveaboard when we don't have kids etc and can convert the whole thing to basically a 1 bedroom with the rest being living space.

I would never consider a sailboat being 6'2" with wide shoulders.

Our marinas up here do vary greatly - finding one with a nice bath house is essential. Our marina has 6 individual bathrooms (shower/toilet/sink) that I joke are nicer than the ones in my house. There has never been a line - even on the busiest holiday weekends (roughly 115 slips).

I did not live on one but spent a lot of time on a good-sized sailboat on Lake Erie. I am not generally prone to seasickness, but something about how the boat rode made me very sick and often kept me that way for an entire trip. Cramped, damp, and poorly equipped for anything more that an overnight trip. The only way I could live on a boat would if it was a full sized, fully equipped motor yacht. And if I recall, insuring the boat and any needed repairs were not cheap!

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Yes,

It sucked. I lasted about a month, and then I made other arrangements.

30 foot Catalina type sailboat at the Redwood City Marina in the San Fancisco Bay. Late 80's

even though it was a sailboat, it smelled of diesel all the time. all your stuff smells like diesel.

No room. There is no way to store all your stuff

everything like groceries etc must be carried from you car, across the dock, onto the boat, and into the hatch.

Laundry is PAINFUL. you have to carry all of your stuff through the hatch, off the boat, across the dock and to your car and to the landry-mat

you don't really have a kitchen. so your diet goes to hell. yes, you have that SMALL fridge and the little stove, but it's not a real kitchen.

it's always dark inside the boat. sure you can hang out on the deck, but the inside is always dark and you can't really stand up.

when you want to sail the boat, you have to secure everything and put everything away which might move, which takes time.

maybe it was because it was the San Francisco bay but everything was always damp, even when the cabin was heated.

THIS, sailboats are the worst as they're narrow and you're kind of in a cave. You also forgot mentioning a lot more noise, when it rains, when it's windy, boat wakes, etc. Powerboats can be a bit better, natural light, space for the length etc. BUT everything is a mission. I spend about 100-150 nights a year sleeping on yachts, I just spent 2 weeks on a 76' $4 million yacht and even then, I'd much rather a house.

Does a submarine count ???? just wondering from a confirmed landlocked person. ................................. drill sgt.

Boats are wonderful toys and a great way to spend the day a weekend of even a week on the water but beyond that it gets old quick unless maybe you're living on a super yacht. Owning a boat gets expensive quick and the bigger the boat the bigger the expenses of owning it. Slips can be hard to find and having your boat at a slip costs X number of dollars per month to keep your boar moored there. Then during the off season you have to pay someone to remove your boat from the water and keep it stored at the marina which costs money unless you have enough room in your driveway. Like anything else you have to pay insurance, registration, some states require you to get a license to operate the boat and as others have mentioned sail boats can be a bit cramped. I'd carefully weigh all the pros and cons before moving forward with any plan to live on a boat.

I did for 20 years. Sailboats and a trawler. Long ago. Back then it was inexpensive. Not so much anymore.

Oh yes! Boats, a hole in the water that you throw money in. Seriously almost in Connecticut until I discovered all of the expenses associated with the lifestyle in addition to the cost of the boat.

On the water? For 2 week vacations and long weekends at a single stretch.

I used to live on ours at dock pretty much all summer, then when I had our child, I started moving back-and-forth from our home.
She’s a powerboat with a fore cabin, aft cabin, and salon (for another full bed), with a full galley including microwave, stove and oven. Fore and aft heads and a 1 shower. Plenty of storage. Sounds fancy? It’s really not, she’s an oldie, but we have always enjoyed her.
That said, boats have a mustiness to them (at least ours does). I can always tell when something‘s been on the boat. If we’ve hit seriously rough weather, I’m happy to find safe harbor and get on shore. When the boating season is over (spring to fall), I’m happy to come home if we’ve had ample opportunity to use her. It’s a lot to keep moving your household back and forth, and I refuse to duplicate everything I have when I only live 20 minutes away from the dock. And naturally, you have to have extra cameras and secure your property because usually multiple people have access to the area, and unless you’re in a private club (and even then), you don’t know them all.

Where I live, I would not try to live on a sailboat. The weather is too quick to be harsh here, and sailboats, as many have said, can be pretty dark down below.

The scenario you’re describing sounds like a potential problem during hurricane season if you want to travel back-and-forth by water. A number of people that I know like to “do the loop” as they call it, and I believe the last gentleman I knew to attempt it couldn’t get hurricane insurance for the timeframe he was traveling through that area. Iirc, he turned around and headed back up north.

If I had my druthers, and I wasn’t in a hurry to get somewhere, I would get a trawler. Nice and steady, plenty of room above deck and below, as well as room for kids to crawl in relative safety all over, and not much would push her around. IOW, get the yacht, not the sailboat.
Whatever you decide, good luck.

Just jumping in with the other bubbleheads here.