And as much as I appreciate those who have service our country I don't mean the Navy

Several weeks ago the Youtube algorithms showed me a video of a young guy who has bought boats that needed repair, fixed them up and in the summer he sails them to Florida from the north east. His channel is called Intodeep.

First off I know almost nothing about boats other than having gone on multiple cruises over the years. My running joke has always been "The only boat I want to get on is one that has another boat on it in case this one sinks."

Watching this guys video's got me thinking about trying something like this for retirement for a while, not the part about buying a boat that needs major repair but something that needs minor work and is ready to live on/ sail.

It would be a cabin cruiser type boat, maybe 40 or 50 feet with diesel engines.

Since I started watching this guys channel I have been getting videos of people doing walk throughs of boats for sale. It it is quit interesting what you can get for the money, however it is all the other cost I am interested in.

Thing like slip fees and what is included in them "electric, water, waste water disposal and stuff like that.

Basic ideas on yearly maintance requirements.

Also Insurance, what kind to get.

Pre boat inspection kind like a home inspection before buying a house.

Training needed to run the boat safely on open water like going from Florida to the Bahamas and beyond.

I know I am asking a lot of questions without any real details, however I am just looking at this idea to see if it is something that for my wife and I is even possible, so I thought I would start here.

Any input would be helpful.

Thanks
Joe

quote:

First off I know almost nothing about boats other than having gone on multiple cruises over the years. My running joke has always been "The only boat I want to get on is one that has another boat on it in case this one sinks."

If it flies, floats, or f***s, you are better off renting than buying.

Seriously, it sounds fun. But I'm sure there's a steep (expensive) learning curve.

I've said before. Go to the bank and get $1,000 in $100 bills. Go to your closest marina, stand at the end of the dock and throw them in the water one at a time and watch each one float away. If you're comfortable doing that, then by all means, buy a boat.

quote:

Originally posted by pace40:
I've said before. Go to the bank and get $1,000 in $100 bills. Go to your closest marina, stand at the end of the dock and throw them in the water one at a time and watch each one float away. If you're comfortable doing that, then by all means, buy a boat.

Someone once said the happiest days in a boat owners life is the day they bought the boat and the day they sold the boat.

I am a boat guy. Not sailing but fishing. Have not done anything like that. Single and with a boatload of money, maybe. But probably not. Having a home, vehicles access to all that land offers and having a boat is the best of both worlds. Did I say it would take a boatload of $ and then there are the headaches. No I would not do that. Ymmv.

My cousin keeps a 30-something foot cabin cruiser in a marina on Lake Michigan. He more or less lives on it May to October, but in that part of the country the boat is taken out of the water for winter and he spends three 8 hour days winterizing it. Marina gas and diesel prices in that area is pretty close to California prices (e.g. today: 90 octane is $6.49 and diesel is $6.19). To manage costs, he tends to use the dinghy for buzzing around the marina and the river leading to Lake Michigan.

In high school, I spent 2-weeks on a trip on a friend's yacht. 67' Hatteras that got 4 gallons to the mile (not a typo). 2000 gallon diesel tank to feed the twin Detroit Diesel 1292 engines. The fill up took so long we could eat a leisurely dinner in a restaurant.

quote:

The fill up took so long we could eat a leisurely dinner in a restaurant.

And in the snap of a finger drained the bank account.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
I am a boat guy. Not sailing but fishing. Have not done anything like that. Single and with a boatload of money, maybe. But probably not. Having a home, vehicles access to all that land offers and having a boat is the best of both worlds. Did I say it would take a boatload of $ and then there are the headaches. No I would not do that. Ymmv.

One of the ideas I had was, once retired was to sell the house and as much of the stuff we have collected over the years, put the rest in storage and use that money to buy the boat.
Eventual due to age we might have to give up living on a boat. We own 3.5 acers in Tennessee we plan on some day building a small house on for our final retirement.

I have a good friend who has fallen into this hole deep. He currently lives in a condo overlooking the water in FL and is still working although he will be 70 later this year because the company he works for may go public and the owners have promised him a $1,000,000 bonus IF he stays until the deal closes…

Having said all that he initially started asking me all sorts of questions about trawlers in the 45 to 50’ range. Although I do have some bluewater experience I know nothing specifically about trawlers. I did give him a list of things to look into, some of which have already been mentioned here. He found out that it is very hard if not prohibitively expensive to insure the boat in South Florida during the Hurricane season. As you might expect the list goes on and on including him getting his license and hiring a captain to teach him basic boat handling etc..

A few weeks ago he told me he was scraping the idea of a trawler and is buying a new catamaran in the Moorings fleet in the Bahamas! The Moorings told him that if he puts it in their charter fleet he will actually make money when he’s not using it!!!

There’s a sucker born every minute!

BOATS ARE EXPENSIVE!!!

No personal experience whatsoever, but I did follow a blog for a long time about a couple who sold their house and moved onto a 34 foot sailboat. They started on Lake Michigan and made their way out to the Atlantic ocean, travelled down to the gulf, and even crossed the Atlantic at one point.

From the way they described it, space is really cramped, so you have to be ok with that. Sailing seems like the way to go, as fuel for those big cabin cruisers is $$$$. But you then have to know how to sail, and are kinda at the mercy of the wind. Their boat did have a small motor but they tried to use it as little as possible.

Marina fees are expensive. They tried to find places to anchor out that were free, but then you lack the power and sewer hookups that you would get at a marina.

Storm season was also an issue. You can't handle out in the bahamas or the gulf during hurricane season. IIRC one year they went to Guatemala and lived out the season there.

At one point the grounded the boat and had to get towed ($$$$$), and then spent months in a marina out of the water doing repairs (more $$$$$, and hard work).

I lost track of them when they switched from a written blog to a vlog type format, but they had sold their original boat and bought a bigger one that needed some work, so they were on shore again refurbishing that.

Honestly, it sounds like a great adventure, but you've gotta have a bunch of money to fund it, gotta be willing to live in a tiny space, and it's going to take a lot of work, effort, and skill to be successful.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
In high school, I spent 2-weeks on a trip on a friend's yacht. 67' Hatteras that got 4 gallons to the mile (not a typo). 2000 gallon diesel tank to feed the twin Detroit Diesel 1292 engines. The fill up took so long we could eat a leisurely dinner in a restaurant.

It's good to have friends... with boats!

WHY SO CHEAP? 1989 Hatteras 67 Cockpit Motor Liveaboard Yacht Tour

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Originally posted by chellim1:

WHY SO CHEAP? 1989 Hatteras 67 Cockpit Motor Liveaboard Yacht Tour

That is the type of boat I have been watching videos on. It is something like this I would be interested in.
Not sure why so cheap, maybe there are a lot of them for sale and it is a buyers market, also maybe a lot of older people that have had them for a while and it is time to live back on land like I had mentioned above.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
Not sure why so cheap,

4 gallons to the mile (aka 0.25 mpg). If you look at the price of diesel I posted earlier from my cousin's marina, that is a $12,380 fill-up.

To go from Port Canaveral to Nassau, Bahamas, is 265 nautical miles (aka 530 miles round trip). If the marina price for diesel is the same as my cousin's marina then that is $13,123 in diesel alone.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

The fill up took so long we could eat a leisurely dinner in a restaurant.

And in the snap of a finger drained the bank account.

It would've drained mine, but wasn't noticeable to them.

One of your biggest concerns living on a boat will be moorage.

You see here in NE Oregon we have a marina in every town on the Columbia River where you can park your boat, but you can't live on your boat while parked there. So either you buy riverfront property to be able to park your boat (which means property taxes which many boat life people are trying to avoid by living on the boat).

Those canal boats in the UK look fun (if cramped).

I have the class you’re look at. Meridian 459. Twin diesel, 13.5 gen set, 400gl fuel, 150 gl fresh, 100 gl black water. Two stateroom & 2 heads/showers.

Marina is on TN river - $7000\year

Insur $3000/yr

I fix lots of stuff myself but have a boat repair guy & a diesel mechanic on speed dial.

I could NOT live onboard full time & maintain sanity.

Andrew

I was an avid blue water boater for years. We owned 30 ft Express style, used predominately for fishing, weekending and on water vacations. Twice we bare boated trawlers, Grand Banks, in the Virgin Islands. Boats cost a lot of money to operate, maintain. The friend that did the VI with me looked into buying a Grand Banks and leaving it for charter in the VI. He came to the conclusion you lost money and the boat got a lot of wear. Buying a boat and giving it to the Moorings to charter would be a bad idea, IMO.

There are several YT channels that are fun to watch, Nauiti Styles is a good one, cute girl. Check out how the affluent do it on a channel with Nordhaven or other adventure yachts.

I lived on my sailboat for a few months. There were many drawbacks, such as minimum storage space. No garage to work on your vehicle, etc.

However on the boat when vacationing in Mexico, it was the best time ever. Diving almost every day, spearing fish, living off the sea for weeks at a time, that was great.

quote:

Originally posted by UTsig:
I was an avid blue water boater for years. We owned 30 ft Express style, used predominately for fishing, weekending and on water vacations. Twice we bare boated trawlers, Grand Banks, in the Virgin Islands. Boats cost a lot of money to operate, maintain. The friend that did the VI with me looked into buying a Grand Banks and leaving it for charter in the VI. He came to the conclusion you lost money and the boat got a lot of wear. Buying a boat and giving it to the Moorings to charter would be a bad idea, IMO.

I wonder if it would make sense to charter out your boat if you stayed with it and captained for the people who rent it?

That beautiful 1989 Hatteras 67 in the video above would have room for 3 couples in addition to the husband/wife captain/crew and could probably make a good week or two rental. It could be a way to recoup some of your expenses.