The best part for the dog is tons of birds and ducks on the dock to chase. One of the worst parts of liveaboard life for you is lack of storage space. The worst part for the dog is no grass or bushes right outside the door.
If you, your family, and your dog can cope with those items - Welcome Aboard -
Almost everyone, after another hard week in the corporate pressure cooker of a polluted and over-crowded city, has thought about trying the liveaboard lifestyle. A few will do it, and love it and would never go back to land. Some will try and hate it. Some will never try at all.
This rush of urbanites seeking a home on the water is a becoming a worldwide phenomenon, and studies show that a good half of those wanting to buy into a dockside lifestyle have never even owned a boat.
If you never try, you will never know what joy and freedom awaits.live on a Boat Blog is here to inform you about the good and the bad and to guide you over, under, around, and through the pitfalls, so your liveaboard adventure will be a soaring success.
If your budget is the main concern, the boat you buy should be the smallest one that meets your needs, not the biggest one you can afford. Don't overestimate the space you will need for a comfortable living situation. Buy your boat for the space you and your family needs, not for the needs of guests. Guests will love to have you cruise them around, cook them a meal, but then send them to a hotel.
It is cheaper to buy a boat than to buy a house, although you cannot just compare the cost of boat vs. the cost of a house. You also must consider the cost of running a boat and its upkeep. The average couple thinking about life aboard may feel they will need a boat in the 35-40 foot range. However, a boat this size, especially a power boat may be excessive for just two people, even with a dog, A well designed 25-30 footer might do just as well, once you understand the real essentials of living aboard.
There is a couple in our marina who raised 2 kids on a 35' sailboat. All worked out well, the kids just graduated from college and doing well in their chosen professions, and the parents still live on that same small boat and all the money they have saved over the years is being salted away for a wonderful retirement.
We have yet another liveaboard couple here in our marina who bought a 70' wooden motor-yacht, 1950's vintage for almost nothing, and are restoring it themselves. It has a huge living space, yet I must admit, I would not be up to the restoration work that they seem to love. So you see, if money is keeping you from realizing your liveaboard dream, the dream can be realized for less financial burden than you might suspect.
Yet, no matter how much or how little you are able to invest in your liveaboard boat, you will truly be buying a wonderful and unique new lifestyle. Liveaboards are a community unto themselves, a friendly and helpful group who are always accepting of a newcomer.
While the realization of your liveaboard aspirations may be a few years off, now is the time to make your plans, save your dollars, and bring those dreams
to fruition. Unlike those adolescent fantasies of an adventure on a island paradise, this is one dream from which you’ll never have to wake.
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