Is living aboard affordable?

[Nani Kai]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Before you start looking for a boat to live on I would suggest you find where you can keep it as a live aboard.
Would somewhere like Suntex Marina on Harbour Island suit.. is it affordable.. I know there are some live aboards there and its in a gated community.. nice place.
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I just spent a month at the Suntex Marina getting our new (to us) boat ready for an extended trip to the Bahamas. They do allow live aboards there, it is very conveniently located in Hollywood Florida, the marina itself is well maintained with an excellent, professional staff of genuinely helpful and generous folks. The location within the gated community is lovely and the boating community there is wonderful.

As a transient I paid $1300/month plus electricity/water for our Leopard 39 catamaran. Other residents with long term contracts were paying significantly less.

If I were looking for a place to live aboard in Florida I would pick Suntex hands down. We really enjoyed our time there.

[Cool Hand Luke]

Originally Posted by storx

In regards to boats, if i was to buy a boat and live on it, i am aiming at something that could potentially do the great loop, my dad always talked sooooo much about the great loop on how it was the best everything, so i was thinking i would complete the loop myself in the near future and maybe spread some of his ashes along the route in his memories.

I've only heard of the Great Loop... Adventure of a Lifetime... www.greatloop.org

I'm positive you father would be proud of you and would love his ashes spread over the same locations he visited. I admire your courage and respect for your dad.

If you're going sailboat, you need to make sure the mast height is below a certain height. I believe there are some permanent bridges that, even at low tide, have 50-60 foot vertical height.

Also... our marina in New Jersey does not allow liveaboards. However, when I asked one of the employees about how many liveaboards we have... he stated, "We don't have any liveaboards. We just have about a hundred people who stay on their boat A LOT "

[Dignity too]

Originally Posted by storx

I am in the Tarpon Springs, FL area and have come to a dilemma in my life that affordable housing is just getting to stinking expensive. About a year ago my house burned down due to a neighbors fun time with a propane grill caught the side of his house on fire, I was not home at the time and by the time someone realized the house was on fire and called 911, the winds carried the fire onto my house which leads to totally burning my house down to a level considered not-repairable, but the neighbors house suffered minor fire damage due to the direction of the winds and him using water on his own house to control the fire.

Anyways I bought that house in 2008 when housing was very very affordable and paid 58k for the 3 bed/ 2 bath/ 2 car garage house with taxes only in the $400s annually due to homestead. Long story short, the house is totally washed and deemed to structurally gone to rebuild, so i received a payout for the replacement value, because after wanting to rebuild the house through insurance i was told due to new county laws, permitting, and building code the house would have to be built much more narrow and because the structure of the plans drastically changes, the insurance company denied rebuilding and just cut me a check without giving me the option to choose ultimately. The sad part is this, Insurance only pays your "replacement value", which is the price for them to duplicate your old house, but with the recent crazy housing prices, the market value of the houses in the area are much higher than replacement value, which I've been dealing with a lawyer over to go after the neighbors insurance.

Anyways, Ive been house shopping and just looking at houses priced at the amount i was payed for replacement cost has just been depressing, to buy again in the same neighborhood is just joke requiring me to come out of pocket another 75-100k over what i have to drop on a house. Then god bless the amount of taxes on housing now is just gotten out of control, cant find a 2 car garage house in tarpon springs, fl without ending up with a 2500+/yr tax bill, so i have been thinking of boats, when i was younger my father was huge into sailing and we had a smaller 27 ft sail boat we would go out on weekend trips as a family and i really enjoyed that back then, so looking into the affordability of living on a boat, because im seeing some decently nice boats in the price i have in cash to pay... my question is on the cost of slip fees (Living fees)...

I know my father lived on a Bayliner 4788 before he passed away, he used that boat to do the great loop.

the cost of living aboard depends on the country you live in, here in the UK and Europe its very cheap, there are some expensive areas but, in general its a cheap way to live.
However depending on your lifestyle, you can make it very expensive.
first timers usually bring a lot of baggage with them and it takes a couple of years before they realise its not needed, others never get rid of the excess and it costs them a fortune.
Ive been living aboard over 10 years now, and having had the mortgage and the loans, the car and so on, got rid of it all.
I have a comfortable life, I sail a lot, travel a lot and enjoy my lifestyle.

[Lepke]

If you own your boat, and better yet have a private dock, it's much cheaper than a house. And the furniture is usually built in. My sailing days are over. I have a powerboat and am very comfortable. If I don't like my neighbor, I evict him.