Liveaboard at Yacht Clubs?

[shortytravels]

They said 15th May to end of Oct. The guy even said to me "I know it's crazy but people pay it!"

I wish someone from around here wld pipe in and give me a tip...$140 is the cheapest I've found within Boston area. If head towards where you must use the commuter rail instead of normal mbta, it gets way cheaper but the cost of commuter rail makes up the difference if you work in the city...


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[hellosailor]

The OP might be surprised to find that many YCs are social clubs, country clubs, with pool and tennis facilities, etc. and pitched toward "social" as much as being a place to keep a boat. (Sometimes called a "boat club".)
There's often also a restaurant, whether that's a 5-day lunch and dinner grill, or a more formal restaurant that doubles with a small catering hall, and if a club has a restaurant the members are also often required to spend $$ per month at it. That may sound crazy, but it assures there is enough business to keep the restaurant going.
Sometimes not answering the phone is intentional. If you can't get past that obstruction, you've been screened out--often intentionally.

[shortytravels]

I am aware about some yacht club amenities being more than just about boats. Good to know that not answering the phone is a way to screen me out. Likewise, I will screen them out this way in the future. I guess I'm looking for a yacht club that is a bit less pretentious so my beer has sway as opposed to dom perignon, which I wldn't share anyways. Besides, when I beat old members at tennis using my 10 yr old racket & a ball covered in dog slobber, I might get kicked out anyways!


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[Cadence]

Originally Posted by shortytravels

They said 15th May to end of Oct. The guy even said to me "I know it's crazy but people pay it!"

I wish someone from around here wld pipe in and give me a tip...$140 is the cheapest I've found within Boston area. If head towards where you must use the commuter rail instead of normal mbta, it gets way cheaper but the cost of commuter rail makes up the difference if you work in the city...


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$28/ft/mo, sounds high but I guess they need to pay for the other 7 months. I guess the commuting expense would be a nit but your time to enjoy your boat is probably worth more.

Good luck.

[Scott Berg]

I've been a yacht club member most of my life. Some clubs were small boat racing clubs; our current club, the Capital Yacht Club in Washington, DC, is a great place to keep a boat between cruises. We have a bar, catering kitchen, and small boat program. Like all private clubs, membership is made by recommendation of current members, so if you are interested in joining a club I'd just show up between 5 and 7pm on a Friday or Saturday Evening and introduce yourself as a prospective memberw. Most clubs are always welcoming new active boaters. Good luck.

[skipmac]

You might get lucky but I kept my boat in New England for a year and was stunned by the costs. Yes I understand the boating business only operates for half a year but have to pay their bills all year but still.

I gave up looking for a dock I could afford and rented a mooring in Bristol RI, commuting an hour to CT to work. Decided to move the boat south in the fall and anchored on the CT River for a couple of weeks while I finished prepping for the trip. Had crew coming in and was stocking the boat so thought it would be really convenient to get a dock for a couple of days. Checked with a few local marinas, most were half empty (this was 2009 after the crash and boating business was really bad). Cheapest I could find in a 25 mile radius was $125/night. I could rent a hotel in the area with HBO, kitchenette, AC, and a king sized bed for $85 but it was $125 to tie my lines to a cleat. I offered one guy the $85/night, looking at his half empty marina and he turned it down.

Plan to go back to cruise the area but I'll be anchoring out. I'm just not rich enough to rent a dock in NE.

[oldragbaggers]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

The OP might be surprised to find that many YCs are social clubs, country clubs, with pool and tennis facilities, etc. and pitched toward "social" as much as being a place to keep a boat. (Sometimes called a "boat club".)
There's often also a restaurant, whether that's a 5-day lunch and dinner grill, or a more formal restaurant that doubles with a small catering hall, and if a club has a restaurant the members are also often required to spend $$ per month at it. That may sound crazy, but it assures there is enough business to keep the restaurant going.
Sometimes not answering the phone is intentional. If you can't get past that obstruction, you've been screened out--often intentionally.

We referred to our yacht club as "a drinking club with a boating problem." We no longer belong. The slips were cheap but the bar and food bill (which was a requirement) was killing us. And the food wasn't all that great. (The liquor was cheap though.)

[Island Time O25]

Check out condo marinas in So. Shore - Quincy, Weymouth, etc.

Also costwise your best bet for May-Nov liveaboard would be Salem Harbor. The fear of Nor'easters is greatly exaggerated. In my 10 years of mooring there I can recall only two times (may be three) where I had to show up the day or two before the forecasted storm and take the bimini and the sails down. That's less than once in 3 years. People living aboard in the South probably have these 3-4 times a season.

Another possibility is a mooring on So. Shore but I am less familiar with that area and it's a better choice for a motorboat crowd as it's significantly shallower there.

Also check out Winthrop, East Boston and Chelsea yacht clubs. There is one in Wintrop (Cottage Park?) where I once looked at a boat for sale and was introduced to some old geezers running the club. They were very welcoming and like someone posted earlier were anxious to get new blood into an aging club. It's less convenient if you day sail as it's a long shlep to the outside but for a liveaboard should be fine.

There is also a very homey and inexpensive (for Boston) club on Charles River on Newton-Brighton line. But unfortunately due to the bridges on the river it's only accesible from the ocean by boats clearing under 14', so it's for motorboats only unless you have an easily steppable mast such as MacGregor. I went there once with a friend who was looking for a cheap motorboat for sale there as summer liveaboard and they had a bunch of people there like that.

As far as dockage being expensive - the problem in Boston is that the are very few, if any, decent anchorage areas as mooring fields replaced those a while ago. Where there is some semi-decent anchoring such as the outer portion of the Salem Harbor the mooring prices tend to be lower. But in Boston proper compared to renting an apartment even at $140/ft for 6 months is a cheaper alternative. At this rate you end up paying about $1,000/mo for a 40 footer but an apartment in the same area, i.e. North End, Downtown, Charlestown. would be $2,000 for a studio or $3,000 for a 1BR. So it's all relative. Also if you're downtown you don't need a car or even to use public transportation as you can walk pretty much everywhere or for example take a $30/rt Chinese bus to NYC by walking a few blocks to the bus terminal.

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by skipmac

You might get lucky but I kept my boat in New England for a year and was stunned by the costs. Yes I understand the boating business only operates for half a year but have to pay their bills all year but still.

I gave up looking for a dock I could afford and rented a mooring in Bristol RI, commuting an hour to CT to work. Decided to move the boat south in the fall and anchored on the CT River for a couple of weeks while I finished prepping for the trip. Had crew coming in and was stocking the boat so thought it would be really convenient to get a dock for a couple of days. Checked with a few local marinas, most were half empty (this was 2009 after the crash and boating business was really bad). Cheapest I could find in a 25 mile radius was $125/night. I could rent a hotel in the area with HBO, kitchenette, AC, and a king sized bed for $85 but it was $125 to tie my lines to a cleat. I offered one guy the $85/night, looking at his half empty marina and he turned it down.

Plan to go back to cruise the area but I'll be anchoring out. I'm just not rich enough to rent a dock in NE.

Yep, that's the situation here. (( But most towns have town moorings or even private moorings which normally go for about $1-1.50/ft daily including launch service if you need it.

[FatBear]

If you haven't figured it out already, yacht clubs come in all shapes and sizes. There are three aspects: social, marina, and cruising.

My wife and I live at a yacht club 7 months of the year. We're not very social, but do attend some parties. Ours is a small (66 members) club with a mostly working class constituency. The marina is small and we do almost all maintenance ourselves. The marina is about half boat slips and half boathouses and houseboats (floating homes). There are four floating homes in liveaboard slips. Nobody else is allowed to live in a boat or houseboat for more than 20 days a month. This is due to things such as the size of septic system we have (we are far from city sewers) and insurance. Our dues are a couple hundred a year and our slip costs 246 a month with water, sewer, and garbage included. This is very cheap for a floating home moorage. Boat slips are similarly cheap, but like I said: you can only sleep on your boat 20 days a month. Oh, there is a "buy-in" of something like $1300 for a boat slip and $8000 for a full live-aboard floating home, but you get that back if you move on.

There's another club in Portland which is very large, dues are high, slips are expensive but very nice, their boats are large and expensive, they have an "outstation" (their own private cruising destination), drink Dom Perignon (did I even spell that correctly? ), etc. I don't think they allow any live-aboards. There are a few other clubs that fall in-between these extremes and some are even smaller than ours.

I could go on. The main thing is, they're all different, so shop around and try to attend as many social events and cruises as you can on a test basis before you commit. Our club actually requires attendance at one social event and one general membership meeting before we will extend an invitation to join. But I don't know of anyone we've ever turned down.

And if you don't want the social involvement, stick with regular marinas because you can't avoid it if you live there!

[Ryan H]

Look up Crystal Cove Marina if you're looking for north of Boston, or Captains Cove south of Boston. Last I heard, Crystal Cove was 109$ ft for the summer.

Captains cove is 105$ and if you get on their payment plan for next year they drop the price to 85$ft. In the past few years they've offered the 85$ ft price to new boats when they have trouble filling their slips. I'm at Captains cove now, they're also one of the few that allow liveaboard boats to stay through winter, 35$ft or 25ft if you install your own Ice eater.

I can give you the number I use to get in touch with the dockmaster if you like. If you call and ask for Kim you may be able to work something out. They're good people.

I'm not affiliated with either Marina, just a fellow local liveaboard.

Good luck!


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[shortytravels]

Crystal Cove said no liveaboards but fortunately I've gotten a couple of tips now to pursue!


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