Small Budget-Small Boat Liveaboard

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Reefmagnet

A bigger boat doesn't cost anymore than a smaller boat after purchase. Unless you plan to use it and maintain it, of course.

Sent from my SGP521 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

He He He ;-)

... or keep it in a marina ;-)

+1!

Cheers,
b.

[foufou]

My oh my!. A dis-cussion about the discussion! The low budget live aboard is a different subject than outfitting a low budget cruising adventure and the two were never distinguished one from the other. I have lived aboard on a $3800 Catalina 27 with my daughter but never dreamed of cruising. Living aboard can be very inexpensive and so can cruising if one doesn't count the cost of making a boat seaworthy. Most of this thread has been hijacked by a different subject, Foufou

[Rorzech]

You find lots of people living on small boats sharing their experiences on You Tube. Its a great place to view whats going on because it's video, and you get tours and stories and all kinds of good stuff.

[JPA Cate]

Yes, a discussion about the discussion. Thank you to all the ones for contributing to both discussions. I think it is valid to discuss our processes, especially when they result in thread drift. When people's opinions or feelings get thwarted, angry interchanges result. What is written often is incapable of showing at the same time a helpful frame of mind or humor or sarcasm accurately or adequately.

Sometimes, i think we have unreasonable expectations of the social media. They can never provide the sense of community face to face actions provide, only a slight approximation of it. It is seductive, too, in that it offers the promise of real intimacy and frendship, yet is unable to deliver much more than pen pal-ship.

Be that as it may, I would like to point out that some people have tried to provide some of what the OP was looking for--if you've lost track, go back and read the first post-- and good on them.


Ann

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by foufou

My oh my!. A dis-cussion about the discussion! The low budget live aboard is a different subject than outfitting a low budget cruising adventure and the two were never distinguished one from the other. I have lived aboard on a $3800 Catalina 27 with my daughter but never dreamed of cruising. Living aboard can be very inexpensive and so can cruising if one doesn't count the cost of making a boat seaworthy. Most of this thread has been hijacked by a different subject, Foufou

I think that is truthfully very much key to how much does it cost. It doesn't cost much to sit on anchor never going anywhere and just doing enough maintenance to keep her from sinking. Many do and I am not judging them, but if you plan on traveling a lot and keeping the boat seaworthy, then that is going to cost a lot more.
It almost gets to "what is a cruiser" after a couple of years on this forum, I think I have finally defined what a cruiser is, it's a state of mind possibly, not how many thousands of miles you put under the keel last year, nor how many oceans you have crossed.

I have not done it, but cannot see if the location is carefully chosen, why one could not live aboard comfortably on the amount of money you will have. Although I think location is very important. I don't know how SC does it, but I would assume Zee for instance can have a better standard of living for less money, based on location.

Personally I would stay away from the small boats, I think a mid 30's boat cost little more, somebody said something about a W32,
I think you could do far worse than a W32 myself.

You are on these disabilities, what is your physical condition, how much manual labor, climbing into and out of a dinghy hauling water jugs type of work can you handle?


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[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by SURV69

I tried a search for posts about living aboard on smaller boats ... what, say 32 feet or smaller.

The considerations and costs are totally different than boats(sail or power), in the 35+ feet range and even moreso in the 40+feet range.
20-30 feet is generally a one-person habitat ... sometimes two ... rarely more.

I would imagine that almost anyone living on a smaller boat, has a smaller budget to work with and is much more cognizant of how quickly money disappears.

I'm on Social Security, PERS(very small pension), and VA non-service disability pension ... not quite dirt poor.

Discussions of liveaboard with a few posters, here and there, on smaller boats, intermingled with the seemingly vast majority of posters in 35-45 feet range.

It would be nice to have a thread, about small budget, small boat liveaboards without the larger budget, larger boat, posters populating the thread with postings that are not very useful to us cheap(out of necessity) boaters.

It's hard and discouraging to read 5 posts to read one post that can be related to.

......

[SURV69]

Well ... I just completed a rather detailed itinerary for my trip east and south on A Bristol 29 ... somehow it all got wiped out as I was finishing.

I will try again ... later offline and paste it.

[SURV69]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I think that is truthfully very much key to how much does it cost. It doesn't cost much to sit on anchor never going anywhere and just doing enough maintenance to keep her from sinking. Many do and I am not judging them, but if you plan on traveling a lot and keeping the boat seaworthy, then that is going to cost a lot more.
It almost gets to "what is a cruiser" after a couple of years on this forum, I think I have finally defined what a cruiser is, it's a state of mind possibly, not how many thousands of miles you put under the keel last year, nor how many oceans you have crossed.

I have not done it, but cannot see if the location is carefully chosen, why one could not live aboard comfortably on the amount of money you will have. Although I think location is very important. I don't know how SC does it, but I would assume Zee for instance can have a better standard of living for less money, based on location.

Personally I would stay away from the small boats, I think a mid 30's boat cost little more, somebody said something about a W32,
I think you could do far worse than a W32 myself.

You are on these disabilities, what is your physical condition, how much manual labor, climbing into and out of a dinghy hauling water jugs type of work can you handle?


Sent from my iPad Pro using Cruisers Sailing Forum

Well, I fractured my back in 1963. I fractured it in 1971(in the service, although the Air Forced "determined", that I "probably", fractured it shortly before enlistment ... didn't fight it. But, I actually have a very strong back, as long as I'm very careful of my positioning. I have heart disease, 2 stints, and had heart attack last year. I have diabetic neuropathy(sp).

But I'm able and will outfit my boat to suit my more needs. I used to be a naturalist(in the 70's, in New York & New Jersey), and I was a land surveyor from the mid 70's til 2013(let my license lapse). So, I've spent my entire working life walking long distances through swamps, climbing hills, mountains & sometimes walls.

Considering my minor disabilities and heart condition, I'm in rather good shape ... so says me ... I think I'm up to this ...

[knockabout]

whare you live is important /shelter, plan a, plan b /keep a good food storage on board maintain overlap provisions/look after your self clean dry bunk /warm clothes
good shoes gloves/uv safe hat sun glasses/ample water supply and able to source water wen needed/treat yourself luxuriously/luxury is like hygiene warm soapy water soft flannel various body condiments comfortable cushion good book mp3 with fm radio /keep out of the road of cashed up and clueless they appear to be disadvantaged in life /"ventura"is 6.2 mtr at the water line but weighs 7 ton. many times huge ocean going ships of 50 foot length anchored over our chain in the dark /moved to plan b shelter rather than risk ourselves near stupid boat persons /us small ship owners have the luxury of ease of handling and less worries about appearing to be wealthy and forking out large amounts of cash to be bigger-faster-braver even anchoring on top of a small keel boat that was waiting to dry out at low tide and kareen we kept an eye on them for their safety/no your limits stay comfortably within them/plan for medical conditions/hundreds of people are managing successfully at small budget-small boat liveaboard

[Steve Bean]

I hope I won't be accused of disloyalty to CF for this! OP might like to visit Sailfar.net, mostly small boat people.

[jdaltonpe]

Just a note on my experience. when I was in my late 30's back in the late 90's I had the sailing dream but zero experience. I purchased a Roughwater 33 which was like a skinny Westsail. I spent 25k to purchase and another 7k to get it ready. after a winter on the Baja learning the ropes I sailed around the world without radar, refrigeration, chart plotter, or any of the extraneous BS that everyone considers necessary today for 9k per year. It was by far the best 4 years of my life. In those days I looked at the big expensive boats and used to dis them because I knew that I was making lots more miles than they ever did and having a great time doing it. I am older now and have been lucky enough to find a job that I love which allows me to live aboard my 50' trimaran moving from job site to job site in anticipation of another tour du monde. The problem is that I have become one of 'them' however it was my choice to do so. The message - living aboard can be whatever you make it - don't hold back.

[SV THIRD DAY]

Originally Posted by SURV69

Considering my minor disabilities and heart condition, I'm in rather good shape ... so says me ... I think I'm up to this ...

I think you absolutely are and might I suggest something.
Head over to SailBlogs | Sailing Blog Hosting & Social Network and set yourself up with a free cruising blog to detail your adventure and expenses. There are literally hundreds...no I will safely say thousands of people like you or in a similar mindset and circumstances that would love to see that someone like them (you don't have to be rich or have a huge boat) to pull off the dream.

When we were planning to cast off on our 36ft boat with two kids we were constantly told over and over again that our boat was too small, our planned budget was too small, and that we were crazy...we would fail all the armchair cruisers AND our almost every one of our friends and all of our Family members told us.

So don't just do it....
Do it and give others the confidence to do it themselves also.

That's what the Cruising Community is all about helping others make the dream a reality.

[TooCoys]

Originally Posted by SV THIRD DAY

No offense at all to the Original poster at all here...but sometimes I wounder if these "Living aboard for Cheap on a small boat" threads are not clickbait. We seem to have 1-2 of them a week.

I'm glad I didn't start a new thread then.

We sold our house in March and moved into an RV full time. And we've been discussing selling the RV and moving aboard in the next year or two.

We'd like a blue water boat, something that we could cruise from the Texas Gulf Coast to the carribbean etc. But we aren't sure if we'd enjoy the confines of a monohull sailboat, as much as we would a motor yacht or trawler. So we're stuck between sail or power.

There's plenty of monohull boats in our price range, but they all have the same layouts. Plus there's the added adventure of trying to get water time on each.

Getting experience isn't cheap by any means. Charter's demand a premium price.

[Seafarer24]

Boat size does make a difference. Ground tackle is heavier and requires more handling gear. Bottom paint, and the haul-out that goes with it, costs more. All of the hardware is bigger, the sails are bigger, the engine is bigger, etc.

If I were shorter, I'd be happily, cheaply, cruising on my old Seafarer 24!
Powered by a cheap outboard (I've bought good-condition 4-stroke Yamaha 9.9s for $500).
Not enough room for anything larger than a 2-burner stove.
Not enough room for a bunch of batteries. Four 4Ds would be a tight fit!
Not enough cabin side for a bunch of opening portlights. Maybe two small ones and four slightly larger ones at most.
No room for a windlass, but enough for a couple of relatively small but perfectly adequate anchors.
Roller furling that small would be cheap. Good condition, used sails would be as well.

Moving up just a little to my Cal 29 and the costs of maintenance almost double. Moving up to my previous boat, a Cal Cruising 35, and the costs almost double again! You know what else doubles each time? The weight of the boat. The number of cylinders if equipped with an inboard diesel.

I hope I have it right this time with my Cal 29. I think it is just the right balance in size, weight, and cost to maintain for me. I'll know better when I finally get it hauled out and start my refit.

[end80]

I've watched numerous videos of individuals and couples living happily on under 30 foot, but the only one that imeadiatly comes to mind is a short, about 10 minute documentary called "Twenty Eight Feet. Life on a little wooden boat" which you can easily find on YouTube or with a Google search.

I am not currently living on my boat, but that is the direction I'm going... Most likely beginning this winter. Its only 26 feet, but its very roomy inside, and can stand up throughout, and reminds me much inside of an 1969 Ford RV my girlfriend and I lived in comfortably for about a year.. Best of times.
When I was originally searching for a sailboat, my aim was for a 30-32 foot, but when I found my Grampian 26, I knew it was the boat for me.. also smaller the boat, then cheaper the dockage fees.

I can't pretend to be knowlegable to adequetly offer advice to your question, but believe the size of a boat you need to live aboard comfortably upon is really a question only you can answer. For me, I know my little 26 footer is enough.. with perhaps again the possibility of two.