Newbie In Town

[boatdreams]

Hello All,
I'm new to this forum, new to the Bay area, and somewhat new (a little over 1 yr) to the idea of living aboard a boat. I hope to gain as much insight as possible from the boating and liveaboard community because ideally I would like to some day own and live aboard my own vessel
For the past year, my boyfriend and I have considered adopting this lifestyle and now, living in Oakland, we are in a much better position to explore our interest of living aboard more seriously. We are suckers for roaming around the docks in our spare time, and have hung around the Berkeley and Emeryville marinas, as well as some of the SF docks. We try to chat up people whenever possible, but these liveaboard types seem elusive! Anyhow, my main asking point is this: Does any one have any advice about liveaboard rental or lease opportunities in the Bay area? We would very much love to give the lifestyle a go before sinking a considerable sum into a boat.... Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, boatdreams.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Welcome....

If you have been roaming the docks you must have seen the free mags... Very helpful... Latitude 38 - The West's Leading Sailing and Marine Magazine We have a few others like The Log Newspaper | California Boating & Fishing News

Not from the bay area, but tons here are... You can do a members search with cities for keywords...

Some marginal help???

[Waterway Guide]

Welcome aboard!

[Sailtexas]

Welcome to CF!

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Good to have you here. Sometimes the liveaboards are elusive because they really aren't supposed to be living aboard in their marina.
It is a wonderful lifestyle and all you need to do now is pick your boat. Not really because there are lots of other monetary considerations, i. e. insurance, slip/mooring fees, availability of liveaboard slips, etc.. If you want a sailboat then the first thing I'd do would be take a sailing lesson just to get you off on the right foot.
kind regards,

[boatdreams]

Thanks SkiprJohn A sailboat owner advised us today to perhaps exclude mentioning that we planned on living aboard when inquiring about slip availability at marinas... we're not quite sure what to do with that advice. It seems pretty sage, but we certainly wouldn't want to get a slip only to be booted because we are living on our boat full time.
We spent the weekend at the Strictly Sail Pacific boat show at Jack London in Oakland and had a blast. We signed up for sailing lessons while at the show and we're pretty excited about it! Even though we plan on spending at least a year living on a motor yacht, the seminars at this weekend's show really inspired us to want to learn more about sailing.

[Celestialsailor]

Yes...SkprJohn is correct. There are a few sneak-aboards around that don't like to advertise it. I am a liveaboard cruiser in Alameda. Straight across from you. The live aboard lifestyle is quickly eroding away with cost of insurance for marinas and otherwise homeless people calling themselves "boat enthusiasts". Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.