Newbie to this forum

[TrentePieds]

Quote: " I passed my break even point, so my boat is free from here on out. BTW my 35' sailboat would be too small if my partner lived aboard with me full time."

Indeed. And TrentePieds is too small for man and maid for year round living at least in this climate. We are, here in Vancouver in the grip of the bitterest winter we've seen for many a year. Temperature is -2ºC (call it 27ºF). MB is making like the famed Canadian ki-ki bird :-)!

But 30 feet is the "sweet spot" where the compromises that must be made are, bei mir, optimized. Maintenance is cheap enuff that it doesn't bust the retirement bank. Maintenance is DIY-able. And acquisition cost is no more than you can walk away from, if need be, still smiling.

Like Jim we are past the break-even. Our occupancy expense dropped from Can$1.5K/mnth to Can$500/mnth by making the dispositions we made ashore. A reduction in occupancy expense of a grand a month goes a long way towards paying for an ADEQUATE boat. Not a gold-plater by any means, but adequate! Moorage is $4.5 a year, and even counting that as occupancy expense we are past the break even.

Now, I know a place where moorage is $250/YEAR. Yes indeed - $250/year! But the place is remote, and to get the rate you need to own real estate there. If we weren't geographically fixed for family reasons, I might be tempted. A reduction in moorage cost of 4 grand a year would nearly make the mortgage payments on a modest property there:

TrentePieds

[a64pilot]

I am new at this, and we don't cast off ourselves until next Spring, but I have done a lot of reading and watching people preparing to go etc. What strikes me the most is its not necessarily how much money they have that makes them succeed, its their attitude and capability to DIY.
The Successful Business man or Woman that has someone mow their lawn, always takes the Beemer to the shop and calls a plumber when the toilet backs up, doesn't make it, they fail.
Most often they fail not because they run out of money, but literally because good help is hard to find, they come when they want to, and often do poor work when they do come and their boat is in a state of being perpetually broken and they get very frustrated waiting on the mechanic to show up, yet they never think to do it themselves, sure they don't mind you doing it for them, but they watch, not help, so I don't offer anymore unless they are trying.
But the type that has never taken the car to the shop, usually drives an older car, mows their own grass and has never called a plumber for anything, they often make it, even if they only have a small income to do it on.

My first day of ownership of my first sailboat, we were on delivery, I hired a Pro Captain to help as I had never been on a sailboat before.
We were heading down the ICW and the Diesel began to sag in RPM and soon quit altogether. First words out of his mouth once we got the anchor set was well I guess you had better call Seatow. I immediately thought, why, it sure acted like it was fuel starved, has to be either filter or fuel pump and tore into it. An hour or so later after I unclogged the pickup tube, we were on our way.
BTW, I did call Seatow, we were still waiting when I got it fixed so I called them back and told them we didn't need them.

[accomplice]

I think that any conversation of relative costs of living aboard vs. on-land needs to include the goals. One could live very cheaply on land or on a boat. A boat next to ours near one of our winter moorings was bought by some folks in trade for an old-pickup truck. The poor thing (boat, that is), doesn't even have a working engine and I'm not sure the owners know how to sail her -- she's never left the anchorage. When she drags, a few neighboring dinghies are needed to help her reset her anchor. (I offered that she could use our mooring while we're away, but I'm not sure if she took us up on it.) My point is that they're living on the water very cheaply, but not in a way that I'd want to.

We spend twice the amount every year (including cost of capital) to maintain our land-based residence than we do on our marine-based residence. If we wanted we could spend more on either one, if we wanted we could spend less -- but probably not to achieve the same goals.