Living aboard in FL in winter and storing on land in summer. Practical?

[CatStephen]

Greetings:


Long time lurker here and very infrequent poster. Most of the questions I've had have already been answered through search. However, I have a larger question now....


I'm 63 and a lifelong water rat. Sailing, racing, fishing, you name it. My wife and I are both 63 and had the good fortune to retire at 55. We bought a small cruising cat, a Tomcat 9.7 upon retirement. For those of you unfamiliar, it's a 32 x 16 cat that is simple, light and fast. Very shallow draft. Decent bridge deck clearance so it's pretty comfortable even in snotty conditions. We've set it up as a couples' boat with simple systems, a little more water tankage and lots of solar – 700 watts – so we can spend time away from marinas wandering around and exploring.


We live on the Chesapeake and have explored lots of it. Boat has been great for our intended purpose. However, we're realized we don't make the most of it. For most of the sailing and fishing seasons, we split our time between sailing, fishing (on our power boats), road trips (a favorite pastime), grown children and young grandchildren. As the grandchildren came – along with soccer, basketball and baseball games, we spend less and less time on the cat.


At the same time, the pandemic has driven home how much we don't like cold winters and find ourselves “stuck in the house.” I've used the past 8 winters to finish up all my outstanding projects, restored a couple of cars, a couple more boats and build a hot rod. For the ,most part, the projects are now done.


This prompted a thought. Would it make sense to move the cat to Florida and use it as a winter home? My thinking would be to sail it down this or next spring and leave it there. Have it hauled, give it a good clean and wax and have it shrink wrapped. Go back north and have our usual summer on the Chesapeake. In November, drive our big diesel pickup filled with clothes, supplies and totes with my tools. Prep and splash the boat and live on it until the following April. Spend our time wandering around and exploring like we do on the Chesapeake.


For fishing opportunities, I would trailer a center console down and leave it on its trailer to use as and where needed. Might even leave a boat there on a trailer over the summer with the cat.


The thinking is that living on the cat down South would:

• avoid having to buy another house
• give us 5 full time months on the boat (versus a sporadic 8 months use now)
• move if we don't like the neighbors
• maybe change marinas every year or so to experience new areas
• get us out of the cold
• offer a different experience
• should be a net neutral (give or take) cost wise since we already own the boat and and have marina costs already.

So, what do you all think? Is anyone already doing something like this? Potential problems I can see are:

• finding a marina that allows liveaboards
• security of a boat that is unattended and un-visited for 7 months of the year
• local, county or state ordinances prohibiting what we'd like to do.

Would really appreciate any experiences, wisdom or advice you all can offer.


Thanks...CatStephen

[Ita]

Read this blog. They did it for 11 years.

http://sv-submit.blogspot.com/

[Woodland Hills]

IIRC, there is a marina on the west side of the Okeechobee that has indoor storage in a hurricane rated building.

[S/V Illusion]

You just described what hundreds if not thousands of people do here every winter. The only mistake some make is thinking a dock and storage is cheaper than owning a house. It's generally not.One of our liveaboard dock neighbors pays more for the marina than he would owning a $500,000 house here.

[Shrew]

We did the opposite. We sold our house in New England, bought a house in Florida. We live on the boat in New England during the summer (5 months), and the house in Florida in the winter (7 months)

Florida winter's are great (compared to New England) but as for boating and living aboard, the Florida winter isn't as nice as the New England summer. I'll take high 80's and the occasional low 90's of a New England summer over the 50's and 60's of a Florida winter. Sure it's nice in October and Nov. and again in March and April, but there are a few months in the middle that simply aren't beach weather. However, that may simply depend on how far south in Florida you go. (We ended up on the Space Coast).

[flyingfin]

Easy to do and many people, both US and Europeans already do it. There are many storage lots full of sailboats in Florida,,,,,,plus you would have even more options if a dry rack marina can forklift your cat and put her on an outdoor storage slot.

[KeepInTune]

Can anyone provide examples of their dry/hard storage strategy in FL from June-Nov? Location and cost review, in particular on the Gulf Coast side? (40+- footer). That might be a helpful start.

[Roniszoro]

Or...sail it down in November and sail it back up in May

[S/V Illusion]

Originally Posted by KeepInTune

Can anyone provide examples of their dry/hard storage strategy in FL from June-Nov? Location and cost review, in particular on the Gulf Coast side? (40+- footer). That might be a helpful start.

Dry storage here is limited mostly to small boats unless you rent an all purpose storage warehouse. Not recommended. The list of storage on the hard is far too extensive to list here.

[Roniszoro]

If you really do not plan on using the boat in the summer, you can haul it, strip it and have it strapped down at the Harbortown Marina in Ft. Pierce, FL.; a very professional place. I've done so for the last two summers and am quite happy.

[Shanachie]

One of the difficulties in your plan is finding a dock. Most good marinas have waiting lists of six months to two years. Finding one that will allow you to rent during the winter and spring only would be difficult, depending on where you want to locate. A better plan would be to keep the boat in the water year-round in a well-protected marina and hire someone to check on it periodically and scrape the bottom. Also, as others have noted, there are very few storage boatyards in Florida because waterfront property is extremely expensive. Why store boats for $400 a month when you can build million-dollar condos?