Liveaboard around Vancouver without a slip

[Kom]

Originally Posted by dmitrytoda

Well I may be a novice now, but I will gain experience eventually. Everybody is always talking about how much work it is to maintain a boat, so while I personally have little idea of what exactly will have to be done, I suspect there will be enough. And I will have to learn to do it as some point, if I want to do offshore cruising one day (and I do), so why not start now. Otherwise it is a vicious circle of "I don't know how to fix boats -> so I don't try -> so I keep not knowing".

I think my adjusted plan now would be to find a non-liveaboard slip at a marina at a reasonable distance from where I live, get a boat, live in an apartment (thus sucking up double cost of rent+slip), gain more experience and then eventually transition to living on the hook full time.

Of course I'm a novice too, so I don't know per se. But I have a very similar feeling. I think the bigger concern for someone who is trying to get into sailing (in Vancouver) is finding a slip for the right boat. There will be work, and costs associated with it. And we will make mistakes and have to pay for them. But these are things we can figure out and mitigate (to a certain degree, as long as we don't buy a boat that needs a complete refit) when it's time to buy the boat. First, we need to find a slip somehow.

Dimitry, I'm also starting to think that the best solution might be to buy a boat here in Vancouver that comes with a slip - a reasonable number of them seem to come with transferable moorage. Yes, this might not be the cheapest option, but at least it is an option. I really don't know how else to get a slip here without waiting multiple years.

[TrentePieds]

Ah! As I said before, you are learning :-)

That's very good! Read and cogitate on Stu's post. As you will recognize, he and I are coming at the same "problem" in different ways. The really significant thing is that your present plan is perfectly realizable, which the one you came in with didn't seem to be.

I have taught people to sail on boats from 13 feet to 65 feet. To a degree, boat handling is the same whatever the size of boat. HOWEVER: In a small boat muck-ups are generally not very serious and mostly good for a giggle. In a small boat "stuff" happens quickly but is rarely serious or expensive to repair. In a big boat "stuff" happens very slowly as a series of cascading catastrophes, and it is almost always serious, and always expensive to fix. So starting on a little 'un is a sensible thing to do.

You could pick up a used Cal 20, say, for fifteen hunnert bux and learn on it. Or you could zip out to Jericho and simply join the Locarno Sailing Club so you can use their boats (against a fee of course). If you are gonna live ashore anyway, I cannot recommend joining a suitable club too highly. Locarno is a direct descendant of the Simon Fraser University Sailing Club which I and some friends started in 1968. I lost track of how many students I gave "the basics" on Enterprise dinghies. For the now defunct JibSet sailing club I taught a lot of people on the aforementioned Cal20. A little further up the scale, the JibSet used Catalina 27s to get people to the point where it was safe to let them loose on this 'ere coast. I came to LOATHE that boat, but that's a whole other story. You could get one of those for six or seven grand (if you can find a place to park it). It'll be bare, but that is good, for that'll give you chance to learn quickly, and to decide what YOU need (or want) in a small cruisier, and it's perfectly adequate for taking a man and his maid to any of the popular cruising destinations around here, such as Princess Louisa Inlet.

So now the time has come to tell you that boat handling I can teach you in a week end. That's the least of it. And you mustn't confuse the ability to take a Catalina 27 safely over to, say, Buccaneer Bay and back again on a summer weekend with being a skipper.

But you could also go to Cooper's Yachts on Granville Island. They are really a proprietary Club as well as a brokerage and Lord knows what, and they teach you on good boats - for about the same amount of money that would buy you a Catalina 27:-). And the annual dues are about the same as moorage for a 27 footer would cost you in my marina on the Island. Cooper's bought out the JibSet when Les Alfreds, the JibSet's proprietor, went to Fiddler's Green.

TP

[sv_pelagia]

... and there's the Barnet Sailing Coop
https://barnetsailing.bc.ca/

[TrentePieds]

And I see that T'bird is advertising a Cat27 with assumable moorage at 'Skeeter Creek for $9.5K The beast even has a diesel, tho it doesn't say what kind or how old. Put in a bid for $7K and see what happens :-)!

TP

[dmitrytoda]

Found the Catalina. It's $9.5K USD, so almost $13K Canadian, but still that would be within my range for a practice boat. She is on the island though, and if I don't live aboard (obviously I won't on a boat this size), then I need her on the mainland, but a 27' slip should be easier to find than a 40+.

Looks like it's time to go make a list of 27-30 footers for sale here lol

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

And I see that T'bird is advertising a Cat27 with assumable moorage at 'Skeeter Creek for $9.5K The beast even has a diesel, tho it doesn't say what kind or how old. Put in a bid for $7K and see what happens :-)!

TP

You USED to be able to live aboard at Mosquito Creek - or at least they didn't hassle you.

I don't know what the situation is now.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by dmitrytoda

Found the Catalina. It's $9.5K USD, so almost $13K Canadian, but still that would be within my range for a practice boat. She is on the island though, and if I don't live aboard (obviously I won't on a boat this size), then I need her on the mainland, but a 27' slip should be easier to find than a 40+.

Looks like it's time to go make a list of 27-30 footers for sale here lol

Mosquito Creek is just on the other side of the Lions Gate Bridge... not on the island

and its $9,500 cdn https://thunderbirdmarine.com/yacht-sales/catalina-27/

[SlogMaverick]

Some great advice in this thread.
I spent the spring and summer chasing down available slips in WA and OR. All had 7+ year waiting lists with almost no possibility of a live-aboard. It's interesting to hear that there are the same issues up north.
Best of luck to the two of you!

[Kom]

Originally Posted by SlogMaverick

Some great advice in this thread.
I spent the spring and summer chasing down available slips in WA and OR. All had 7+ year waiting lists with almost no possibility of a live-aboard. It's interesting to hear that there are the same issues up north.
Best of luck to the two of you!

That's some really helpful information too, thanks for sharing

[dmdelorme]

I went though the Liveaboard thing on my Tanzer 26 on lake Winnipeg. From May to October for 4 seasons. What i learned is that i enjoy it, and the constant maintenance of the boat gave me a new hobby. I also realised what i wanted in a boat. More Head Room, I want to go on adventure in a few years. So i wanted a blue sea capable boat that i can stand up in and sail solo. I was planing on waiting a few years but i got offered work in the Vancouver and VI area. I really wanted a boat in the 30 to 34 range but after an adventure i found a Alberg 37. I will be at the boat yard at shelter Island as i need to take care of a few items and need to figure out how i can get to work and feel secure where i am leaving my boat during the day. I need some time to test the ground gear and learn to sail a different boat. Singlehanding is always a bit more complicated/dubious. Anchoring with heaver ground tackle in a crowded area needs some practice and thought. If i was buying my first boat to live on i would pick a bit small with head room and don't spend too much on the boat or tricking it out till you have spent some time on it. You will never get all your money back on a boat.

[Kom]

Originally Posted by dmdelorme

I went though the Liveaboard thing on my Tanzer 26 on lake Winnipeg. From May to October for 4 seasons. What i learned is that i enjoy it, and the constant maintenance of the boat gave me a new hobby. I also realised what i wanted in a boat. More Head Room, I want to go on adventure in a few years. So i wanted a blue sea capable boat that i can stand up in and sail solo. I was planing on waiting a few years but i got offered work in the Vancouver and VI area. I really wanted a boat in the 30 to 34 range but after an adventure i found a Alberg 37. I will be at the boat yard at shelter Island as i need to take care of a few items and need to figure out how i can get to work and feel secure where i am leaving my boat during the day. I need some time to test the ground gear and learn to sail a different boat. Singlehanding is always a bit more complicated/dubious. Anchoring with heaver ground tackle in a crowded area needs some practice and thought. If i was buying my first boat to live on i would pick a bit small with head room and don't spend too much on the boat or tricking it out till you have spent some time on it. You will never get all your money back on a boat.

Do you live aboard at Shelter Island? How did you get the spot?

[dmdelorme]

They have liveaboards in the boat yard not the best but i have some bottom work to do so i will use the time to best use while scoping out for a mooring ball, slip or some other combination that will work. I am hoping my movie stars good looks and charming personalty opens up a spot for me in the water or romance a nice girl with a slip and a sinking boat, Or i will just keep looking for an option. Life has way of working out if your determined. I am moving to bc in a week so the adventure continues.

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Mosquito Creek is just on the other side of the Lions Gate Bridge... not on the island

and its $9,500 cdn https://thunderbirdmarine.com/yacht-sales/catalina-27/

More like just west of Londsdale Quay in North Vancouver. A PERFECT place to live if you have to go into downtown!

[Kom]

Originally Posted by dmdelorme

They have liveaboards in the boat yard not the best but i have some bottom work to do so i will use the time to best use while scoping out for a mooring ball, slip or some other combination that will work. I am hoping my movie stars good looks and charming personalty opens up a spot for me in the water or romance a nice girl with a slip and a sinking boat, Or i will just keep looking for an option. Life has way of working out if your determined. I am moving to bc in a week so the adventure continues.

You mean you can live in your boat while it's hauled out? Do any of the other harbours in Van offer this - are there waitlists for this too?

Originally Posted by Scorpius

More like just west of Londsdale Quay in North Vancouver. A PERFECT place to live if you have to go into downtown!

That would be a dream - but I anticipate a long waitlist for a liveaboard slip here as well

[dmitrytoda]

I just discovered what looks to be another crazy option. Apparently it is allowed, or at least not very well forbidden, to create your own private mooring buoys.
Here is what I found:
Navigation Protection Act allows anybody to place "minor works" into public navigable waters

Minor works order gives a definition of what is considered to be a minor work, there are a few restrictions on swing area etc but nothing extraordinary.

There is this 2016 article by a lawyer who basically says it is wild west. And also this 2010 thread on this very forum that arrives to a similar conclusion.

Now the question: what is stopping me from putting my own mooring ball into say English Bay and living on it?