Living Aboard in British Columbia

[Brent Swain]

I've lived aboard in BC for most of the last 40 years . I find it worthwhile making the effort to cut all ones ties with Vancouver. The rest of the coast, it's no problem.
There's much more to the BC coast than Vancouver.
Howe sound can be bleak in winter, when arctic outflows blow for days on end. The Island is better.
Anchored out , sometimes the ice gets too thick to row thru and too thin to walk on. I Motor thru it sometimes to make a path for my dinghy.
You want good insulation on your boat

[hummingway]

I spent the last week anchored in False Creek. I found it very pleasant although I was glad to sail home to Gabriola.

[Deep6]

Hi Drew,

I've actually followed your blog for tips! However, like you said it could use an update. Of particular interest for me is where you're finding anchorage/mooring. I am pretty confident I have the physical capacity to do the required. I did bike to work (until my bike was stolen)... I play senior mens rugby, work out pretty close to daily and spend a lot of time camping/hiking with the requisite expedition backpack. However, I'll not dispute that I'm sure there'll be some adjustments needed, and I'll probably end up aching in places unknown for awhile! It's still a ways off for me given I need to sort out gainful employment in that region first! Can you clarify what a normal week in the life looks like for you with regard to anchorages/mooring and changing about etc etc?
Thanks,

[Brent Swain]

Buy a cheap, beater bike from the thrift store, that aint worth stealing. Clean your paint brush on it.

[bangkaboat]

Originally Posted by SChow

Hello, I'm very interested in living aboard, have been for most of my life. I'm still a about a year away from it but I can't stop thinking ahead. :-) I have around 100K dedicated for this so far.


It's my understanding the marina situation in Greater Vancouver for liveaboards is pretty bleak. Unless you feel like waiting anywhere from now -> eternity.

Much depends on how reliant you'd be on terra firma & it's amenities. You could go as rural as living on the hook in somewhere like Montague harbour for the off-season, or plug in at Shelter Island Marina(East Richmond) with hot showers, laundry facilities, high-speed internet, telephone & t.v. cable, etc. . Of course, if Shelter Island, you've got a couple of hours+ travel from Sandheads, an initial $200 for utilities connection, + liveaboard "license" fee, + a few more fees. You also must have a holding tank, $1,000,000 in liability insurance, a six month or 12 month advance moorage payment...and the rules carry on. There are other smaller liveaboard marinas along the Fraser River; a couple of good ones & a few dives. We quietly, "unofficially", lived at Sewell's in Horseshoe Bay for a few years, but the winds from Squamish become brutal come November & snow comes earlier & stays longer than in Vancouver and the parking sucks.

After our first winter, I insulated our boat and tossed our electric heaters - useless - replacing them with a huge kerosene heater I bought at Popeye's, in North Vancouver. Perfect!

Was it fun? Yeah! Would I do it again? Not a chance! Things that were a challenge when younger, become a pita when older. I do miss it though, but the odd overnight cures me of that affliction.

[ahnutts!]

Originally Posted by SS Little-Devil

I'm thinking of getting a slip in Victoria and taking the ferry. Regardless, being from Winnipeg, I'm wondering how I will fare in the winter? I've heard of machines to make bubbles (??) in the water around the boat but I'm not really sure if I need that, or what to expect when living on the boat in the winter months. Can anyone give me a better idea of weather in Victoria and Vancouver through winter and what I will need to be able to live on board without feeling like I'm camping in a soggy, cold camper? Thanks!

You would be better off finding work in Victoria if thats where you want to live, rather than riding the ferry, I've done it, it sucks. A good diesel heater will keep a boat dry, so no its not like a soggy wet camper.

As for False Creek, throw out lots of fenders. Last time I was there it was so crowded they were bumping together.

[serah]

I'm in Port Moody (a suburb of Vancouver, for those of you who don't know) and when the derelicts/liveaboards got kicked out of False Creek (or limited in the time they could spend there) many came up to the East end of Burrard Inlet. There are 20 boats give or take anchored there at any time. Most, IMO, appear to be derelict. Anyway, if you're int erested in the liveaboard-anchored-out lifestyle, it's definitely an option. Decent bottom (though apparently a thick layer of decayed wood that fell off the log booms when the inlet used to be full of them) It's quite sheltered and apart from the occasional easterlies that can rip through there, calm anchoring.

I'm not too sure about how one would easily come ashore; there is a public dock at Rocky Point, but they may fuss if you have to leave a dinghy there for 8 hours a day on workdays. The nice thing about Port Moody is that it's only 25 minutes by commuter train downtown direct, and even if you take the bus (a short walk from Rocky Point) it's still under an hour. Just something to consider.

[serah]

But do watch out for the sunken ships in the area. There is at least one sailboat that I've seen with about 3' of mast sticking up above water at low water. I've heard that there are more

[flyboy350]

Get yourself a NEXUS card and look around the Blaine area, including The Resort at Semiahmoo. Easy to cross the border with the NEXUS and you can catch a bus downtown or better yet get a job closer to the border and hang out in sunny White Rock!!!!

[gpshephe]

Originally Posted by drew23

have you considered an anchoring lifestyle?

it's really not so bad - two weeks in False Creek, two weeks out. you have to generate your own electricity and row your own fuel, but you can't beat the price.

You seem like a neat kid, hope to see you out there someday. If I ever get that far north.

[rickschnurr]

All of you may be interested to know that a group of us in Victoria (and up-island) have recently formed the BC Nautical Residents Association. We are now an incorporated non profit society. It will cost $10.00 to join. Our new web page with mission statement is just up and running. Check it out and watch, new content is being added. www.bcnr.org
Our primary purpose is to research the rights of and advocate for citizens of BC who CHOOSE to adopt a liveaboard lifestyle. We are concerned with the right to moor your boat in a safe harbour or tie up at a marina on a long term basis with the same rights an responcibilities as non live aboard boaters. We are a member driven organization and encourage the thoughtful input of our members to achieve these goals. If you reside on a craft in BC waters, please consider joining the BCNR. There is strength in numbers.

Rick Schnurr
Director BCNR

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF,Rick.

I wish you, and all the BCNR members, the very best in advocating for responsible live-aboards.

[Brent Swain]

Originally Posted by bangkaboat

We quietly, "unofficially", lived at Sewell's in Horseshoe Bay for a few years, but the winds from Squamish become brutal come November & snow comes earlier & stays longer than in Vancouver and the parking sucks.

After our first winter, I insulated our boat and tossed our electric heaters - useless - replacing them with a huge kerosene heater I bought at Popeye's, in North Vancouver. Perfect!

Was it fun? Yeah! Would I do it again? Not a chance! Things that were a challenge when younger, become a pita when older. I do miss it though, but the odd overnight cures me of that affliction.

---------------------------------------------------------

If I had passed judgement on living aboard after my first winter, I would have spent the last neartly 40 years working and punching a clock to pay the landlord or the real estate industry, with someone else teling me hiow i was to spend 40 hours out of each week with ( whoopee) three whole weeks a year to do what I wanted.
Instead, living aboard has meant owning my own home since my early 20's which meant only having to work a month a year, the rest being play time.
|The first winter was under a half inch plywood deck , zero insulating propertiers, coated with ice during the cold outflows of winte. I solved the problem by heading to for the south pacific the following summer.
My next BC liveaboard situation was under a well insuklate steel deck with a good, airtight wood stove, a huge improvement, no more deck leaks or condensation. As my methods improved comfort also improved. Now I have a wheelhouse on a steel twin keeler a huge improvement again. I just sailed down georgioa Strait in sub zero weather rin my wheelhouse the windvane doing the steering the wood stove pumping out heat, no need to go on deck, in a T shirt the whole way, the radio pumping out the entertainment. What a huge difference from my early "Yachtie " priorities.
My father has a huge house I can stay in any time, the whole upstairs unoccupied, with a 48 inch high definition TV. Three days there and I'm bored stiff and cant wait to get back on my boat, even in winter. Hard to imagine people wanting to live in those "House " things.
A boat can be extremly comfortable in winter, but don't expect comfort on an uninsulated stock fibreglas boat in such a miserable place as Howe Sound in winter. Such a winter is bound to turn many off living aboard , before even trying to figure out what they are doing wrong.
Sure glad I stuck it out and learned to adapt to boat living. It's an evolutionary proces and a learning curve, which cant always be learned in a single winter aboard. .

[ahnutts!]

Originally Posted by rickschnurr

All of you may be interested to know that a group of us in Victoria (and up-island) have recently formed the BC Nautical Residents Association. We are now an incorporated non profit society. It will cost $10.00 to join. Our new web page with mission statement is just up and running. Check it out and watch, new content is being added. www.bcnr.org
Our primary purpose is to research the rights of and advocate for citizens of BC who CHOOSE to adopt a liveaboard lifestyle. We are concerned with the right to moor your boat in a safe harbour or tie up at a marina on a long term basis with the same rights an responcibilities as non live aboard boaters. We are a member driven organization and encourage the thoughtful input of our members to achieve these goals. If you reside on a craft in BC waters, please consider joining the BCNR. There is strength in numbers.

Rick Schnurr
Director BCNR

Hello Rick,

The following is on the current events page of your website:

"What are the law around mooring rights on docks. What are the rights of a person living on a boat in a marina. And what are the obligations of marina owners as spelled out in the contracts between the federal government and the marina owners, provincial government, and civic governments."

As far as I know live-aboards don't have any rights beyond those of any other mariners. Many marinas already consider live-aboards to be a PITA and if we go claiming to have "rights" their other customers don't have we will be far less desirable than those recreation only boaters.

Everything else I read on your site seems to cover topics that affect all boaters. Why not advocate for the boating community at large? Why focus on live-aboards?

Jerin

[bangkaboat]

Rick,
A couple of ways in which marinas benefit from having liveaboards are security of boats & dock amenities and an extra set of eyes for boat mooring issues. When we were at Sewell's, we stopped/chased a few boat burglars - especially around grad time, strangely enough - and spent many a night /day making our neighbours' boats more secure, re-tying tarps & sail covers, etc. . We kept our deck & finger uncluttered & were only unique in that we used more electricity, which is easily metered. Unfortunately, liveaboards have a bad rap because some have left their boats and finger/dock areas in an unstately manner and some do not have/make use of holding tanks.

However, expecting liveaboards to be treated "on par" with non-liveaboards is, imho, not reasonable. Marinas are businesses & have a right to charge more for liveaboard moorage & electricity.

I wish you the best of luck with your endeavour!

Mike