Looking to Rent a Liveaboard boat

[dinzi]

Hello,

I am looking to rent a boat to live on for the next 6-8 months with the exception of Mid June to beginning of August, as i will be in Europe these months. The reason i am looking to live on the boat/water is that i am moving to Canada in about 8 months and would like to spend the remained of my time in San Diego enjoying the water front as much as possible. I think it beats renting a box or room by far.

A bit about me: I am 30 year old male, about to get married - that's why the move up north. Friendly, responsible alcohol and drug free. I am also a licensed flooring contractor so if you have ever wanted to change those floors in your boat we can work something out I work most of the time including weekends. I have owned a sailboat so i know how to keep it clean and organized. I would definitely need a place to shower - be it the marina facilities or on the boat and will definitely need electricity and hopefully internet. Additionally i can store most of my belongings in a storage unit and am open to vacating the boat from time to time if the owner is looking to occasionally use it.

Feel free to contact me if this sounds like a fit or if you know someone who would be interested.

Thanks!

[rw58ph]

I did that once with a friend as my wife wanted to move into our condo. Long story! For some reason he thought sinse he was renting the boat he could change things and take the boat out! WRONG! He did not have the expereince/knowldge required by the insurance. Anyway it did not work out, I had him move of the boat and we move back onto the boat with in a month. We never did move back into the condo and rented the condo instead. So you might be able to rent, but I doubt you would be able to take away from the dock.

[dinzi]

Thanks for your reply. I am definitely not interested in taking the boat out especially if i am only renting. The risk of anything happening is not worth it nor do i have the experience to do so. Im definitely a low impact person in terms of leaving my mark on someone elses territory. So far i looked around on craigslist and here but nothing promising yet. Any idea how much monthly rent might be if i do find something?

[robert644]

Everyplace is different and I can only speak for the harbors here in this town. Every year I see a fair bit of rental requests. Some are on the daily swap and talk radio show, some are posted on harbor bulletin boards, and some come into the office and ask me at the boatyard.

I have never heard of anyone offering their boat for rent. It's just not a thing here. People just don't do it. I can guess for many reasons why, but it is simply not a thing. But I am not quite truthful there. There are two boats in the harbor that are being rented.

One is a 36' sailboat with no mast. Previously it was used by the owners as a floating dog house for their 5 dogs. Now the dogs live on their boat, also about 36' and they rent the other (mastless one) out. I don't know how much, but I heard they charge the tenants twice what the harbor is charging them.

The other is a very recent addition to the harbor. It is a 26' steel sailboat. The owner built a cabin from bow to stern out of plywood. No windows. 9.9 motor on the back. Open the back door and steer I guess. Maybe they have CCTV for seeing where they are going. No mast, flat roof, no nothing. I don't know what the owner is charging for that one.

As for that nice Bayliner 4788 or that nice Hans Christian 43', good luck. I have a feeling a person might be better off buying a 30' sailboat for 10k. Or smaller. 26' is a good size for one person, but that sure is small.

[dinzi]

Thanks for replying. Ive had a friend up in Marin County by San Francisco who had no problem finding boat rentals and ended up living on a 35 foot sailboat for over a year. I think he was paying around $700 with a large security deposit. It was a very nice experience visiting there and staying on the water. Additionally marine facilities and wifi were included. Seems strange that renting of boats is not so common down here... Well thanks for your input.

[robert644]

I guess, what I was trying to say, was that people seem to think it's normal. About 3-5 times a year I see something regarding (looking for) boat rentals. I'm in the NW.

There are also boats that change owners frequently, but are never listed in the classifieds, etc. Alot of word-of-mouth kind of stuff and who-knows-who.

[boating2go]

I will give you this advice, make sure if you do find an owner that will let you rent their boat that the marina permits subleasing. You could find out you have paid your deposit and rent only to find out the marina will not permit it. If you or the owner think you can get away with not telling the marina you need to know marinas are like very small towns, everyone knows what everyone else is doing and management will find out. So protect yourself and check with the marina as well as the owner.