Hi, I want a liveaboard boat for the family

[mvweebles]

I can't speak for Oz but as a guy who's lived aboard on and off for years, I can say with comfort that while living aboard for cheap is possible at the lower end (boat in difficult condition), people who successfully liveaboard continue to do so out of a pleasure of living on a boat. Even in San Francisco, a notoriously expensive housing market, living on a boat is only marginally less expensive when you consider the long term periodic costs of haul/bottom paint, etc.

A boat is a great way to raise children. Everyone has a job and success depends on everyone pulling their own weight. But if your goal is affordable housing, chances are you'll be disappointed.

The above said, I loved living aboard a boat and am sorry I moved ashore. I can comfortably afford a house but am putting my house up for sale and moving back aboard

Peter

[Fore and Aft]

FBM you can modify the boat anyway you want as long as you are not putting her back in survey.
You can ring around the insurance companies before buying the boat but most will want a survey before they decide if you are insurable. You would also have to find a place to keep such a big boat.....
Usually you inspect the boat, put down a deposit then organize slipping her and getting the survey done. The survey cost is normally around $25 a foot.
Here in Queensland transfer of registration of vessels over 15 meters triggers a visit or phone call from Maritime Safety Queensland to make sure you are insured and in seaworthy condition.
FBM I used to catch a bus to school, that connection does not mean I want to buy a bus when a caravan will do just as good a job!
Cheers

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by familyboatman

Hi everyone, I'm quite new to the whole owning a boat thing and am currently looking at the possibility of buying some kind of vessel that the family can live on for some time. I live in Australia and find the idea of living aboard a boat very interesting for the challenges and fun it may bring.

good luck and happy voyage

[Jim Cate]

FBM, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that operating such a large motor vessel is not a trivial skill set... and that insurers are NOT gonna be happy to insure a novice sailor in doing so. I would be astonished (and not happy) if they would cover you at all, no matter how good the survey was. You would be a serious hazard to us all.

Jim

[DefinitelyMe]

I'm surprised that nobody has yet recommended a smaller boat. A 45' cat could have four cabins and tick most of the boxes, be a lot easier to handle and maintain and give a very good introduction to living aboard. The market is also likely to be much more consistent and reliable. If you can't afford to buy and maintain one of those then you can't afford to maintain a 30m steel ferry even if you get it for free.

[TrentePieds]

FBM:

You ask: "How is one supposed to be able to tell if a vessel can travel the ocean?"

If you are totally "green" (as you say you are), you do exactly what you've now done: You ask a bunch of people who have already "seen the elephant".
Then you pay heed to what they tell you :-)!!

When we get enquiries like yours, the one set out in your opening post, warning flares pop off all over the place because a landsman, should he succeed in doing what you are proposing to do, would be a SERIOUS danger not only to himself and his family but also to other mariners.

YOUR task, now, if you would persist in your dream, is to begin to learn. As you have :-)! The people who have answered your opening post are people with practical experience, and already in possession of the necessary intellectual ballast. You can learn about the practicalities from them. But the theoretical, intellectual ballast necessary you must garner by STUDYING. Long and hard. For the rest of your life. Unless you can enroll in a marine academy.

It is my impression, and forgive me if I'm wrong in your case, that the desire to "run away to sea" is usually prompted by some adversity encountered ashore. It is my personal opinion, derived entirely from observation of others for I haven't had the experience myself, that you cannot learn to live happily in an environment inimical to man - as the ocean environment is - unless and until you've learnt to deal with whatever adversity afflicts you ashore.

There are two kinds of ships: Those driven by wind and those driven by infernal combustion engines. The only thing they have in common, really, is that they float. The concerns of "rag wavers" are sufficiently different from those of "stink potters" that we have a companion forum called "Trawler Forum" focusing particularly on the concerns of those we rag wavers consider "on the dark side". You will find it here:

https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/

After some time, a year or two, of assimilating thoughts from both forums and reading as many books about seafaring as you possibly can, you will (probably) become "able to tell if a vessel can travel the ocean" and you will (probably) come to realize that for crossing big waters a sailboat is the only sensible choice unless you can afford to buy, to keep and to operate what amounts to a small cruise ship. And if you could do that, you'd just hire a professional skipper :-)!

As the Irish are reputed to say: "May the wind be at your back"!

TrentePieds

[familyboatman]

Originally Posted by DefinitelyMe

I'm surprised that nobody has yet recommended a smaller boat. A 45' cat could have four cabins and tick most of the boxes, be a lot easier to handle and maintain and give a very good introduction to living aboard. The market is also likely to be much more consistent and reliable. If you can't afford to buy and maintain one of those then you can't afford to maintain a 30m steel ferry even if you get it for free.

A 100' ferry has a lot of living space potential though, even the larger 60' cats still have very limited living space. What would you estimate the maintenance cost on a 100' steel hull ferry to be annually in AUD?

Looking at mariners many don't seem to go over 80' and they are around ~8000/year so that seems like it may be challenging, what do people with large boats do if the mariners in their area do not take large boats?

Here are my estimates, maybe someone could comment on them.

Mariner: $10000/year
Maintenance: $15000/year
Insurance: $18000/year
Total: $43000/year

[Lexi22]

https://www.beneteau.com/us/oceanis-...eanis-yacht-62
Features a forward crew cabin, accessible via the foredeck, for the captain / sailing instructor whom you might want to hire.

[Fore and Aft]

FBM I have a client with a 100 footer and he showed me his yearly maintenance spreadsheet and it cost around $40,000 to maintain his boat. He got around the marina situation by buying a water front property that had a big dock. Places for a 30 meter boat are hard to find unless you want to use a commercial dock.
Cheers

[TrentePieds]

FBM:

Here is a link to just the sort of thing that turns the crank of many a dreamer:

https://www.boatdealers.ca/boats-for...itish-columbia

I have no doubt that you could scare up the modest listing price of Can$109K and buy her. The REAL question is: Could you scare up the funds to keep her alive? Without going through the tedious work of evolving (on your behalf) a reliable estimate, I would guess that a minimum of Can$75K per year would be required.

Since her specs are so comprehensively set out in the listing, I recommend that you start there to do the thing I counselled you in my last post to do: STUDY. Study doesn't not mean "read". It means consider CAREFULLY, point by point, what the specs would mean FOR YOU, were you HSD's owner.

What, for instance, would it mean FOR YOU that there are two 6-banger two stroke Jimmy diesels to care for? What would the fuel consumption be? What would her operating speed be?

I could obviously give you fairly good answers to such questions, but you would learn NOTHING from that. By finding the answers for yourself, starting perhaps by conferring with the all-knowing Ms. Google, you WILL learn. A lot!

What would be the implication FOR YOU that HSD was built of wood 80 years ago for the Royal Canadian Navy as a workboat whose task was to retrieve practice torpedoes in the sheltered waters twixt "the Mainland" of British Columbia and Vancouver Island?

What would it mean FOR YOU that she has had a very excellent superstructure built upon her where her designer meant her to have none?

The weekend is coming up. Cogitating on HSD would be a neat way to spend it :-)!

Oh, by the way, I think one of our members operates an exUSN 83-foot Patrol Cutter. I believe they, also, had twin 6V71 Jimmys. You might be able to get him to let you in on the practicalities of such vessels.

Cheers

TrentePieds