Early Retirement Extreme Forums

@ Checking Carly: You might want to ask your brother why he's looking for such a large boat. Our 35' footer slept 5 people and we eventually sold it for a smaller 2 person boat. Buying a large boat will come back to bite you in the ass over and over again as almost every expense will be by the foot. Marina slips charge by the foot. When he has his boat hauled out every year for bottom paint, the charge will be by the foot ($500 for our 35'). The bottom paint itself can be $200 a gallon. Not to mention that the 40 footer is going to cost much more initially. (Our ready to go most anywhere 26 footer cost $6K) Unless he is moving aboard with a his wife and six kids, he might consider a smaller boat.

Not sure how often opportunities like this present themselves, but: We got a slip for free for 6 months in Wilmington, NC because a developer was trying to make his new marina + condominium project look popular. He opened up the slips to liveaboards while the condos were being finished. We had no amenities besides water and electricity and we lived next to a construction site, but it was free and downtown. We were there to, uh, build atmosphere I guess? Anyway, the point is that if you ever see a lot of empty slips, it doesn't hurt to call the owner to ask if you can tie up.

@jacob: I'm qualified to do most anything on the boat besides docking. The boat itself was paid for entirely by my boyfriend who does not have it insured. Fear of banging up our boat or another boat has put me off from assuming this responsibility.

The live-aboard fee in Moss Landing is $120 per person, per month, plus $250 app fee. Plus about $7/ft for the berth space. The $5 for each dog and $50 (rounded up) a regular maintenance fee.
The $7/ft fee can be discounted 5% if paid for the whole year in advance.
Moss Landing is halfway between Santa Cruz and Monterey, CA. about an hour and a half from San Francisco driving, so whatever that is in nautical miles.

Ouch! Plus electricity and pumpout, I presume?

I don't know if anyone has this problem, but if you want to buy a sailboat to avoid paying for gas, but don't know how to sail, you should find someone who already has a sailboat. They're usually looking for people to go out with them on the weekends. Sometimes they're even involved in sailing clubs and the like. Since larger sailboats generally require more than one person to operate, these boat owners are always looking for some help and they'll usually teach you everything for free.

Something I intend to look into once "downsizing" is complete.
SO makes fun that I don't know how to swim yet love the water so much. I have a season pass to Beach Boardwalk no less in Santa Cruz.
I would love to ERE next to the beach, particularly on the West Coast...did a recon trip to mexico last year and that is in the cards too...

My grandmother has an old sailboat she said I could just have for free, but it needs a lot of work. It's been out of the water at least 20 years. Could be a fun project someday, but I know NOTHING about sailing so the idea of fixing up an old boat and living on it is pretty intimidating.

@S - That's what I thought too. I mainly worried about the apparently very common fear of sinking the boat because I didn't operate the head(toilet) correctly.
I wouldn't have any issues today. What I'd suggest is crewing on a boat to get over the fear factor. sfsailing and lattitude38 have crewlists that cover almost the entire westcoast. Also try Meetup.com. This will only cost you the boat shoes (white soles or gum soles).