Early Retirement Extreme Forums

JM and I have lived on two boats in the past three years, a wooden 35' Dickerson ketch and a 25' Aleutka. We have recently sold the latter and are looking for the Next Boat. I know at least a couple people here have expressed an interest in living aboard, so I figured I'd share a few things I think we've learned.
1. Wooden boats leak. All of them. It's part of being a wooden boat. Furthermore, you will absolutely have to haul them out and have the bottoms painted at least once a year. The paint will >$100/can. Having your boat hauled out will be hundreds of dollars. The yard may also refuse to let you paint your own bottom and insist you pay them an exorbitant amount to do it for you. Wooden boats are also very likely to have rot if they have ever had an entry point for fresh water. Wooden boats can be hard to insure. Many marinas will refuse to let you keep a wooden boat either because they are afraid they will sink in their slip or because you are likely to be uninsured. Boat 1 was a wooden boat. We might buy another one but would much prefer fiberglass (as in boat 2).
2. If you buy a boat with a gas engine, insurance companies and marinas will fear you twice as much as if your boat were only wood.
3. If you buy a pocket cruiser to live on (as in boat 2), know that if you do not have room for a proper head and holding tank, you will be fined or kicked out of some very attractive places to stay (ex~ Bootkey Harbor, probably the best anchorage in the Keys). It does not matter if you have a port-o-potty. If you don't have a holding tank and a deck fitting, you are not welcome.
4. If you buy a pocket cruiser and want to be on good terms with your spouse, you must buy one with a V-berth or double berth.
5. If you plan to live off the hook, know that you and your spouse will fight over the dinghy. Smart cruisers we have known have purchased boats with enough room for an inflatable kayak along with the dinghy.
6. Public transportation is still a joke in many places. If you cruise, you will probably want room for two folding bikes. The place you can tie up your dinghy and the place you can buy food, fiberglass, whatever, never seem to be within walking distance. Also, if you store your folding bike in a lazarette, it will get wet, salty and destroyed.
7. Weigh your need for space for friends, bikes, tools, inflatable kayaks, etc. with the fact that almost every expense will be charged on a per foot basis.
8. On the east and Gulf Coasts there is NO WHERE short of the Florida Keys one would ever want to live on a boat without a heater through the winter. We suffered through below freezing temperatures even in LA, AL, and northern Florida. Buy a boat with a wood stove or plan on paying for a slip with shore power all winter to run that space heater.
9. If you plan to live on the hook while cruising, know that in attractive cruising grounds (ex~ Southern FL), you will be charged up to an arm and a leg just to tie your dinghy up and set foot on land. In Marathon, the charge is $13/day and you can only climb over the fence behind Home Depot so many times before getting caught.
With all that said, I still think a boat is going to be our ideal living arrangement. In the nice months, you can live off the hook for nothing. In the winter, it's probably worth paying for a slip. You can probably fit as much junk in it as an RV, but you have the choice to power it with free energy and park it in free places (just about any water navigable from the sea) a lot of the time. You never have to pay any property taxes.
We're prowling the Pac. NW this summer looking for the Next Boat. We're still fighting out the details, but we intend on going bigger (up to 50' maybe) to allow us to take contributing passengers/friends and to keep tools, bikes, and other things that help us save money and stay sane. Perhaps if we find a boat with an aft cabin, we'll even get some room mates. Fiberglass preferred. Steel or wood grudgingly considered. Diesel engine (veggie boat perhaps?). Woodstove required. Head with holding tank required. Extra points for doghouse, junk rig. Solar/wind electricity generation installed or to be installed. Sailboat, of course.

Nice write up. Instead of the wood stove, why not just head closer to the equator for a few months? Or are you tied to certain places for some reason?
And how do they know if you have a head or just a port-o-potty when you pull into a harbor? Do people come by and demand to inspect the boat?
Do you guys leave the boat alone at anchor, if so for how long? Or does it make you too nervous? I'm afraid I'd head off to visit all these places and never get to explore the islands or cities because I'm handcuffed to a 40' piece of fiber-glass.
I am hoping to do some living aboard in the future. For at least 6 months, and if that goes well, maybe several years. I've read all the books and done lots of weekend sailing in New England. Just itching to explore the Caribbean.

1. Sailboats travel slow and you'll spend a lot of time in transit, especially if you choose not to sail in heavy weather. This winter we wanted to travel from Texas to the Bahamas. However, we had to travel east into easterly winds and avoid nasty cold fronts ~ every 4 days which brought gale force winds and heavy seas. We ended up staying in the Keys, because we didn't feel we had enough time at that point to both visit the Bahamas and wait for the rare weather windows required for two Gulf Stream crossings. It is common to wait a couple weeks before being able to cross in either direction.
Also, chances are, if you plan to travel back and forth between two places, half of that journey will involve beating (read: getting wet, cold, and vomity) or spending the money to motor.
If you're boat is insured for more than liability, your insurance company is also very likely to ban travel south until after hurricane season. (sometime in Nov.) I'm not saying any of this is impossible, just that it's more of a pain in the ass that doing the same thing in a car and that it's worth it to me just to buy a damn stove.
2. Yes, they will come out to your boat in a pump out boat and want to pump you out (for free) or have someone board and inspect you.
3. No, we don't leave the boat at anchor for more than the day. We would pay to put it in a slip, on a mooring ball, or have it hauled out. We went back to Austin for a month to work a music festival and we paid a man with a vacation home $100/mo to tie up to his dock. If we had a wooden boat, I would not leave it in the water unattended. As I said, they leak and if the battery or bilge pump gives out, they can sink in a slip.