Okay, dont worry intrepid readers: I am not actually leaving you all to go live on a boat. Sadly.
What I have been doing is watching a lot of YouTube accounts and vlogs of life aboard different boats. From La vagabonde a 38 foot Beneteau, to Neverland a 1973 Marine Trawler. There are many more from all walks of life, but obviously I am drawn to those that I feel I most identify with. Like Sailing Uma and their 1970s Pearson 36 whose lines and fixtures I recognize a mile away because of my father's Pearson 30!
So something that I think about a lot, since I am a number-crunching engineer, is how these things are possible. I tent to over think and over analyze things so this should not come as a surprise to you. I decided to document two approaches to the live-aboard boat puzzle: The first is that of a young couple with big dreams. The second the solution of more aged and wizened folk with a much larger cash reserve. There are tons of nuances to this whole puzzle so if you have a question about it just ping me and i'll do my best to answer you. I also need to put out the caveat that I do not live aboard a boat so this is all hypothetical, but i do my best to make sound judgments regardless.
Example 1: the youthful adventurer.
This could be interpreted as a single, or couple, my imagination says just out of high school or college. Maybe a couple of summer jobs or working the first "real" job, and pretty small cash reserves. There is a very large prerequisite to making this work: You have to be resourceful and have to be willing to work very hard to get what you want.
Case and point are Billy and Sierra from Tula's Endless Summer. They are a couple young kids with a love for the water and a dream. He bought Tula for $800 but had to restore it. I don't see a price paid for the Neverland but I am guessing it was pretty affordable. But they also have to work on it and finish the work left by previous owners. This requires willingness to work and mechanical ability to build and maintain what they need.
Using a camping stove to cook all your meals on is totally doable, but for many people that does not sound appealing. The same is true of the Sailing Uma crew with their camping stove and dorm room fridge. These are things that I feel most Youtube binge watchers take for granted: simple utilities like a stove and microwave, limitless clean running water, electricity, a soft dry bed.
What about the practical reality? This can be viewed in Bill's video about the cost of living on Neverland:
Now this just talks about the recurring costs, but I like to use the comparison of living on land. The highest rent I ever paid (which was arguably while I was my poorest in college) was $1600/month split a few ways. That was in bum-fizzle minnesota NOT a high-rent area like Miami or Ft. Lauderdale or Sarasota. Currently I have a mortgage and pay about $1100/mo. If I were to have purchased a boat instead of a house I could have got a damn nice trawler or an even nicer sailboat.
At this very moment, when I consulted my credit union's website I see that I could finance a boat older than 2015 for 3.99% for up to 120 months. Reversing the numbers means for the same $1100/mo I pay on my mortgage I could be paying about the same to get around $100,000 to spend on a boat. Mind you my mortgage is for 30 years and this loan term is only 10 years and I only got double with my mortgage. :(
In this light I could have bought a boat like Makena of Moonshadow Sailing; a 42 foot Beneteau Oceanis which would arguably be better than my house! The catch to this opulent spending is that you need to have an income that satisfies your loan and can support these payments for 10 years. That is not easy, especially for younger enthusiasts that dont have the credit background and capital.
I will continue this in another post as it is late and I might have a job interview tomorrow. :)
cheers!
G
What I have been doing is watching a lot of YouTube accounts and vlogs of life aboard different boats. From La vagabonde a 38 foot Beneteau, to Neverland a 1973 Marine Trawler. There are many more from all walks of life, but obviously I am drawn to those that I feel I most identify with. Like Sailing Uma and their 1970s Pearson 36 whose lines and fixtures I recognize a mile away because of my father's Pearson 30!
So something that I think about a lot, since I am a number-crunching engineer, is how these things are possible. I tent to over think and over analyze things so this should not come as a surprise to you. I decided to document two approaches to the live-aboard boat puzzle: The first is that of a young couple with big dreams. The second the solution of more aged and wizened folk with a much larger cash reserve. There are tons of nuances to this whole puzzle so if you have a question about it just ping me and i'll do my best to answer you. I also need to put out the caveat that I do not live aboard a boat so this is all hypothetical, but i do my best to make sound judgments regardless.
Example 1: the youthful adventurer.
This could be interpreted as a single, or couple, my imagination says just out of high school or college. Maybe a couple of summer jobs or working the first "real" job, and pretty small cash reserves. There is a very large prerequisite to making this work: You have to be resourceful and have to be willing to work very hard to get what you want.
Case and point are Billy and Sierra from Tula's Endless Summer. They are a couple young kids with a love for the water and a dream. He bought Tula for $800 but had to restore it. I don't see a price paid for the Neverland but I am guessing it was pretty affordable. But they also have to work on it and finish the work left by previous owners. This requires willingness to work and mechanical ability to build and maintain what they need.
Using a camping stove to cook all your meals on is totally doable, but for many people that does not sound appealing. The same is true of the Sailing Uma crew with their camping stove and dorm room fridge. These are things that I feel most Youtube binge watchers take for granted: simple utilities like a stove and microwave, limitless clean running water, electricity, a soft dry bed.
What about the practical reality? This can be viewed in Bill's video about the cost of living on Neverland:
Now this just talks about the recurring costs, but I like to use the comparison of living on land. The highest rent I ever paid (which was arguably while I was my poorest in college) was $1600/month split a few ways. That was in bum-fizzle minnesota NOT a high-rent area like Miami or Ft. Lauderdale or Sarasota. Currently I have a mortgage and pay about $1100/mo. If I were to have purchased a boat instead of a house I could have got a damn nice trawler or an even nicer sailboat.
At this very moment, when I consulted my credit union's website I see that I could finance a boat older than 2015 for 3.99% for up to 120 months. Reversing the numbers means for the same $1100/mo I pay on my mortgage I could be paying about the same to get around $100,000 to spend on a boat. Mind you my mortgage is for 30 years and this loan term is only 10 years and I only got double with my mortgage. :(
In this light I could have bought a boat like Makena of Moonshadow Sailing; a 42 foot Beneteau Oceanis which would arguably be better than my house! The catch to this opulent spending is that you need to have an income that satisfies your loan and can support these payments for 10 years. That is not easy, especially for younger enthusiasts that dont have the credit background and capital.
I will continue this in another post as it is late and I might have a job interview tomorrow. :)
cheers!
G
